Ronde Van Chilterns

The Dagnall Climb, Tom’s Hill, the Wigginton Climb, and the devilish Crong. They may not be quite as world famous as the Koppenberg or Pattenberg that the world’s finest road cyclists will be tackling tomorrow, yet in this corner of the Chilterns they are some of the very best we’ve got.

It’s been a hugely frustrating three weeks as family, fate and mostly weather have conspired against me getting out on the road. I’m just grateful that it is not until August that I'll tackle the RideLondon, this hasn’t really impacted my main training schedule.

At long last, though, I got out today. Determined not to be beaten by the cold, or the remnants of a cold I’ve enjoyed this week, I decided to make up for some lost time by pushing myself.

I blogged about the Oakman Sportive last week, and looking through the route they’ve done a great job designing a 70km course that includes many of the landmark climbs in our area. We’ll be doing about 2,500ft of climbing in those 70km. And today, I decided to go out and ride the route

Well, I rode most of it... 15 miles in, riding through an area I don’t really know, I managed to take a wrong turn that cut about 4km off the route. I had to find a new way back up onto Ashridge too, but that provided a good excuse to ride the long Dagnall Climb for the first time this year.

Bracing

There may not have been any cobbles on my route today, however the number of potholes along the roads made a suitable substitute. Throw in plenty of loose gravel, melting snow patches and plenty of debris, I think my main achievement today was not puncturing.

A really thoroughly enjoyable ride, but I’m not going to pretend it wasn’t hard work, and I do ache a little now. The great news, though, is that in length and volume of climbing my ride today is very comparable to miles 35 to 75 of the RideLondon, the Surrey Hills section, so clearing that in 3hrs 10mins is really encouraging. The miles either side of this section are pretty flat, so there is nothing I should be too scared of. Just need to keep working on my endurance.

But I won't be doing that tomorrow, as I have a date with the TV and a little corner of Belgium. Here’s Inring’s brilliant as always preview: http://inrng.com/2013/03/preview-tour-of-flanders/

Thinking ahead

I'm trying not to let this weather get me down. It is so frustrating, though, not being able to get out on the road. I missed my ride last weekend, but never-mind as Becca and Chris were due to come over this weekend so we could ride on Sunday. However, the forecast of -6 and 15cm on snow tomorrow looks set to put pay to that. Surely I'll be able to get out for a long ride at some point over the long Easter weekend? It will be April...

In better news, though, I got an email yesterday launching the 2013 Oakman Inns Sportive. Oakman are a great local pub and restaurant group and Mrs M and I have enjoyed eating in their restaurants for many years, especially when I was living in Tring 10 years or so ago and the original Forno Vivo became a second home! They've long supported local sports, mainly Tring Rugby Club, and in 2011 started their own Cycle Sportive.

You've got mail

The 2012 edition was run in September and I rode the shorter 55km route with the rest of the Berko Dads' Bike Club. A very social ride, the route linked three Oakman pubs, all open for coffee and cakes.

Enjoying the 2012 Oakman Inns Cycle Sportive

From the look of it the 2013 event will be a more organised affair, even offering T-shirts when you finish. There's a 70km route which will be just right for my training for the RideLondon 100, as the 2013 date has been moved to early May. I'll be there, hopefully with Becca and Chris plus the rest of the Bike Club. And you never know, it may have finished snowing by then.

A Rapid 20

My closest road cycling club is Tring Velo Club. While I've not had chance to join them for one of their Sunday morning rides yet (maybe next week?), I have been following them on Facebook.

A couple of months back one of the club members posted a challenge. To complete a "Rapid 20". He posted a 20 mile round route from Tring, with the challenge of completing the circuit in under an hour, averaging north of 20mph.

"A Rapid 20" circuit from Tring

 At this stage in my cycling I knew I was nowhere close to a consistent 20mph rider, however I've had in mind for a while then when the opportunity arose I'd like to ride it, just to benchmark myself and my progress.

I got such an opportunity today, and did my own individual time trial. For this part of the world it was pretty flat, other than a nasty little ramp into Wingrave after six miles. And for a first go with relatively few road miles in my legs I was pretty satisfied with a time of 1hr 13mins, an average of 16.5mph.

Here's my ride on Strava. I look forward to trying to improve this as the training builds to August, and hopefully riding the route as a team TT with Becca and Chris in a fortnight....

A landmark achievement

This morning I rode my first organised cycle ride of 2013, the 60th annual Harp Hilly Hundred. Wilf and I chose the 36 mile, 55km route, and completed the course in 2hrs 49mins. I'm sure we could have gone quicker, though had less fun, if we'd spent less time chatting.

As the name suggest, it was rather hilly (2,000ft of climbing), up and down the Chilterns, with a couple of wicked short, steep climbs (the route can be seen here). The sun even shone at times, with suggestions that Spring is on its way. All really pleasant.

Harp Hilly Hundred. Done.

I decided to ride the seven miles down the valley to the start point, and then ended up riding back after as well. These additional 14 miles gave me my landmark achievement of the day, a total distance of 50 miles. This is the first time I've ridden that far in one go. The total ride time of 3hrs 40mins, at 13.5 average mph, sets the benchmark for my summer of training (here's my full ride on Strava).

The goods news is that London to Brighton is only 52 miles so I'll be more than ready for that, and I was delighted yesterday morning to be able to secure places for Becca, Chris and I. 100 miles in eight hours, though... that really is going to take some serious training.