The Hell of the North Cotswolds HONC 2019

On Sunday the 14th of April it was time for the 2019 'Hell of the North Cotswolds!' This is an absolute beast of a ride in stunning surroundings and if you're looking for a challenging ride next year I cannot recommend this highly enough. The following blog is a tale of my personal struggle, the camaraderie of cycling mates and a very well organised off road sportive.

Let's unload my personal stuff or what the unkind would call 'excuses.' My plan post Christmas was to get in to tip top shape by the time of this ride. I knew it would be tough and getting down to a sensible riding weight and getting miles in my legs were my two objectives. Last year I'd shed two stone post Christmas and was the fittest I've ever been on a bike. So it would be easy eh? Well no. Life doesn't always work like that. 2019 started with a lot of loss. My Pap (Granddad,) died, then Harvey our beloved old Labrador died, I am if I'm honest still a little post traumatic from my car crash, it's a big year with the kids (Niamh takes her GCSEs,) and other massive things, like my father in law having cancer are bubbling along. My stupid solution to all of this is to try to batter  my way through it. I've worked too hard and allowed work stress to really get to me. I'm also taking too much on with my evening activities and having said I don't have time to cycle in the evenings I have found myself out of the house 3 to 4 nights a week. In amongst this I have managed good stuff. I have lost a few pounds since Christmas but nowhere near enough. I ditched dry January but then managed alcohol free February and the first week of March. This was followed by 'have a few pints every day it won't hurt will it.' (Yes you flipwit it does!) I've also been eating emotionally! I resist everything offered to me at work, everyone says 'ooh aren't you good,' and I reward myself by eating anything I can find in the house when I get home! To top it all I was on annual leave last week and I've been ill with a cold all week! I never get ill. I have a badge on my lanyard for not missing a day of work in 2018...it's like my body relaxed and then said "I'm shutting down now, you've pushed me too hard!" So I arrived at Sunday, the day of HONC, in nowhere near the shape I wanted to be in. Excuses concluded!

Leading up to the ride we've had a healthy messenger group running and much excitement was in the group. Through that group I arranged for Ian Bird to pick me up in his well equiped van. At 6am Ian arrived and we loaded up. I prepared the day before, having decided I'd use my Forme Calver CX for the ride. I hated fitting that saddle bag but I'd need to carry more than usual. In my camebak I had a homemade sports drink of 50:50 orange juice and water with a teaspoon of sea salt. The queen of cakes had also prepared some excellent ride snacks of peanut butter snickerdoodles https://www.crazyforcrust.com/peanut-butter-snickerdoodles/ and chocolate chip flapjack. Finally I'd also packed my portable charger because I didn't trust my Lezyne bike computer or my phone! We made it to the event base at Winchcombe in good time to get a coffee in and meet our ride mates for the day; Chris B, Olly, Andy B and Gary. Ashley was there somewhere too but we didn't see him all day so I hope he had a good ride. The young whippersnapper is too quick for us all anyway so he needed to do his own thing.

At the start we discussed plans. Everyone wanted a crack at the 100km route but also we agreed to be realistic. The route had been organised with a cut off so you had to drop to the 75km route by 14.30 or if you were really suffering dropping to the 50km was also possible. Chris was not feeling too optimistic having had a lack of training time. Even more amazing was Olly. He'd broken his ankle some weeks ago but hadn't fully realised at the time and the bone healed itself whilst he remained mobile!

It was a mass start at Winchcombe which was initially exciting. It became a bit annoying on the first climb because the track was too congested and most of us had to get off and push up the hill.

However the atmosphere was lovely, everyone was chatting, asking where we were from, had we done it before etc. The was a real mix of MTBs, CX, a couple of tandems and a massive age range of riders.

The weather may look nice in the pictures and the truth is, it was a dry sunny day. It was also very cold with a sharp wind at times. Never the less our group was in fantastic spirits for the first third of the ride and we even had a good old sing song. Queen hits to the fore, some telly theme tunes and here's one for my good friend Mark Coleman - Gary knows all the words to the TV theme tune for Super Gran!

Gary is not just a singing maestro. He has the worlds largest calves as demonstrated by his leggings bursting at the seams.

The hills were really mounting up. I was glad I was on my CX bike because it does climb better than my MTB, especially on the road. The only advantage an MTB would bring is the downhills, some of which were a bit hairy without suspension. Thank goodness for my tubeless maxxis, I would definitely have had a pinch flat with tubes.

We made it to the first food stop at 50km, Chris was absolutely wrecked at this point. I did not feel much better but tried to hide this from the others because I really wanted the 100km. My Lezyne as predicted was nearly out of battery and my phone seemed to be draining faster than usual. No matter I had the power bank...then I discovered I hadn't got any leads. Luckily Gary had a spare mini USB and the day as far as my Lezyne was saved. My phone showed 39% so I put it into power saving mode which proudly announced 8 hours of battery life, more than enough!

Chris asked us to leave him at the food stop and he would make his own way back. So the five of us proceeded with the 100km route. I was feeling rotten but wanted to push through it. The first hill after the stop was an absolute beast. I knew I was done at this point, especially as the route split for the 75km was just after that hill!

I had some moments of doubtful regrets and then decided that I would drop to the 75km. Olly, Ian, Gary and Andy headed off on the 100km route. At this point I should have taken Ian's van keys but I was worried they'd get back before me! 

As I pushed on I could feel twinges of cramp coming so I got off and pushed up every hill! As it tuns out I was actually going faster walking than a lot of people riding up the hills. The scenery remained stunning and I started to feel a bit better going at my own pace.

Throughout the day we had been riding with this family. Dad, Ian Alexander and his daughter Taryn completed the 75km route on this tag along. It was a a beautiful 'hack,' of an MTB e-bike with a hybrid bolted onto the back. Taryn was exceptional fun with the other riders and I think Ian, even with the electric motor power boost, is a legend for tackling HONC on this and even more so for having the skills to create such an excellent bike.

I arrived at the finish at 15.00 and Chris rolled in about half an hour behind me. We waited together for the others to arrive. It was a bit of a long wait as they didn't get back until well after 17.00. My phone died just moments after the finish and I had just enough juice to upload my ride. I couldn't use the power bank because my phone is a USB-B...of course if I had the van keys...Ian had one in the van!

Chris kept me company and as it was freezing we sought the sanctuary of his van. After a lot of road watching Gary was the first to come steaming in, looking like a man with fresh legs. He announced that Andy and he had pushed on together but as Andy's Garmin had failed to start for the first 5km he had gone back to make sure that bit was recorded. How fit is Andy B! The man is just a mountain goat!! Then came Ian and finally Olly rolled in. His was the 'ride of the day,' as he had soldiered on and suffered where I just couldn't.

Just look at the ride profile as pointed out by Olly. By dropping to the 75km I had missed out on that final ridiculous hill. Again Chapeau to the four in our group who completed it. Am I truly disappointed though? No I'm not. I the cold light of day I realise that I'm not unfit, just not AS FIT as I want to be. My 75km is a similar distance to a hilly road ride I did last week in Northants. On that ride we climbed 1,800 feet, yesterday on a mix of on and off road I climbed 4,100 ft! That's not far off the height of Ben Nevis!

On the way home we stopped for a well earned pint. This pub catered well for dogs but we all agreed a dog bowl of this would be very welcome right now. On arriving home, I was shattered and in bed before 10! 

So what's the conclusion? HONC is a great ride. If you get the chance to do it, then do it! Even the 50km ride would be a good thing to do. A great day , with great mates and of course next time I'll be in better shape (yeah right Rich!)

Happy Pedalling

Spring Clean...another big catch up...plus erm...5 clubs!

I haven't done a blog for ages...again! I still love writing almost as much as I love riding but time has just got so precious...the 5 clubs thing is a bit of a clue to the problem. Coaching, being coached, road, off road, KCC Cyclones, C&D Cycles CC, Brixworth Velo MTB, WVCC Muddy Marvels, RFWCC Corby Capers! My goodness I've been having fun. The biggest reason for a big catch up now though is that it's unbelievably only 3 sleeps until the 2019 "Hell of the North Cotswolds."

I'm not going to include all the rides I've been on. Missing from the featured rides are: Cyclones coaching sessions and two trips with those little superstars to the Leicester Cycle Circuit; continued training courtesy of Phil and Sean at Corby Capers, the return of Dean Barnett's Muddy Marvels and I've also made it  out in the morning for a few rides!

This was one of the rare occasions in recent history when I've opted for the banter bunch at C&D Cycles CC. I haven't ridden with some of these friends for a while so it was nice to go out with them for a change. The rest of the club had set out to complete a 100km fondo as they do on the first weekend of the month.

The route itself was nice and quite typical of rural Northamptonshire but there was one section of the A6 that I could happily never ride on again!

This is possibly my favourite ride in this blog. Andy P and I once again joined our friends at Brixworth Velo MTB for a stunning off road ride.

Unbelievably on a lovely day in stunning scenery I barely took a picture! At C&D we rarely get over to the west of Northants so Andy and I had a real lesson in new trails and even though I'm from over there we were both surprised by the difference in terrain.

The ride ended with another trip to Cafe Monde but this time we weren't quite the dripping messes of the last visit. Knowing I was going straight back out to the Saints in the afternoon I opted for a breakfast panini.  What a marvellous invention, it just needed finishing with reggae reggae sauce!

The Brixworth guys and gals are almost all riding flats on their mountain bikes. I decided to give them a second go to see why they like them so much. One short ride later and...I still don't get it...the SPDs are back on my MTB!

This ride was back with my usual gang at C&D Cycles. I was feeling spritely after 50 miles I pushed on to the magic 62.1 miles to complete my own 100km fondo.

As usual, great riding and good banter and not much else to say...

On my few extra miles I finally got a good shot of  a Red Kite whilst cycling! Mission accomplished!!!

I'm rushing through this because once again I'm pushed for time...I took the MTB to Wakerley Woods! It's still great and despite riding there often I managed a PR! Of course I'm not happy...I can't wait to go back and try to beat it! I didn't go out in the morning because it was Sam's 14th birthday.

Last Sunday I opted for the C&D Cycles CC Sunday Social. What a great ride in stunning company. The banter was of the 'what happens on the ride stays on the ride.' I you're wondering about the ride name...apparently Bianchis are the colour of angels...I doubt it Bairdy!

Okay that's it...all caught up. Not the greatest blog ever but I just needed to record the rides. I can't wait for Sunday...but before then there's plenty to do at home.

Happy Pedalling!

How many things can you mess up in one week???

This week was similar to last week but also quite different. It has the same format; coach, be coached, road group ride and MTB group ride but...it didn't totally work like that. Also in a week of things going a bit wonky, my epic fail on Sunday was just par for the course!



On Monday we took the Cyclones to Milton Keynes Bowl for some road riding practise. A good session saw this kids make progression. We got to ride round too as chaperones were required on the circuit.

On Tuesday at Corby Capers, Phil set up another good course,with a different challenging hill. David still felt rough so took some more photos this week. The pictures tell the tale of a really good session where my heart rate monitor recorded a max heart rate of 219! I'm hoping that was a data blip rather than my actual heart rate. I did genuinely push up to 160 every time we did that hill. Phil stated at one point it was his mission to get us more fit! I was quite glad when we spent the last 15 minutes practising technique and it turns out I prefer to carry up hills than push, just need to nail that Sven Nys technique!

spooky hill

Push Rich!

Oooh I like to carry

Sam prefers to push

We didn't have hurdles this week so I couldn't show my rapidly improving bunny hop skills. Having only been able to do a roady hop before, I'm starting to get the timing right, just need to work on my height now! Here's some top tips on that too!

In between Tuesday night and my next ride I had a great week. We are dog sitting so Bruce has his cousins for company. 

I managed to think I'd lost Bruce's lead and returned to East Carlton Park to find it with no luck. Later that day I was cleaning the car prior to it's service and found the lead down the back of the boot cover! The car was a disgrace and I couldn't take it in looking like that. On Wednesday I took the car for it's service and we had to have it rebooked in for Friday because they needed it all day and I hadn't realised! When it was serviced on Friday, they gave the car a full valet as part of the deal...so glad I spent two hours on it then!

On Thursday the weather was simply stunning so Sam and I had our first fishing trip of the year. 

Here's Sam celebrating the one that didn't get away! Towards the end of the session he wasn't paying attention and a nice carp ran off with his rod! Check it out in the middle of the lake! Thankfully the good people of Desborough and Rothwell Angling Club took the boat out the next day and got it back for us!

That wasn't the end of the disasters. The Queen of Cakes and my daughter Niamh had spent the week in New York. I always like them to come back to a clean house so I set about my domestic duties. I gave the oven a once over and then set it for pyrolysis, a wonderful feature where the oven cleans itself with extreme heat. Once completed the oven became stuck in that mode and I couldn't reset it, not even cutting the power worked! However I did manage to fix it yesterday by just generally messing about with everything including pinging the door lock! Surely nothing else could go wrong!

Branston and Fudge guarding the dodgy oven

On Saturday I had another tight schedule, this time I had to be back for 11.30 so I could go and collect that lost rod. Thankfully another C&D Cycles CC shop ride was sympathetic to my needs and I met the group in Rushton at 09.00. The original plan was back though Rushton so happy days! We'd been promised a glorious spring day but early doors there was thick fog making clothing selection tricky. Even trickier was the hilly route including the infamous Neville Holt hill meaning no matter how cold we started, everyone would be warm by the top!

As we climbed the hill about 5 red kites were circling above me. I attempted to get a picture but of course it was no use at all! Neville Holt Hall itself is fascinating with it's impressive sculptures and now it has it's own opera theatre. Not my cup of tea but worth a look here Neville Holt Opera

I'm sorry about this picture. Yes it's a picture of my bottom! I took it myself so perhaps I've invented a new form of selfie, the 'arsey!' The reason I took it is to show the split in my shorts. I've had it it with this brand, Altura, I had several pairs of gloves returned once due to continued splits on the fingers and these shorts have literally been splitting at the seams all over. I know I'm a bit of a tubby but I expect road cycling kit to be tight fitting and have the durability to stretch! Andy at C&D will  probably want to send these back but I'm writing them off and sticking to other brands for ever more i.e. my C&D bib tights were excellent, anything I have had from Endura has also been top quality. Well that's like another disaster for the week, surely nothing else right...wrong!

As ever it was a splendid ride with my clubmates. The usual banter including a horse lady stating that we spook them because we're fast and quiet but as soon as horses realise it's a human on a bike they settle down. Andy P get's quote of the day with: "we're neither fast or quiet!" We also extended the route at the end due to us all enjoying ourselves so much. It was massive fun racing Andy Brown down the hill towards Harrington, as ever I was no match for him going up the other side!

Sam and I were heading to the Saints on Saturday afternoon. We were just about to leave when I wondered where the kids season ticket was...oh...of course Niamh used it last week and the season ticket had enjoyed a lovely trip to New York and was currently in a car on the way back from the airport...luckily they can print you a replacement for just £5 so the day was saved...surely that's everything now right? Nope! However the match was a superb and the Saints recorded a 7th straight home win! No other rugby matches took place on Saturday...not even in Wales or anything. 

Apparently I'm even holding this pasty wrong

On a super bright Sunday morning I was packed and ready in time and drove out to our meeting point in Grafton Underwood. I sniggered to myself as I parked about an inch from Andy Pendred's van, he'd be frustrated by that little joke later and set about getting ready! Hmmmm this shoe is a bit tight...oh FFS! I had got one of my shoes and one of Sam's. We have the same Shimano CX shoes but his are size 9, I'm an 11! So I drove on  to meet everyone at the crossroads, told my tale of woe and then headed back home in a sulk!

Two left feet...

The only part of the route that I knew was that they were going to ride up Grafton Chase. Ridiculous for the best bit of downhill in Northants but hey ho, I figured out I could ride down it and meet them probably between 11 and 12. 

So I set out on my solo route with the aim of getting to the chase in mind. On the way I saw the Llamas at Rushton, who were in a photogenic mood. I then did a bit of exploring and found my way onto Prologis Park by going under the railway bridge.

At Prologis I checked out some of the terrain as we will be running both a KCC FNSS MTB race and another CX race this year. Busy times ahead planning all that lot! I stopped for a picture at the Red Kite sculpture because well you know...you can't get a picture of the massive birds any other way!

I then headed through Weekly Woods, where I used a log for some more bunny hop practise (don't imagine massive,) before riding into amazing historic Geddington. The cross gets a lot of attention but you should check out the history of the church too! http://geddingtonchurch.org.uk/our-church/history/

cross

lovely old tree

The chase was lovely and dry and really good riding except for a slight bit of clarty stuff at the bottom. I rode through, stopped at a bench at Brigstock, watched yet more camera shy Red Kites and waited. No sign of the others so I decided to do a hill repeat on the chase. It was a good hard ride back up and then an even better fast ride down. I then waited again but at 12.00, there was no sign of them so I headed off for another uphill of the chase. I later learned they came through after 12, due to punctures...even other people's misfortune was messing up my week. Anyway everyone...TUBELESS! Except of course, you'll know from this blog that even that fails at times.

I headed back through Weekly, onto Prologis and down to Rushton again. I was missing my mates but I also had a really good ride in glorious weather, so there's nothing to be down about! Quite the opposite, all that Spring air had put me in a very good mood.

I made one last attempt to snap a Red Kite at Rushton...that's the best shot...hmmmm...not good! Here's one someone else took, I'm guessing they weren't on a bike using a smartphone.

Well that's it. I'm hoping for a drama free week but...well it's me isn't it!

Happy Pedalling