France weekend

I got a late pass to go with Steve to join the annual club trip to Caen.  So fri evening to portsmouth and the overnight ferry.  The weather forecast was grim but after a decent sleep on the ferry we parked up at the hotel and got the bikes out. 10 mins after starting the heavens opened and the first hour was pretty grim.  We headed inland direction south west into the wind following a route on the garmin.  We more or less followed it but it was hard to see the screen in the rain. After a short detour we stopped for a coffee and pastry in Bretteville and then headed west in the wind but now it was dry.  Tough riding.  We had a target route but with an option to cut short which we took when we reached the brow of a hill and saw a wall of black heavy brain clouds ahead. So we headed to bayeux and found a cafe in the town centre parked up sat inside and had a beer and lunch while it poured down. 

We made phone contact with the touring party and realised they weren't due for an hour or two but we just sat and chatted while waiting.  The guys turned up enjoyed an omlette and s beer and then we all set off towards arromanches and later back to Ouistreham. The return was a turbo wind assisted blast hitting over 30

5th club tt cole green

Tuesday evening, new wheels fixed in place but a slight tingle in my throat. I arrived at cole green to find that the start time was being moved forward by 15 mins as Welwyn wheelers also thought they had a time trial booked. So I had a 2 min warm up and took my place as no 13. Was a bit breezy but I was able to use my tri bars this time.  My first lap was ok but it was hard work going up the a414 into the breeze.  And I slowed down on the next two laps ending up with a time of just over 31 mins. That was ok but I was a little disappointed as I am only breaking 30 mins on good conditions. 

https://www.strava.com/activities/138235810

4th club TT - cole green

Tuesday evening turned out to be a nice evening - warm and minimal wind. My plan was not to go into the top gears but to keep down a gear and try to go at a higher cadence, in order to match the performance of the restricted gear TT when I did well. And to be honest, it worked. I tried to use the bars as much as possible and at the end of lap 1 I was on target for a sub 30 performance. Lap 2 was slower and Lap 3 was consistent with lap 2, and I got 29:16. Good time for me but should it have been faster? Maybe. I need to work out how to stay down on the bars and push harder at the same time. Maybe next week.


http://www.strava.com/activities/135546972

Broken spokes

Got some people to do the med/fast ride at a pace I could cope with yesterday.  HW route B - a nice sunny day.  Tony, Paul H and Paul S went off ahead as they were a bit too fast so I rode with dean, Richard f, Graeme and a new person, Neil. As usual I seemed to be struggling on the hills but I caught up on the flat bits and we were going well until disaster struck. A couple of miles south of takely I didn't stop fast enough when Richard f shouted car and I slowly went into the back of him. No injuries cos we were almost stopped but my spokes met his pedals and the pedals won. After a few mins deliberation the group rode with me to takely before they set off again at pace and I limped to stansted to the Starbucks near the mid- stay car park where I was picked up by Montse and family who drove out to rescue me. Fortunately I had bought new wheels the week before but hadn't put them on, so I was mightily relieved as I was intending to change them and discard the old ones anyway!!

https://www.strava.com/activities/137266330

https://www.strava.com/activities/137266303