Bucks 100 - September 2014

The main ride, Sunday 14 September, in support of Action Medical Research

Training ride across the wooded hills of south Bucks, a quick 40km and 383m of ascent

In the pretty village of Hambledon on a short training ride between Marlow and Henley. Welcome, Mike, second left, as our guest rider.

So, the Club meets again, this time at Measham Manor in Beaconsfield. A training ride filled the afternoon, and the evening was spent carbo-loading and ensuring we were properly hydrated, in true Club fashion. The evening ended with some limbering exercises, mainly to the tune of Pharrell William's 'Happy', and the President and Mrs Merckx showing how this intricate series of stretching moves can be done to perfection.

Serious hydration session in full swing...

Stewie carbo-loading on profiteroles

President and Mrs Merckx demonstrating an advanced warm-up routine 

Sunday was all too quickly upon us, and a drive through the leafy lanes to Aylesbury and beyond eventually brought us to Waddesdon Manor, built in the Neo-Renaissance style of a French château between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, and bequeathed to the National Trust in 1957.

Our ride took us out through the beautiful grounds of the manor, and initially south east to hit the hills around Wendover, with a good climb up into Wendover Woods, the highest point of the Chilterns, and beautifully managed by the Forestry Commission.

Our start point, Waddesdon Manor

Alberto camping it up with his NEW SHOES

After our descent from the woods we caught our breath at a refreshment stop in Cholesbury Village Hall before riding northwards through some gorgeous villages, many with 'chocolate box' thatched cottages and great looking pubs.

Alberto showing the way up a typical Chilterns hill, his new shoes making a huge difference!

Alas, no time to enjoy these local hostelries, and more hills to climb before a lunch stop at 80km, a good feed provided at Stewkley Village Hall, before we turned south towards the finish. The only negatives of the day were the universally poor road surfaces of the Buckinghamshire roads - coarse tarmac, potholes and bumps galore. You would have thought that the well-healed burghers of Bucks wouldn't tolerate such shabby surfaces!

Lunch stop. Feed station at Stewkley

Our final 30km was ridden at a good pace, with one particularly long hill providing the team with an opportunity to set a new land speed record, hotly contested between Jan, Heyddie and guest rider Mike. Once again, their speeds proved too much for the technology. All appear to have missed the much sought after 70km/h barrier, but only by a small margin. Alberto and the President, were, as usual, eminently sensible on descent but still got the wind in their hair (well, maybe not, Alberto...).

[Postscript: Heyddie has since made the claim for the land speed record, achieved on a training ride with the Marlow Cycling Club. This claim, of 79.5km/h on 9 August 2014, will need careful vetting by the Club Secretary Jan, and therefore remains to be fully validated].

Jan, Stewie and Mike steaming down one of the last hills. Note the President wisely holding back...

Another sportive safely completed :-)

Stats for the day: 111.6km, 1196m of ascent, moving time 4 hours 35 minutes, average speed 24.3 km/h.

So, another good day out, with a couple of pints of St. Austell Breweries' Tribute enjoyed by the more discerning Club members, and further hydration in Beaconsfield later. Once again, splendid hospitality was provided by Mr and Mrs Merckx, the latter a super chef and warm-up exercise leader. Well done all.

Wolds Way - July 2014

Passing aptly named villages like Burnbutts, Wetwang and Painsthorpe, the Club enjoyed a fine weekend cycling the Wolds Way and exploring the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Pre-briefing hydration session in Sheriff Hutton. Guest appearance by our Director of Meteorology, Johan and his lovely WAG greatly welcomed by the team.

From our base at Whitworth Towers in Sheriff Hutton, near York, we managed a total distance of 263km, with climbs totalling 2,100m over the two days.

Saturday took us south, then east, then north, then east, then south, then west - Alberto was navigating ;-) - on the Wolds Way, passing through Kirkham Priory, Norton and Hunmanby before reaching Bridlington on the east coast.

Day 1 - Sheriff Hutton to Bridlington, finishing at Nafferton 124km, 914m of ascent, 2158kCal

The weather was challenging from the start, with rain dampening us a little just as we set off, and low cloud for the first hour or so. But the sun finally shone, drying us out in readiness for some good hills (Settringdon Hill, Kirby Road south to Sledmere House and Ganton Hill up on to Willerby Wold), with Mario in fine form on his new bike, a rather natty looking Cube carbon number (with matching shoes…).

Rolling hills, empty roads, and it's stopped raining...perfect!

Selfies on the move...a Club first!

Typical Wolds scenery

Fish and chips in Bridlington (a town renowned for its upmarket following), refuelled us for the final leg to Nafferton. But not before we all got a good drenching in a thunderstorm as we passed through Sands Wood. Mario excelled himself again, showing us all how (not) to unclip from his bike just as we reached Nafferton.

The team reach Bridlington

KOM contenders carbo loading

Alanssandro and Carlos chillin' on the transfer back to Sheriff Hutton...not a good look guys ;-)

Rehydration and further refuelling at The Grapes in Slingsby just north of Castle Howard enjoyed by all.

Day 2 - Nafferton back to Sheriff Hutton. 139km, ascent 1186m, 2697kCal

Our second day proved to be long one, with a long coffee and pork pie break in Beverley, an unplanned tour of the same town just afterwards, and another puncture for Carlos. But the day gave us bright weather, dry roads with good surfaces for the most part, and some wonderful scenery through the very distinctive landscapes of Millington Dale and Thixendale, buried deep in the hills north of our lunch stop at Pocklington. And a lot more hills than some had expected – the long drag from Walkington to New Newbold, Sancton Hill, and the 11% ramp out of Millington Dale, but with the reward of great views over the northern section of the Wolds and the North Yorkshire Moors before a superb descent (watch out for that hairpin Carlos!) into Leavening.

Entering Millington Dale

The final 11% section out of Millington Dale, Jan leading the charge!

Miguel and Alberto topping out from Millington Dale

Team GRAC on the Wolds

Thixendale

Big views before an exhilarating descent into Leavening

So, a great weekend. A good test for all. Some superb individual efforts, Mario leading out on the final 10km back into Sheriff Hutton being particularly notable, and Miguel learning how to clean his bike. Happy days J

Cake and cheese at Whitworth Towers :-)

Thanks again to Alberto and Mrs Johntador for their splendid hospitality, to Alberto, Jen and Jan for all the route recces and detailed planning.
Oh, and commiserations to Team Captain Heyddie for missing this little adventure due to business commitments and to Academy member and expert domestique  Stewie who was away on a romantic tryst ;-)

Le Tour de France - July 2014

😊

Knaresborough, winner of the 'best dressed' Tour de France host town in Yorkshire and our base for the weekend

Given the high proportion of Yorkshiremen in the Club, it was de rigueur that we put in a good attendance at this year's Grand Depart from Yorkshire.
So, fortified by gallons of local beer, French wine, dessert wine and, strangely, port, the night before, the gallant team headed for Harrogate, eschewing bikes for one day only, to get the bus into Harrogate with WAGs and mini team members Edie and Finlay to see the circus that surrounds the Tour.
Leaving sunny Knaresborough, adorned with yellow painted bikes hanging off shop fronts, houses, the (many) pubs, and churches throughout the town, plus knitted bunting (only in Yorkshire...), we soon entered the grand old town of Harrogate, a sea of Lycra, cycle jerseys and silly hats. We had a quick look at the finishing straight before finding our way into the huge fan park, our abode for the rest of the day.
Blessed with hot sunshine and a nearby bar, we idled the day away watching the race on big screens and getting prodigiously sunburnt.
The finale was a little bit of a anti-climax, given Cav's spectacular crash out on the finishing straight, but at least he put his hand up and admitted it was his own fault. A proper chap.

Harrogate celebrates Le Tour arriving on its doorstep!

Finish line for end of Stage 1

Fan Park in Harrogate

Coach & Horses, renamed in Cav's honour

Up early the following morning (well, at least by the Prattachi family's standards) to reposition our peloton of five, Jan, Stewie, Alanssandro, Heyddie and Fabian, to Scholes in West Yorkshire, near the base of Holme Moss, one of the bigger climbs for the riders on Stage 2.
In good weather, a fast descent down Hade Edge brought us into Holmfirth and the reality of cycling into one of the Tour stages. Hundreds, nay, thousands of people all climbing up the road through Holmbridge and then Holme up to Holme Moss itself. Kids on bikes, mums and dads following them, old codgers with walking sticks. Mountain bikers zig-zagging their way up the hill (why?) and walkers generally getting in the way of proper bikers. Hey ho. Millions of pounds worth of carbon, Lycra, Rapha gear (probably Southerners...?) all glinting its way uphill.

Team GRAC at the summit of Holme Moss

Our viewpoint on Holme Moss

The pre-Tour 'caravan' passing by

Holme Moss, a Cat 2 climb of just 4.7km was quickly dispatched by Team GRAC (although there was one notably red face at the top, and it wasn't sunburn...) before we picked our viewing platform for the day. Surrounded by some proper bikers, a couple of oiks who insisted on wearing large rimmed sun hats and standing up in front of us a lot of the time, and assorted non-cyclists who were there just for the spectacle, we settled in for a long wait.
Time passed with crowd spotting, the inevitable crowd 'wave', waving at Police helicopters (why?) and shouting support to young riders battling up the hill. Then the Tour caravan passed through, and eventually the TV helicopters appeared in the sky, and almost six hours after we had found our spot we were rewarded with a good view of the breakaway and the following peloton...an event which lasted about five minutes.
Worth seeing, but only once. Next time, a bucket of beer, a comfy sofa and big TV screen will do very nicely.

Spot the riders...

Then, of course, the mêlée to get off the hill. A tangle of bikes, riders, ambulances, police bikes and assorted non-cyclists, dogs, etc, many of whom were descending into Derbyshire, so two-way movement was very slow. And, ominously, the very dark clouds started to form above.
We walked at least a kilometre before we were able to mount our bikes, and then made progress only with extreme caution given that pedestrians somehow forgot they were on a road filled with cyclists, duh.

The slowest descent ever!

Then, through Holme and Holmbridge, the heavens opened. Proper Yorkshire rain, roads turned into cascades in minutes, but Team GRAC were quickly through Holmfirth to enjoy the final challenge of the day, the ascent of Hade Edge.
All in all, a good day out. Excellent roast beef sarnies, Yorkshire pork pie and a bottle of Yorkshire beer sustained us.
Once again, thanks for Jan & Mrs Prattachi for organising this and the whole weekend :-) 

Virgin 'Cyclone' - June 2014

A good sportive through the wilds of Northumberland, with a record club turnout of nine riders. We enjoyed the company of some new faces, our guest riders all putting in a creditable performance on the day. Good work Pedro Davegado, Jaques Andrewquetil and Tejan Van Glenderen! 

Looking keen as we set off from Woolsington to the start

Some would say this was our better side...

This was the largest sportive ride we've participated in thus far, with over 2,000 riders starting off from the Newcastle Falcons' stadium, of which 1,300 were doing our 100km circuit.

The route took us north towards Rothbury, before turning south west to Cambo and then Colwell adjacent to the Halington Reservoirs, before returning on an easterly track through Stamfordham. Pleasant countryside yielded to moorland at the northernmost extent, with a few pretty villages to admire en route. 

Feed station at Cambo

There was plenty of ascent and descent, although rough road surfaces on many stretches and some horrible speed bumps at the end of one very quick descent made it a hard day for backsides! We also had some amusing technical issues on one of the bikes, but no names shall be mentioned in the blog ;-)
Stats for the day: distance 101km, average speed 25.2kph, in 4 hours and three minutes. Fastest speed in the peloton on a downhill 48.1mph, 77kph! Take a bow Carlos (although Jan believes he clocked 78kph...). The author's maximum? A mere 62.6kph, quite fast enough...

Our total ascent was 1327m, so a good day out for all in fine weather.
The day concluded in the pub, naturally, before a fine BBQ courtesy of our weekend hosts, Carlos and Vicky Sastrae. Our grateful thanks to them for a tasty end to the day.

GRAC men, doing what they do best!