Exciting post

I received an exciting and motivating letter through the post today - my sponsorship pack from Cancer Research.

It was great to read the sponsor stories and training suggestions, however the details of the work Cancer Research does and just what can be achieved through sponsors' donations was the most important read, and motivating for the many miles ahead.

Have a read yourself about some of Cancer Research's work here, and find out why I personally chose to supporting them this year here.

I'd really appreciate any sponsorship you might be able to share. My fundraising webpage is here - http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/BCBC.

Thanks

Off the beaten track

Had a great long weekend away in North Norfolk with the family, for the end of half term. Rather cold, though still very good.

The place we stayed had bikes available to hire, and the opportunity was far too good to miss. A real change being out on a mountain bike rather than my road bike, but thoroughly good fun that the girls really enjoyed (even if Lucy doesn't look too impressed in the photo...).

A spinning class on Wednesday is now all the sits between me and my first organised ride of the year on Sunday. Looking forward to getting out there and doing some decent road miles at last, plus the long-range weather forecast looks really encouraging. Fingers crossed.

I'm Spinning Around

It's really not like being out on the open road. However, I've turned to Spinning to try to maintain a  keep a base level of fitness over the winter, and keep my weight in check.

It's bike riding Jim, just not as you know it

The aim for the winter has been to do one or two times a week in the gym, and then a ride out on the road at the weekend. Limited daylight and snow has rather impacted the latter ambition, though, so Spinning has been really important to keep me going.

It's a bit of an acquired taste, however I think it's done the job! Another 17 miles spun last night - every little helps.

My Olympic Legacy

I loved the London Olympics. The announcement on 6th July 2005 that the Olympics were coming to my city led to seven years of excited anticipation. It remains quite unbelievable to me that the games themselves were everything I’d hoped for, and more.

Fiona and I threw ourselves into the spirit of the Olympics, determined to take advantage of such a “once in a lifetime event”. We went just about every day to something, somewhere, and loved it all. And the opportunity to see the world’s best cyclists up close was too much to resist. Cycling framed our games.

London became the centre of the cycling world. Inside the Velodrome on the Olympic park; the streets of Twickenham await the arrival of the men's road race; the Brownlee brothers break away in Hyde Park on their way to making histroy

While the hangovers from the Opening Ceremony were still raging, we were out on the streets of Richmond and Twickenham cheering on the Men’s Road Race. While that didn’t work out quite as hoped, the same couldn’t be said four days later when we stood by the finish line at Hampton Court Palace to watch Wiggo and Froomy power to Gold and Bronze. The atmosphere by the Thames that day will live very long in the memory, it was truly one of the highlights of the whole games.

A few days later we spent a late afternoon in the Olympic Velodrome, cheering on British starts including Vicky Pendelton, Jason Kenny and Ed Clancy. And a few days after we watched the Brownlee brothers cycling round Hyde Park on their way to Olympic history in the triathlon.

Global stars of cycling. Current road World Champion fast Phil Gilbert during the men's time trial; Queen Victoria Pendleton; Jason Kenny warming up on his way to spring gold: paying homage to Wiggo; women's road race silver medalist Lizzie Armitstead

The Olympics created such a high it took a while to come back down again. Others have talked about POD, post-Olympic depression, and I know what they mean. So Fiona and I asked ourselves: what should we do in 2013? What should our legacy be? Which is when we decided that as a whole family we should do more sport this year, more cycling, and use it as a route to raise some money for charity. Hence this challenge and my sponsorship page for Cancer Research UK.

Raising money for charity as an Olympic legacy was demonstrated during the games themselves by an amazing group of people, the #2012Tweeps. Their selfless work helped many people, myself included, to get many tickets for the Olympics, and in the process raise thousands of pounds for Médecins Sans Frontières. I’m hoping to keep some of the #2012Tweep spirit alive during my cycling this year.

Which leads us to one final connection. On the early evening of Friday 3rd August 2012, as Vicky Pendleton was winning her Kirin Gold medal, #2012Tweep Conrad Readman (@conr62) suffered a fatal heart attack inside the Olympic Velodrome. I’d shared a pint with Conrad after collecting some Olympic tickets just two days before the opening ceremony the week before. Almost exactly a year to the day later, the northern part of the Olympic Park will be re-opening, focused on the new Velo Park for the RideLondon Olympic legacy cycling festival . It’s from here that the route of RideLondon 100 starts on August 4th 2013, losly following the route of the Olympic cycling road races. On the day before I plan to ride into the park to pay my respects to Conrad, pleased that we’re also supporting the British Heart Foundation this year.

Beating the Bison

It was Wilf’s idea really. I was desperate to get out on the road this weekend, and Wilf suggested we climb the Bison… Bison Hill is one of the steepest road climbs in our area, well known to local cyclists, and not a climb I’d yet tackled. It’s relatively short, climbing 280ft at an average gradient of over 8% over 0.6 miles. It’s a kilometre of lung-busting effort taking you from the valley floor up to the top of the Dunstable Chiltern escarpment at the entrance to Whipsnade Safari Park.

And we did it. Not in a time that will trouble the top of the Strava score board, but without feeling the need to stop.

Wilf and I celebrate reaching the entrance to Whipsnade Safari Park, and the top of Bison Hill

This fitness foundation ahead of starting more intensive training in the spring is really encouraging, especially as I’ll be facing some climbing on my main rides in the summer:

• After 47 miles of the London to Brighton we need to get over Ditchling Beacon, a landmark of the South Downs. It’s 0.9 miles of climbing at a fierce 9% average gradient, rising 438ft. Ouch

• During the RideLondon-Surrey 100 there are two main climbs down in the Surrey Hills. After about 50 miles we climb the steep Leith Hill. It’s similar to Ditchling Beacon, 0.9 miles in length at an average 8% gradient, rising 371ft

• Then, after another 10 miles or so, we re-join the London 2012 road race route to climb the famous Box Hill. This zig-zag climb is not as steep, rising at 5%, though it’s long, so over 1.6 miles you still rise 411ft

Rather oddly I quite enjoy the pain of climbs, and living in the Chilterns I’ve got plenty of options around to train on over the next six months. I guess we’ll be up the Bison again before the summer is out.