Vroom Wednesday Ohana

For those of you not familiar with the great cinematographic work that is Lilo &Stich: Ohana means family and that means no one gets forgotten or left behind. Tonight I wasn't at my best. Twice in the first few miles people had to wait for me. I don't know why. Perhaps I'm riding too much, I might need more rest. Perhaps it's because everyone had a five mile warm up before I joined the ride. I don't know. All I know is right from the off I was even slower than usual. After the second wait for me I offered the group the chance to leave me behind. I felt I was spoiling vroom. It's supposed to be for quicker riders and I was holding people back. Well the lads were having none of it and when I repeated my offer they really told me:"what part of no don't you understand?" Thanks all, I won't forget. I will also rule #5 it and be faster in the future. Thanks also to Chris for looking after me at the start of the ride.

No pics of the route tonight due to it being vroom. I did however take a cheeky snap of the cobbles on Rothwell Market Square. I didn't even want to ride over these slippery looking beasts to get to the road. I have no idea how they do it on Paris-Roubaix. Talking of pro rides there are signs up warning of delays as the Women's Tour passes through Northants. It's quite an honour for our splendid roads.

The route itself is the clubs classic Pitsford Loop but we added a bit at the end. I'm surprised to see PRs after the way I was feeling and actually anything over 15mph average is good for me so perhaps it was better than I thought. 

Weather was an issue. It wasn't extreme, just persistent drizzle. The wind was relatively light though, so that was ok. It was a bit irksome after looking out of the window at a sunny day only for it to change as soon as we got outside.

On our return to Kettering there was a bit of miscommunication as I went right to head back to Rothwell and the others went left. Steve and Martin caught me back up between a Weekly and the A43. I told them I was ok and they reminded me again: "no one gets left behind!" 

Happy Peddaling

Quick spin in the drizzle

Typical gateway on my routine ride

Nothing remotely spectacular on interesting about tonight's quick 18 miler. This is one of my regular routes and it has all the bits I like. Bit of up, bit of down, lots of countryside. I must have blogged this exact route before so I'm struggling for things to say other than I like it and that's why it repeats more often than a sprout on Christmas Day.

I just needed some miles tonight. That Strava Spring Classics Challenge is going to be like Waterloo, an incredibly close run thing. Also after collecting PRs frequently on recent rides I'm completely unsurprised to have one of those 'no achievement' rides.

On a more positive note the annoying clicky rubbing noise has gone from my front wheel. Darren cool beans Dunkley said last week that he'd had a similar issue with no obvious cause. His was solved by Andy at C&DCYCLES theory that water gets in via the spoke nipples. The advice was to spray each nipple with water displacer. So a quick squirt of WD40 GT85 (the professionals choice apparently,) on each spoke at the rim (I'd stopped saying nipple due to the innuendo, I think I just made that worse.) Anyway the noise has I indeed gone. So thanks Darren and Andy, you boys know your rims, nipples and lubricants.

Here's the route:

Happy Peddaling

Riding off the Easter Eggs

The weather forecast before the start of the weekend was that Easter Monday could be a washout. Well thank goodness that was wrong. It was pleasant out this afternoon and I nearly stopped to take the base layer off. That sharp lined cycling tan isn't going to do itself is it? Judging by the odd brown lines on my wrists and my brown knees today was a missed opportunity. My average was down under 14mph which is disappointing but then I look at the long list of PRs and I'm astounded that I got a PR on the Brixworth Beast for the second time in 4 days. I'll take that.

The first thing to report is that it wasn't just eggs I got for Easter. Mrs Lindsley is buying me a cracking set of cycling related T-shirts and this joins my Wiggo and Manx Missile (Cavendish,) as a firm favourite.

Talking of favourites, today's route has one of my favourite downhills which I don't use as much as I did a few years ago. This is the hill out of Haselbech heading towards the ridiculously posh Cottersbrooke. A word of warning, the surface isn't that great at the foot of the hill and as it leads onto a gated road, the gate, like it was today can be shut.

As you can see there are sheep on the other side of the gate and they're not impressed by Lycra clad cyclists. Take it easy and make sure you shut the gate. It's worth it. This is beautiful countryside and very quiet. You are just as likely here to see a tractor or a quad as a car.

After Cottersbrooke the road leading to Brixworth could easily be mistaken for a tree lined Avenue in France. Once you get off this road you head up the Brixworth Beast currently showing as a Women's Tour climb. I might not be so impressed once I see how fast the pro ladies zoom up the climb they will no doubt view as a mere bump. For this MAMIL it's tough enough!

Favourite is an overused word on my blog. This bit is true though. The road from Brixworth to Holcot, crossing over the Pitsford Reservoir causeway really is one of my favourites. It has everything. A fast flat bit, a great view of the ressie, a descent and a short sharp climb into Holcot. I love it.

Ok so if I'd carried on snapping the highlights this blog would be awesome. I forgot to take any more pics though because I was enjoying the ride. Sorry about that. Other highlights on my way round are Sywell Airport as it's always fascinating watching the light aircraft and the ride between Broughton and Loddington through Great Cransley. 3 sharp climbs in a row test the legs and I confess I dropped to granny for the last. Had I carried on home to Rothwell from Loddington it would be four of these lactic lung busters. I wanted a few more miles so gave myself a break from the lumpy bits. Three out of four ain't bad. 

Another good ride and it tipped me over 50% for the Strava Spring Classics challenge so that's good. 

Happy Peddaling

It's Saturday so what else? It's the C&DCycles shop ride!

Always the best ride of the week it's another Saturday shop ride. The slow(er) ride was led today by Jamie 'effortless' Stockham. Jamie's riding style is to glide and he makes it all look very easy. He's the perfect leader because whilst he looks like he's doing very little he's going very fast!

Here's some great ride footage from Richard Wood's go pro. That's definitely a bit of kit I'd like to get hold of. However this video has far too much footage of some fat lad on his Forme Longcliffe 2.0. I'm going to have to work on that riding style, it's shocking!

For some reason the youtube clip doesn't show on some devices. If you have a blank box above please click this link YouTube video by Richard Wood

Some of the brothers from C&DCYCLES are now clearly blog mention chasing. It's like Strava segment chasing but worse as they try to get as many mentions as possible. With that in mind Andy your striptease to divert my request for a bigger ring really was unnecessary. I was going to mention again about your fantastic advice and service and repeat that we should all follow rule 58 and support our local bike shop. I'm still a bit disturbed though that it's base layer then bib shorts for you. It's not in the rules but if we could add to them it's definitely bib shorts first, for the full mankini effect and then all other layers to follow.

Big Steve is also guilty of blog mention chasing. His was more valid though. The Prince of Profanity is quite miffed that he only scored 65/70 for 'how sweary are you?' It was most amusing to hear his critique of the list in the Facebook Survey and unfortunately none of it is repeatable here. Needless to say both of us share a new favourite insult in 'douchecanoe.' As in David Moyes was a real douchecanoe for leaving Everton. Never mind the new man is indeed the canines crown jewells so alls well that ends well.

Enough of that nonsense. The ride today was a good one for a shop ride and especially welcome after the gradient bashing we gave ourselves yesterday. It was another fast ride for a Saturday with my average coming in at just under 16mph. 

If you read my blog of the shop ride from a while back where I mention that the sign points the wrong way for the historic church in Aldwincle (this is not another of Steve's words but in fact the name of a village,) then the last laugh is on me because there is indeed another church around the corner with a big English Heritage plaque on it. 

We split into two groups which were supposed to meet and then complete the route together but it sort of went wrong when we erm...went wrong and then we went wrong again so the fast lot caught us twice and then gave up the plan and we ended up back at the shop before them despite their average of nearly 18mph (when I grow up I want to be that quick.) Poor Frank on only his second ride in a few weeks looked ruined by the quick lads. Not half as bad as I'd have looked trying to keep up with that group Frank!

Back at the shop we arrived before 11am for the first time for weeks which meant that another of my wife's awesome creations had yet to arrive. However, when the long suffering Mrs Lindsley did appear with my personal favourite in her repertoire, apple cake, it was demolished in seconds. Big Steve was so excited he started quoting the Fast Show and some other things that sadly I also can't mention. If I say the cake was lovely and moist you can join the dots for yourself. Thanks again Lee, I really don't deserve you.

The tray of apple cake was full moments before

No ride home for me today because Niamh was competing in the Kettering Harriers Athletic Club Open meeting. That was well worth the trip because it was great to see so many athletes and our superstar had a massive personal best in the 800m knocking 12 seconds off of her previous PB.

All in all a great day.

Happy Peddaling

Richies Good Friday not a Sportive Brampton Valley Criss Cross

I planned this route then as an afterthought wondered if any of my biking brothers wanted to join me. Well I could not have been more delighted with the response. 6 of us (Matthew, Neil, Jamie, Iain, Darren and I,) set out from Rothwell and we picked up Phil in Old. Neil could only get a quick spin in and left us in Holcot meaning 6 of us did the majority of the route.

The crazy plan for the day was to sort of follow the Brampton Valley Way without actually using the Brampton Valley Way. From mine we went to Orton, then Loddington, then Old via Mill Lane (a really pleasant quite road,) from there up to Scaldwell, touching the outskirts of Brixworth, over the causeway to Holcot and then round to Moulton, finally through Boughton and down to Boughton crossing. That's the start of the Brampton Valley Way. For those who don't know the Brampton Valley Way it's a bike track from Northampton to Market Harborough using the old train line.I will definitely post a blog about using the Brampton Valley Way at some point this year, as it's another fantastic local resource but it's not suitable for road bikes.

So why did I want to do this? Well as the name suggests there's a valley involved and if you cross the track you'll very soon be going up hill as it's in the bottom of the valley. In short I wanted a route that was as testing as it gets round here. I hope the brothers in Lycra who joined me will agree it was a good workout.

No worries dude

So we headed up to Chapel Brampton and then back across the track at The Brampton Halt and up to Pitsford. The only disappointing thing about this route for me is we couldn't avoid using an A road at times. The majority of this was on the A508 Harborough Road. I think it should be obvious why this road runs parallel to the Brampton Valley Way. 

Cracking view, it all looked like this

Onto Brixworth again before taking on the mighty Spratton Hill. From Spratton we went to Creaton and then back to Brixworth up the segment known as the Brixworth Beast. A bit more A508 took us through to Lamport and then through the ridiculously pretty Draughton (I wouldn't live there though-no pub!) . 

Ooh a picture of me! Cheers Iain

From Draughton we again took on some lumps to get to Maidwell and then a slab more A508 before we could turn off and go past the Buddhist Centre at Kelmarsh (Boomshanka.) From Kelmarsh we crossed the Brampton Valley Way again but only knew this by the ventilation chimneys as it was in the Kelmarsh tunnel when we crossed it. Into Harrington and down Church lane took us up another significant lump before heading to Great Oxendon.

And another one

Quick stop at Draughton

My legs definitely already knew we'd had a good ride. It was a strong group of riders and I was struggling to keep up at times. As we headed to East Farndon I saw the strangest sight. A man on a bike was carrying a dog on his back in a kind of basket thing.  See the picture. It's bizarre what you see at times.

I really hope this dog has his own Strava account

 From Farndon we headed into Harborough which was busy so not the best bit of the ride. We crossed the start of the Brampton Valley Way in Harborough and then followed the road through to Braybrooke crossing the River Jordan (let my people go!) We didn't head up Griffin Road this time but to the next hill leading to Desborough Road. It's another significant rise and once again I was arse end Charlie to the stronger riders. Finally through Desborough we took the Rothwell Road for the last climb of the day and back to my house.

The most magnificent Mrs Lindsley's Beetroot and Orange Cake

At my house we were treated to Mrs Lindsley's marvelous hospitality with tea, coffee and beetroot cake! Beetroot you say? Yes Beetroot and orange with a cream cheese topping. OMG what a treat from the Queen of Cakes. Beetroot as we all know has anti cramp properties for cyclists so that's another benefit too.

What a ride! Nearly 100km and very definitely comparable to a Sportive route.

I'd like to say thankyou to everyone who joined me for this ride. I guess we've started another tradition of the 'Good Friday Ride.' A very enjoyable spin with good people.

Happy Peddaling

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Commute, commute, commute

Nothing that exciting about today's cycling. I ride to work and back. I could've gone out tonight but instead, as I'm getting out on Friday and Saturday and going to Franklins Gardens to see the Saints on Sunday I felt I ought to be a good husband and father and get some housework done. I have got stuff to discuss though.

The first relates to the sign above. Every day this week I have passed this sign encouraging drivers to think bike. Now this message originally related to our motorcycle cousins but as the Lycra loonie numbers have swelled I'd like to think they mean bike in every sense of the word. With that in mind it saddens me to report there was an incident for one of riders last night with a lorry going home from vroom Wednesday. Poor Jonesy took a torrent of abuse from a trucker and was intimidated out of the way. That's not on. I wish he'd rang the 'how's my driving,' number on the back of the lorry.

My second topic goes back to a conversation I was having on vroom last night. I love Clive, my Forme Longcliffe 2.0, it's the perfect bike for me due to being quite quick but also comfortable on long rides.  It's sales description is: 

"The perfect machine for any cyclist looking for a serious bit of kit to improve their fitness and get their endorphin kick! The Longcliffe 2.0 is also ideal for the experienced cyclist looking for a training bike with the best balance of high quality componentry without the need to fork out for the usual upgrades. In addition to triple butted AL7005 tubing we also feature a custom factory built Mavic Aksium wheelset and Shimano 105 transmission system."

Now that's all great but there's just one thing that nags me. The compact chainring 50/34 is great for the hills but I'm a downhill specialist and I feel I'm a gear light. Since switching from my steel framed triple, Bob (a lovely bike but built for my Dad whose 6ft 6" and I'm only 5ft 11 and 32/33rds,) there are segments I just can't beat. My belief is that's down to Bob having a triple chainring of 52/42/30. There's the problem right there...I'm now cycling with a bunch of blokes constantly talking about their bits of kit. A couple of years ago if you'd asked me about my gears I'd say they're shimano something or other (it was tiagra,) and I've got 27, three chain rings and 9 on the back, I didn't know what size but now I know it was 25-12. Now I'm acutely aware I'm running 105 10 speed 24-12. I'm looking at options Di2, Dura Ace, Ultegra etc. Here's my plan that I've got by doing way too much reading. 11 speed on the back and keep the compact. 50-11 being a bigger gear than 52-12 so I get a bit more umph but keep the compact for climbing. Now the options for this start at Di2 and having looked at some online retailers (for price purposes only Andy and Chris, I observe rule #58 support your local bike shop,) I think £1700 for the group set on an £900 bike is really a bit silly. There's an option at 105 though and I think this is what I'll do. Now the process starts proper. I have to talk to everyone about it. People will tell me that campagnola and SRAM do 11speed set ups. Others will say just change the chain rings. It will go on for ages and I'll change my mind a million times. It seems that if the number of bikes you need is n+1 where n is the number of bikes you already have then the bits on your bike that need upgrading are n+infinity where n is the number of bits you've changed already. As my long suffering wife remarked:"why did you get that bike if it wasn't what you needed?" It's not that simple dear (although it probably is!)

vroom Wednesday suits you sir

So on a glorious evening we happy few of the less popular but just as rewarding C&DCYCLES vroom Wednesday, the clubs faster ride, set out on another two wheeled adventure. It all started as it was meant to go on with Big Steve Major the last to arrive greeting us the only way he knows: "evening bellends!"

The route was a bit different for us heading towards Moulton on the outskirts of Northampton and the back along the A5199 through Chapel Brampton, Spratton and Creaton before heading to Naseby. The hill into Naseby is in my opinion the best climb in Northants. 

The banter had been flowing and I appeared to be stuck in a character from the fast show when I noticed an irritation on my face. So it was to howls of derision from my fellow vroomers that I announced in a slightly effeminate and camp way:
"Ooh I have helmet rash, it's quite irritating!"
The lads insisted this should be in the blog tonight, so there you go as promised it's in!

I'm not sure how we came up with the plan for tonight. It is however quite similar for my plan for Good Friday so, sorry about that. Also in the Spring evening sunshine the views were spectacular, especially the low sun over Hollowell reservoir. Unfortunately as this was vroom Wednesday there was no time to get many pictures.

I'm pleased with my ride tonight. Lots of PRs and some new targets for segment chasing. Also Lee knows how much I love the Wednesday ride so she's come up with a plan where I can go every week not just in school holidays. She's a special lady my wife. As I've said before I'm very lucky.

The weather looks good for a few more days so there's plenty more rides to come. I can't wait.

Happy Peddaling