Thursday 24 May 2012

The Bryan Chapman Memorial 600km Audax 19th May 2012

The Bryan Chapman Memorial 600km Audax 19th May 2012
AA8.25, 8'900 meters climbing

The Bryan Chapman represented the longest ride to date, and was ultimately the ride that I was building up to, not only to complete this Super Randonneur series but also because it had been the ride that I'd been told about way back in January that at the time had seen so out of the question that the mere thought of riding 600km seemed like a physical challenge that I would never achieve without months of dedication and training.

Anyway, I had been up since 4:30, it was freezing cold and this could only mean one thing. I was about the ride the Bryan Chapman Memorial Audax. 600km and nearly 9'000 metres climbing separated myself from the 'Arivee'. The scheduling was straightforward, start at 6am on the Saturday, and finish at 8pm on Sunday, 38hrs in total, and somewhere along the way I was planning to get 4hrs sleep. I was also hoping to manage to hold onto my sanity during the night hours (though also secretly hoping to lose my mind to give me some content for this blog post...). Lets ride...


Stage 1: Chepstow to Bronllys.

The initial stages to any of these Audaxs generally follow the same formula, large groups forming, lots of talking and settling into the routine of cycling for long distances. We encountered some pretty avante garde driving on these sections - in one place a van driver attempted to traverse the entire peleton of about 50 (I think) which stretched so far up the narrow road that by the time he'd made it half way up the opposite side of the road there was a car coming from the opposite way - facing the difficult choice of either ditching his car in the hedgerow or killing 50 cyclists the driver went up onto the opposite verge, cross country style and when the opposite car passed swerved back onto the the road, giving himself enough time to shout obscenities at the guys up front... some drivers just really don't seem to get it, the little egg shaped hats we all wear offer little protection in comparison with the fuck off steel chassis he had wrapped around him.... Christ, back to the cycling, we've not even covered 100km yet...


(Jusin (yellow top) and Adam)




Stage 2 and 3: Bronllys to Nant Yr Arian to Kings Youth Hostel, Dolgellau.



(I'm not sure this photo quite makes it clear but this is at the top of a rather long and steep mountain pass).
(by 200km I'd resorted to photographing myself... )
Stage 4: Kings Youth Hostel, Dollgellau to Menai Bridge.






Stage 5: Menai Bridge to Kings Youth Hostel, Dolgellau (night section).

Stage 5 represented the night section of the ride, and contained all the essentials to a decent night section - long A road stretches with little room for navigational error. Without being able to judge the gradients up and down the roads in front of you and without visual access to the speedometer we might as well have been on an enormous chevron decorated treadmill.

I was tense, sure that another does of insanity was lurking up on me, I consumed all the caffeine I could reach in order to stave it off, not sure if it would be enough. I was waiting for the first signs to let me know whether I was in for a night of hallucinations or delusions.... hallucinations or delusions...
hallucinations or... Jesus Christ a man just ran past me along the other side of the road... in the middle of nowhere... in just a t-shirt...

It looked hallucinations it was... and worryingly convincing ones at that... better call an ambulance immediately.

I braced my to break it to the others that I was 'tripping my tits off', and may not be safe to ride when we established that everyone had also seen this guy, and despite being in the middle of nowhere, it was just some maniac out running?? I wasn't going mad.

Disappointingly I actually enjoyed most of this night stretch, I'd been heavily reliant on losing my mind to fill the content of this blog entry - so I'm having to actually talk about the cycling instead.

The Youth Hostel at Kings was a welcome sight at 4am, and so was the prospect of an actual bed at 4:30am - again I was almost disappointed that I'd not managed to collapse in a bus shelter to get some sleep - I must try that on another night ride.


Stage 6: Kings Youth Hostel, Dolgellau to Aberhafesp.

We left Kings Youth hostel at about 8am, having had about two hours of sleep awaking to an empty room and being convinced that I'd overslept and simply missed the whole event - no such luck, it was 6:30am and I still had 220km to ride.

We left this scene behind - Tim Sollesse had thrown is chain into his rear wheel resulting in the loss of several spokes which was in the process of being re-built by several other helpers and riders using the spare spokes that only last week I'd tried to convince Tim were simply extra weight that was holding him back... who knows what else was in his handlebar bag of apparently never ending content. We later discovered that Tim had battled on in the face of these mechanical issues, riding most of the last day solo and finishing with 1 minute to spare before the cut off time!


 (Tims handlebar bag - possibly the portal to the cycling version of Narnia).

Stage 7: Aberhafesp to Weobley.

It was on the long drag out of Newton (around the 500km mark) that our route coincided with that of a Sportive. Approaching a section of the climb with a more steeper gradient we were overtaken by one of the riders whom appeared to be 'attacking' the climb in an effort to 'drop' us, realising our cue myself and Justin gave chase, fuelled only by smug determination (there was little left in the legs by this point) I managed to catch and overtake him, reaching the top and leaving a healthy looking gap between my rear wheel and his front. As the gradient eased he moved up next to me looking to re-assert his cycling credentials at having been beaten by someone on a touring bike. An excuse appeared to be the choice of weapon...

Him: yeah well... I've already got 70miles in my legs
Me: really... I've got 300miles in mine....
silence....

Anyway, hollow victories aside, we got talking and comparing the differing disciplines in cycling (the guy was riding roughly 130km at an average speed of 35kmph - I certainly could not do this so Chapeau to the guy) we developed a mutual respect for the two, and I'd like to think that as his first encounter with Audax he may well end up on the Bryan Chapman next year himself! Oh yeah, back to the route...




Stage 8: Weobley to Chepstow.

I wasn't sure that the tiny 'one horse town' of Weobly was quite ready for 100 cyclists to turn up on a single day - no Weatherspoons and no coffee shops in sight - also judging by bin behind Justin its not a regular occurrence for the local bins to have the discarded wrappers for two thousand Ginsters pasties crammed into them.

Anyway, this was the final leg, just 80km to ride through before we could truly feel like the ride was coming to an end. With the sun setting and the final Km's going down we finally made it onto the final A road back into Chepstow - I'd made a mental calculation that by a certain point I would be so close to he finish and with enough time in hand that even if my bike collapsed in front of me I could simply push it back in time... luckily this didn't happen and it carried me back the entire way...

(wake me when we get to Chepstow...)


 (no time to stop and take a decent photo of this place...)

9: Chepstow: Arivee!

So that was it, The Bryan Chapman Memorial finished in just over 38hrs. The SR series completed and I'd crossed the 20 AA point threshold as well. I was pretty drained, both mentally and physically, and my bike had taken quite a battering over the last few months. Still its all been worth it.















Saturday 12 May 2012

The Brevet Cymru 400km Audax 5th May 2012

The Brevet Cymru 400km Audax 5th May 2012
AA2.25 4,900 meters climbing.


Why do you do these long bike rides, I was asked the day after finishing the Brevet Cymru - I really have no idea I said. And I still don't. The Brevet Cymru was a grinding lesson in fatigue, delusions and poor nutritional choices... I should point out now, for some reason I wasn't massively inspired to take many photos during the ride, and I doubt I could have worked the camera during the night stages, so I've only got a handful of images for the day, none of which are very good... still
Anyway, it was 6am it was freezing cold and I was in a village hall in the middle of Bulwark, Chepstow, this could only mean one thing, I was about to ride the Brevet Cymru 400km. lets ride.


I approached the first stages with a degree of ambivalence towards the sheer scale of the task in hand, having had completed a 24hr ride several weeks back with the Easter Arrow, and having allowed my mind to convince itself that I actually enjoyed the night hours we pressed on with the better third of the London Grimpeurs reunited once again.


I'm now developing a sense of familiarity with cycling in Wales, finding some places that I recognised for the Yr Elenydd sever weeks before. We traced a route out across Wales towards the coast.

Justin 'Jonah' Jones and Tim 'ridehard' Sollesse.

One of the most interesting parts of Audax riding is the chance encounters that you have with non-riders, often in small villages in the middle of no-where, people who will ask where you have come from, and always seem to think that to get to where you are is some form of super-endurance feat, only to have their minds blown where you explain the remainder of the journey you plan to take. One guy we met was no exception, wearing no shoes and sporing a head full of greasy matted hair he proceeded to first explain that he'd only that morning lost his car, and his shoes in a public toilet (I didn't ask), then to go onto the subject of his cycling past... I hope the two were not related.

Definitely in Wales now...

Myself and Justin left this inspiring banana based message for Tim at the top of a climb...

Newquay - not in Cornwall it turns out?
At the control at Newquay we continued on our quest to consume what could only be described as a heroic amount of beans on toast. We were also presented with a bowl of half crumble half carbonated custard, as I set about eating this monstrous bowl of food a butterfly was somewhere across the other side of the world flapping its wings...
Newquay to Llandovery - fatigue was already setting in, and so were some rather delusional thoughts, at this point I found myself at the gear stick of a fighter plane, on a fighter escort to a bomber plane, which for the purpose of clarity - was a tandem. How long I was flying for I don't know, but luckily I managed to snap out of it before I lost all control. A quick shot of caffeine (which I now swear by on night rides for maintianing sanity and for getting out of the dark place that is mental fatigue) restored my sanity (for the time being).

The leg between Llandovery and Bwlch, which was planned as the main night section was a real teeth grinder, I was fatigued when I started the ride, more fatigued during it and dangerously fatigued when the night hours set in... the actual route was perfect, a long stretch of one single A road so no issues with navigating. What happened inside my mind on that stretch could only be described an inhumane, I seemed to explore every nook and cranny of my psyche and had things that I thought had been confined to the depths of my mind come reeling out into the present - regrets about an ex girlfriend from 2007, really? still, at least I wasn't visually hallucinating.

Bwylch was a sleep stop, thank god, and I found myself lying down in a warmed room for a couple of hours needed rest. Waking at 4am was probably the worst experience of waking in my life, I'd never more wanted to just get back to sleep, and the thought of going out into the freezing night was a difficult one. Hows your stomach I was asked, though at that point I had no real answer - better just go to the toilet I decided - what happened next could only be described as being similar to a scene from Apocalypse Now, the culmination of 16hrs of beans, caffeine and custard exorcised themselves from my very being like a fire breathing liquidiser. Still, the ride wasn't going to finish itself, lets ride.

With the sun coming up, and knowing that the night hours were behind us, I was again filled with a sense of optimism. My bib tights on the other hand were filled with an acute pain. Clearly having a wet chamois against your skin for 20hrs was inevitably going to be met with some scepticism from you're body. As per usual the last 30km were agony, I just can't be bothered with the last few miles, just want the ride to end. It's only inside the last mile I start to get back to to the sense of achievement and perk up, I also begin to take my mind off the excruciating pain in the chamois area (definitely need to sort this before the Bryan Chapman).

The finish line, which was a village hall in Bulwark, was a welcome relief, as was two more hours of floor based sleep. So that was it, The Brevet Cymru 400km Audax completed, several AA points the better, and now with only one ride left to complete the AA Super Randonneur Series... The Bryan Chapman Memorial Ride on the 19th May...

What have I learnt from this ride - always carry some spare chamois creme and dry clothes at any opportunity, and get some goddamn sleep the week before the event...

Monday 16 April 2012

Yr Elenydd 300km 14th April 2012

Yr Elenydd is a 305km circular Audax from Upton Magna near Shrewesbury going out into the wilderness of middle Wales. The route had 4,950m of relentless climbing including the infamous Devils Staircase.

The day started with the usual big ring surge off the starting line, with large groups forming to cover the first 20/30k, during this initial period we encountered several fords - with no prior guidance or experience on how to negotiate these (some people slowed to take them cautiously, some got off an walked round) I did what I assumed was the done thing - speed up and plow through it as fast as I could, the logic being that if I did slip, I'd be out the other side before I hit the ground and would at least be dry when I went down. The reality was that I simply soaked my overshoe-less feet. Luckily it wasn't raining.. no hang on, it was, and my feet stayed wet for the duration of the day. Never trust the weather forecast, especially when i predicts sun in Wales.

Leaving the first control at Shobdon Airfield.


Sinking into more of a rhythm, and with three fifths of the London Grimpeurs back together we carried on through the drizzling rain, on into wilderness of Wales.


 We rode through some of the most remote and desolate mountain passes and valley roads. This was an AA ride, though the climbing was steep and relentless. Offa's Dyke seemed to be the first major climb, though reaching its base was only done via miles of undulating roads.


The Abergwesyn - Tregaron mountain road.


The Abergwesyn - Tregaron mountain road


The Abergwesyn - Tregaron mountain road took us through the winding and rolling valley floor to the base of the Devils Staircase where we were greeted with this sign of what was in store.

Having turned my body inside out for the 25% climb I headed for the top. A passing car offered some glimpses of concern as I sunk my teeth into my handlebars and I'm pretty sure I saw the driver mouth something along the lines of 'never do Audax' to her children. Finally I reached the top... I'm still not sure why you would build a road like that up a mountain, only to drop it down again the other side.. I would have gone round. Anyway...



A fierce headwind faced us for the grinding push through the open moorlands at the top of the Elan Valley. By this point I'd basically chewed all the tape off my bars.


In true London Grimpeurs style we made sure we leaked time when it wasn't needed then tried to make it up when we could have done with a rest. The whole ride, especially the hailstorm and rain on the night section seemed to become a lesson in suffering. The only response to the cold and wet was to simply grind on into the night.
The last 20km was the hardest by far, facing fatigue from the climbing, being cold and wet and begining to hallucinate I bit whole chunks out of my handlebars, which just looked like mangled stumps of steel by this point. But we made it.. another Lanterne rouge for the Lonon Grimpeurs, with the traditional last 10km time trial to finish the ride. We got in a minute or two after 2am... 20hrs 4mins...

So that was the second ride towards the AA SR Series, next will be the Dorset Coast 200k as a 'Perm' in the next week or so, then Brevet Cymru 400km on the 5th April...

Monday 9 April 2012

The Easter Arrow 24hr 370km Audax 6th April 2012

The Easter Arrow 24hr 370km Audax 6th April 2012.

The Easter Arrow is a 24hr Audax event where teams of 3-5 riders plot their own route and submit their own control points with the minimum distance of 360km for qualifying for the Brevet. The event can start from anywhere, yet all teams must have York as the destination. We had opted for a 401km route starting in Willesden Junction, London. Our team: The London Grimpeurs, was compiled by Team Leader Tim Sollesse and consisted of a handpicked bunch of Londons most hardened randonneurs, rouleurs and grimpeurs. I should point out at this point that myself and Chris had never ridden a 24hr event before, nor ridden a 400km and had only recently completed our first 300kms on The Dean several weeks before... what could possibly go wrong... 


The London Grimpeurs. (l-r) Joel 'Yossarian' Bromley, Chris 'Gadget' Breed, Tim 'Ridehard' Sollesse, Justin 'Jonah' Jones and Pete 'Pete' Turnbull.


The day hours were spent rolling through country lanes, taking long breaks at controls and generally (for me at least) trying not to spend too much time thinking about what the night hours would have in store. We were all aware that the weather forecasts for the north of the country were pretty bad, with horror stories of snow and rain in Yorkshire.



In one town we discovered that a resident had carefully removed key letters from each of its road sign, to hilarious consequences.

 
Squandering time at one of the first controls.
 Contact outside the team was limited to being shouted at passing through villages: 'dickheads', one person managed to articulate from a passing car window, leaving little time for any response from us and the clientele of several pubs and service station on the way were briefly engaged in conversations with the frequent response of "you've cycled from London.. and are going to York... are you all mental". I had to admit, they probably had a point.

Fierce headwinds over the rolling plans of the midlands slowed progress, and time was slowly leaking from our schedule. Shifting into the night hours, and reverting the course off the country lanes and onto A roads brought the pace up and clawed back some time, still, it was apparent that the 400km may be a bit too much of a stretch and we then opted for the 360km option. Time at controls got shorter, water ran out and we pressed on into the wind and rain.
 It was pretty desolate in places.


 I spent a good few hours of the night examining the inside of my skull, and found myself fluctuating between euphoria and absolute despair. The isolation of the roads at night, especially in the face of frequent rain showers, and the knowledge that despite having ridden a good 200km, then 300km we still had a good way to go. It was apparent that without a group around me the difficulties at these points would have been almost insurmountable. Yet you still carry on, control after control, ignoring the fact that a mechanical issue in the middle of nowhere at night would send you on the immediate and slippery slope towards hypothermia. The most consistent advice I had be given on previous Audax's was that after 200km, increasing the distance becomes purely psychological, and this certainly became the case.

24hr garage, closed. Thanks Tescos.
Home comforts of a warm bed were replaced with the relative comfort of a warmer pair of gloves, and overshoes to keep your feet at a functional temperature. The dawn light was a welcome relief, as was the sight of the Humber Bridge, my only real point of reference to remind me that I was significantly further north than I had been 24hrs before.

Over distanced and rapidly running out of time we opted to move our 22hr, and 24hr controls forward and claim the 370km for our 420km ridden.

So that was that, the finish line turned out to be a garage in the middle of nowhere, and the only witness to our exploits was a rather confused looking driver who was presumably having trouble working out why we were looking so pleased with ourselves considering the increasing rain and haggard looks on our faces.

Having spent the dark points of the night promising myself that I wouldn't attempt such a feat again in a hurry, and convincing myself that night riding just wasn't for me, I'm now looking to the Summer Arrow on the 22nd June and am giving consideration to putting my own Hackney Based Team together...


Totals so far: 1080km 7.25AAA points.