Cheltenham, Cotswold & Thames 200

Only cycled twice this week. Both rides, however, were quite awesome. On each occasion I cycled with a good friend, who both coincidentally sported brand new bikes.

My first cycle was with Ron. We cycled an old route of mine that I liked to call 'The Urban Route'. This route is essentially a mix of on and off road cycling that makes use of lots of cycle lanes near and around my home village of Studley. For this ride, mountain bikes are considered a must. Ron's new bike was a Trek 29er and very nice it was indeed. The route is presented below:

On Friday, I hooked up with Chris and his lovely new bike (that he had recently built himself) and cycled the ‘Cheltenham, Cotswold & Thames 200’ event. This event was a permanent audax organised by Stephen Poulton. This route was considered to be a variation of the ‘Banbury Cross’ event.

Chris and I decided we would start (and finish) at the Chipping Camden control. This suited me as it was the control nearest to my domicile and would also mean that most of the hills would be tackled early on. We left Chipping Camden at around 9 a.m and were cycling on a nice spring day. As expected, we encountered a few hills during this stage – one almost straight away and the infamous Cleeve Hill too. Never mind the hills, we also had 2 super-fast descents where I reached a speed of over 70kph! This first stage was great and quite lanesy on the whole. On one of the lanes we passed a vegetable stand called 'Pauline's Veg’ which made me think of my dear mother. With Chris standing next to the stall it became ‘fruit and veg’!

It was during this stage too that Chris’s brand spanking new seat-post broke – it completely snapped in half. 

 Whether he rode without his saddle or not, I’ll leave to your imagination…

Once we hit Cheltenham we stopped for proof of passage (POP) purposes at a local newsagents. A fudge bar  receipt provided the necessary POP. It was here that Chris fixed his seat-post issue by fudge packing it! He used the fudge bar wrapper as a shim which worked very well. 

With issues fixed we continued on our way. Getting a little lost around Cheltenham before following roads that feature on the ‘Banbury Cross’ and climbing another hill to get out of Cheltenham. Once at the top of this hill, we were greeted by a rather funky bus stop shelter and then had a lovely descent all the way into Cirencester. 

We faffed about loads in Cirencester – first trying to find a suitable control and then at the control itself. The control staff at this café we stopped at were ‘new’ and hence slow. My potato was over-priced. The toilet didn’t flush. Argh, on with the story…

Our route continued in favourable conditions, sunny and bright. We reached Faringdon in no time. Once in Faringdon, I figured we really were quite far out.

Next stop was Witney. We reached here pretty quick too – not surprising really, this stage was only 19k. The next stage was shorter still at 15k, so we only stopped here briefly to eat half an energy bar each. 

On route to the next control I could have sworn I was seeing double - it turned out to be a monkey clinging to a banana and not Chris after all!

We had a lovely stop once we reached Woodstock. I opted for tea cakes - yummers, it was delicious. Chris wasn’t so impressed with his bakewell tart.

The route to Brackley was awful. We spent much time on busy dual carriage-ways screaming with motorised traffic. We did the sensible thing and just sped along in single file at a fast pace until we reached the control. We stopped at the control and munched on Chris’s home-madeflap jacks before setting off on the final stage.

The final stage was similar to the first - nice lanesy roads and undulating in nature. The clouds we saw during this stage were impressive - all different shapes and sizes and colours too. Indeed, some clouds were pink, orange and red. One cloud was big and black and looked like it was throwing rain down. We managed, it appeared, to cycle all around this cloud without it inflicting heavy rain on us at all. A few drops of water hit us but nothing serious. We passed an interesting place name before it got dark and I was hoping Chris would pose for another photo - he wouldn't, so I had to oblige.

Shortly after this brief stop it started to get dark so we pressed on. We reached the arrivee in Chipping Campden feeling pretty great. This was a nice cycle and another great adventure. A map of our adventure is presented below:

Cycled a total of 233k this week. My LEL training target for the week was 300k but was not disappointed as last week I had cycled a 300k event. My total distance this year now stands at 3,283k.

Heart of England 300

Started the week by completing both my 'CS SR 1' and 'AM SR 1' routes as fast as I could. Have never  really been a 'racer' (too fat) but for some reason am enjoying racing these 2 routes. The first route is quite short (less than 30k) and I liked to race against myself (and beat my previous best time). At often times, I don't race because I tend to use my single speed bike for this route. This week however,  I used 'Slinky', my road bike - and raced it! I think I completed in my best time yet. Both routes were stolen from Strava users. The second route was just over 40k long and has a 23 mile segment on it entitled 'Bill and Alex's 23 miler'. It was this segment that I liked to race. On my second crack at this event, I had the fastest time and was crowned 'King of Mountain' (KOM). I was only king for a day, Bill quickly grabbing his title back. On Wednesday, I raced with the voices in my head shouting 'Kill Bill' and yippee - I had the crown again! I just wondered for how long?!

The 'big cycle' this week was a calender event audax entitled 'Heart of England 300'. As the name suggests this was a 300k event that started and finished in Cirencester. A map depicting my route is presented below:

Had hoped to ride this audax with my buddy Chris, but at short notice he decided to bail. Thankfully, there were others here that I knew and I was able to cycle with them. Most notably, Jamie and Andy (his friend) had rocked up. A whole bunch of riders were all congregated at the start and before I had chance to help myself to some free breakfast we were off. The event started at 6 a.m and was initially a little chilly. I set off with Jamie and Andy, but had lost them quickly after only a few k. It later transpired that Jamie was having Garmin issues. 

Stage 1 started to look familiar and as it passed through Salperton, I knew exactly where I was. I had cycled these roads a few months back during my 'Poor Student Permanent'. This time, I found the 'missing' park or 'grounds' and had a lovely zoomy cycle through them. A short while later I cycled right past Broadway Tower and then down the famous Saintbury Hill. This hill was one of those ring-twitching sorts - both my cheeks and brakes being pulled in as I raced down it. The route then continued through Bidford and it was here that I met Augustus Gloop! Augustus Gloop was a chap that I cycled part of the PBP with in 2011 - he was the chap who rode straight into me. Augustus (so called because he looks like that Willy Wonker character) and I chatted for quite a spell, all about bike related nonsense and the nature of our halllucinations on PBP. Our conversation was cut short when I hit a pot hole that punctured my rear tyre (and buckled the front wheel). Grrr, that was the second pot hole I had hit. In addition, I broke my mudguard as I flipped my bike over to repair issues. As I stopped to fix my puncture issue, Jamie and Andy Rocked up! I told the guys to carry on, hopeful to meet them at the control. Sure enough, I caught up with 'the boys' at the control in Alcester (just 4 miles away from my abode). The official control (Lakes Cafe) was so busy that I went next door and purchased croiisant and sausage roll for fuel. After eating our breakfast, we removed a few layers (was hotting up nicely) and started stage 2.

Stage 2 was much easier than stage 1. This was a relatively flat stage, whereas stage 1 had at least 3 hills of note. The route we cycled briefly passed over roads I often cycle on my shorter training runs. We were blessed with the weather today and the sun continued to shine bright. Stopped and ate beans on toast at the Winnie's Cafe control in Atherstone.

Stage 3 continued with great weather. If I remember rightly we passed over roads that feature in the '2 Battles Permanent'. This was a long stage (about 70k) and I pretty much cycled it all with the boys. At often times I would have a quick chat with a cyclist that had caught us up or that we had passed. We were forced to stop for a while at the Roso Cafe control in Daventry because the service was so slow. At least I had time to re-charge my Garmin and eat more beans (plus jacket potato and carrot cake). As a small group we were pleased with our cycling thus far and figured we would finish between 10 - 10.30 p.m. Other folk weren't having such a great time - we saw a cyclist through the shop window who must have had a fall as blood was trickling from his knee.

Stage 4 started with a hill. Not a massive hill but one that required a wee push with bellies full of food. To be fair this stage was quite undulating in nature and despite the weather being largely great it was a little windy. Talking of wind (no, not the beans) we saw loads of those giant wind turbine things dotting the landscape. I also spotted some strange AT-AT looking things. Reached the control, 'Sturdy's Castle' pub and it was still daylight. We stopped here for a while and I ate a lovely sticky toffee pudding with ice cream and washed it down with a further pint of coke (was drinking same throughout the day). We layered up here and headed for the arrivee, the final control.

Stage 5 was great. I think the pudding I had just eaten had given me a sugar buzz. I started to lead out our little group but had this obsession almost, to catch up the flashing red lights in front. Before I knew it I would catch up a pair of said lights and then want to catch the lights in front of that. The more I cycled, the (strangely) better I felt. It was dark now and was using much lighting to show up the path in front of me. With about 30k to go I decided to race this last section which was mostly on lovely country lanes. I lost count of how many red lights I passed. Before I knew it, I was back at the arrivee, with 306k in my legs and feeling pretty great (had completed this event in just under 16 hours). About 15 minutes later, the boys rocked up too! Good job and a great days cycling! My prediction was accurate, we had all finished by 10.15 p.m!

The Heart of England 300, in my opinion, was a fantastic ride. Nice lanesy route and most of the hills conquered early on. The company was great (shout out to Jamie and Andy - hope to see you guys on the 400 Welsh thing). The only downside was much waiting at controls (felt 'open' controls would have been a better choice) and the absence of my buddy Chris!

Cycled a total of 376k this week. My yearly total now stands at 3,050k. :)

Low mileage, low quality

Cycled only a short distance this week and only had 2 trips out. I didn't really mind cycling not-so-much as this was a 'rest week' according to my LEL training program. In addition to that, I had been working nights which always makes cycling the more difficult. On the occasions that I managed to venture out, I cycled my 'TTT 20' and 'CS SR 1' routes on my single speed bike. Nice. Cycled a total of 62k this week, which brought my yearly total up to 2,674k.

Bill's Hill / Sam Weller's April Foolery (April 2013)

My first ride after Easter was a route I had named ‘Bill’s Hill’. This was a route that I stole from a user on ‘Strava’, that had a particular hill of note. The ride was lovely and headed to Bidford via roads I have often taken. From Bidford the route continued in a lanesy style all the way to the mid-point (on some new-to-me roads).  The mid-point was  the hill. This hill was officially called ‘Bakers Hill’ and was near Chipping Camden. Not the biggest of hills (road sign stated 12%) but enough to get the heart beating, the lungs working and the lactic acid pouring. After tackling this hill, I was on high ground where snow was still heaped up alongside the roadside from Springs crazy weather. The return was great, along more lanesy roads, where the route crossed other routes of mine including the ‘TTT 20’, ‘Deer’ and ‘CS SR 1’ routes. I published this route on Strava when I returned home. Bill commented ‘impersonisation is the best form of flattery’. I retorted ‘Ha! I’m on my way to becoming a fully fledged doppelganger’! A representation of 'Bill's Hill' can be seen below:

My next adventure, the big adventure for the week, was a calendar event audax. This event was 'Sam Weller's April Foolery', a 200k event scoring 1.75 AAA points. I think this event followed the same route as the 'King's, Castles, Priest's and Churches' audax that Aid, Chris, Ron and I cycled earlier in the year, only it had different control points. My GPX track is presented below:

Aid, Chris and Ron didn't join me on this latest adventure. Not to worry, I had 'other' cycling companions throughout. The route started from Tewkesbury and the first control was after about 45k in Bromyard. Almost straight from the start a cyclist called Julian rode alongside me. He raced to catch me up to inform that my bottle cap had come off about 1k back. That was real nice of him, but he didn't have said cap. Julian was a nice chap and we spoked about bike related nonsense all the way to the control. At the control I stopped for egg on toast and Julian bounced this control and sped off. I didn't see Julian again but he says he is cycling LEL and 'The Heart of England 300' so our wheels may cross.

Leaving Bromyard was awesome. Nice long roads, easy to navigate and essentially down hill. Zoomy! I didn't stop to eat in Ludlow, instead I popped into the museum and got a stamp for POP purposes.

Leaving Ludlow I didn't feel so great. I was finding the hills harder than usual. Perhaps this was because it was real hot compared to recent days. I was layered in winter gear and the sun was shining bright. I felt like I was boiling in the bag. Or, perhaps it was just because I was fat and the hills were hilly!

Was pleased to reach the tea room in Kington. I remember stopping here before with Chris and company. This time around I got chatting with 3 cyclists that I have ridden with before on different events. Their names were Roy, Paul and Clive (I think). We had a good chat and some nice food once it finally arrived. I spent the rest of the audax cycling with these guys. Below is the only photo I took all day, which shows how lanesy the roads were and how much snow was evident in our Spring!

From Kington, the route appeared to get a little easier again. Maybe this was because the hills had gotten easier. I did notice that my saddle post had slipped down a few mm (again). I couldn't be bothered to stop until I reached the control. Beautiful weather continued. What a great day. The penultimate stop was at Wormelow Tump. So hot and thirsty, I drank 2 bottles of water.

The final trek was about 50k back to Tewkesbury. Not a lot of climbing involved but felt tired all the same. Was good to ride in out little group of four, taking time to pull the group for a while. Due to my weight, I would roll faster down hill and then as a consequence find myself at front of group and having to pull. Argh! We reached the arrivee in daylight and had quite a quick pace really. Completed this 202k audax in 10 hours and 55 minutes. Pleased that this ride early in April had scored me the necessary credentials for my RRtY and AAARtY this month already.

Cycled a total of 388k this week. My LEL training target was 200k so was real pleased with this effort. My yearly distance to date stands at 2,641k. Other folk are using more specific training methods for LEL rather than just distance. I was put off after seeing the cyclist below work on his calves!

Cheltenham The Vale 100k Permanent Audax (April 2013)

Managed to squeeze one further ride in during the Easter holidays. This ride was a permanent audax entitled 'Cheltenham The Vale 100' and was just over a 100k. I was not the only April Fool to ride this event, my cousin Aid joined me on this adventure. Our route is presented below:

We chose to start this audax from the Alcester control, which meant we had to cycle about an extra 16k or so because we started from my parents house in Studley. Aid chose to ride his Specialized Roubaix, whereas my weapon of choice was my single speed bike 'Florence'.

Reaching the first major control in Broadway was no real bother. We cycled some tasty descents during this section and only 1 menace short sharp climb. I spooked a runner as I shot past him just before Bidford.

From Broadway we cycled to Winchcombe. The rides through Stanton and Stanway were very lanesy and this was such a pretty area. We even witnessed a steam train (billowing steam) steam along. Nice.

From Winchcombe we had Cleeve Hill to climb. Cleeve Hill was not the biggest of climbs but enough of a climb to get us out of puff before the summit. The 'Hunters Breakfast' we had in Broadway was weighing heavy in our stomachs. After the climb came a fast descent which took us to Cheltenham. So fast was this descent that if I had not had braked I would have hit the caravan in front of me. Zoomy!

The route from Cheltenham to Pershore was familiar - I had cycled much of this last week when I rode that RRPCC route I stole. There were numerous errors on the route sheet we were following but I had cycled this before so no mistakes were made. Some might say I should have informed the organiser, paralysis of will will most probably have prevented this.

The route from Pershore to Alcester was a bit of a push. I think Aid had started to feel tired, hungry and a bit sick. This is not unusual when one has not cycled for a number of weeks then goes out on a relatively long run. Thankfully, Aid wasn't sick and we stopped briefly at the Alcester control for a bite of chocolate. This chocolate provided us with the necessary energy to get back to Studley. Woo hoo, job done! We cycled a total of 123k. Sweet.

Solent-Hungerford 200k permanent audax

Despite freezing conditions, I managed to get out and cycle a number of times this week. I wasn't going to let a little snow, ice and such menace ruin my Easter holiday. In all I cycled on 4 different occasions and even managed to start and complete a 200k audax!

My first adventure was a route stolen from another Strava user. I (re)named this route the 'AM SR 1' route. A great ride (only modified a little) and local too. Despite cycling a number of years now, this stolen local route covered roads I don't think I had ridden before. Of course the route covered roads that I have cycled many times before too. Best thing about this ride was the fact that it was virtually all on country lanes. A map of said route is presented below:

The second adventure I cycled was also stolen from the same Strava user. This Strava user, I presumed, had ridden this route with members of Redditch Road and Path Cycling Club (RRPCC) as he had entitled the route 'RRPCC Ride to Bredon'. I made this route my own and changed the beginning section and renamed it 'Doo's Ride to Bredon (DR2BREDON)'. My route is presented below:

This was a nice route and once again ridden on lanesy roads. At times I could see The Malvern Hills which were covered in snow. These snow covered peaks reminded me of New Zealand (or Middle Earth). Much of this route I had never ridden before but am sure will cycle again. Numerous cyclists were passed on route. Amongst my memories of this cycle was the fact that I saw a place that had reindeer for hire - how bizarre. As I cycled past Beckford Silk it reminded me of 'The Silk Run', an awesome 100k audax. Also, at least 2 pretty bridges were crossed. The one bridge was called 'Jubilee' bridge and I could not remember the name of the other. I really will have to cycle this 90k jaunt again!

The audax I cycled was the 'Solent-Hungerford 200' and was a permanent event organised by Alan Rayner. As the name suggests, it was a 200k affair. I guess I should have renamed this permanent as the 'Hungerford-Solent 200' as I cycled it this way around. Chris Hodge joined me on this adventure. Aid was hoping to join us both (and is credited for 'finding' this event) on this adventure but he had a case of man-flu (or possibly cyrophobia). Our route is presented below:

We started the audax from Hungerford Train Station, using the parking ticket for our first proof of passage (POP), the ticket cost £2.40 for all day parking. It was a cold start but much improved over recent days - the average temperature was 2C throughout the day. The cold was kept away by my layering which included a new merino wool jersey and my 'Blue Peter' insoles. These insoles were made out of cereal box, covered in foil and laminated - result, near toasty feet. The first stage took us to Ludgershall over some very fine country lanes. These roads reminded me of France, they were long, lovely and traffic free. Chris stopped to perform a weird kind of Ali G type dance at one landmark. We both used the Post Office stamp for our POP.

The second stage took us to Romsey. As we both cycled along it was easy to think about our adventure to the Isle of Wight, especially as we were cycling some of the same roads. At about 50k into the ride I suddenly spotted the place where we ate the best buffalo burger in the world - the Broughton buffalo burger! This place was a pub just outside Broughton. (So great was this burger that Chris and I both ate on the way to said Isle that we attempted to find the same pub on our return. We never did find the pub because we were looking in Broughton for it.) No Broughton buffalo burger was eaten on this adventure (was too early and the pub not yet open), however, location of pub noted! During this stage we passed my names sake.

The next stage took us to the Solent. Much of this stage was nice but parts were quite nasty too where the route passed through busier roads. As we neared the control (in Stubbington) the roads became much nicer and became coastal. We passed a coastal area called 'Chilling' which was most apt as it started to get quite chilly by the Solent. The Solent (which is a strait separating the Isle of Wight from the mainland of England) was quite picturesque, even with Chris standing there.

We stopped to eat at a cafe called Donny's. This was a welcome break and our only real sit down and eat stop. We both tucked into a Lancashire hot pot. I don't think I looked to whacked at the half way point.

A short pedal of about 20k took us to the next control in Denmead. We used the Post Office here for our POP. I don't think I've made such use of the Post Office this many times on an audax event before.

The most difficult section of the ride was between Denmead and Sutton Scotney. The ride itself was not so difficult, it was just that this section was certainly the most undulating and hence had more inclines. Most inclines were followed with a swift descent. After much 'bobbing' we reached the control. We used a local garage as our control and had a stand up and eat stop. I ate a nasty pasty thing and washed it down with a nicer cup of hot chocolate.

When we left Sutton Scotney it was getting dark so lights were turned on and reflective jackets worn. It was a completely different ride now - we could see very little. This section was spent chatting about everything and nothing and the miles seemed to lap up quickly. One final climb and a couple of cattle grids crossed and we were back at the start in Hungerford Train Station. Wow, what a great ride! Just before I reached my car to pack up, I heard someone shout 'Miggy'. This threw me for a while as it sounded like my brother (Dave) but it was in actual fact Aid. We ended up all having a drink together and discussed plans of a 100k ride entitled 'To the Broughton Buffalo Burger and back'! Ha!

My final Easter cycle was a lap around the 'AM SR 1' route. I raced around this route and completed it in a very respectful time. Snow could still be seen on the roadside and on the tops of the hills. Before I finished the route I spotted a Mad March Hare - how apt I thought, an Easter bunny in mad snowy conditions. I also spotted a jack/monk deer which I hadn't seen in a while. Nice.

Very pleased I was able to cycle a total of 376k this week. My LEL target for the week was 150k. My total distance this year now stands at 2,253k.

The Dean that didn't happen

Grr, I didn't cycle the Dean,
Despite being very keen,
The weather turned mean,
And that made me green,
And I wanted to scream!
So I changed the scene,
And started to dream....
...If only I had this machine: 

Felt a little peeved that I was not able to cycle 'The Dean', that was the 4th DNS this year! Still wanting to turn the pedals, I decided to go out on a couple of my local routes instead. The first adventure was the 'Deer Route'. I cycled a clean version earlier in the week, but this time around I cycled the dirty version. The dirty version went off-road. Below is a map demonstrating the route.

This adventure was fun but it sure was cold, below freezing. Snow covered much of the road and in some instances completely covered the trail. Check out the photo's below.

The rivers were not frozen over but proved to be menace all the same. One poor person had gotten their car stuck in Coughton Ford. Strangely enough, the wheel on the car was clamped. I wonder if the car is still there?! I was more sensible and cycled over the bridge!

My second and final adventure of the week was a lap of the 'CS SR 1' route. This was a lot slower than when I cycled it last time - I was on a single speed mountain bike this time around due to the weather conditions.

What made the route so nice this time around was a certain castle and a certain Mr Fox. The castle I cycled past was Studley Castle, where my wife and I spent our first night as a married couple exactly one year ago. I love you SJ, happy anniversary! Fantastic Mr Fox was running alongside my bike (in the woods) for a little stretch. How cool to see a fox running but not for it's life!

Despite not completing 'The Dean', I was happy with my cycling this week. I managed to cycle a fair amount of times in the week. My LEL training target was 100k and my 'ideal' weekly target was 161k (100 miles). The total distance I covered was 184k which brings my yearly total up to 1,877k.

A letter to Will

A chap called 'Will' is looking to follow a selection of LEL riders over the course of the event which will include interviews before, after and during the ride itself. Some riders he will follow closely over the five days whereas others he will just catch up with as and when is convenient. His aim is to capture the epic experience of participating in this unique event, so will be there to document the highs, the lows and everything in between. He'll no doubt have the opportunity to film all the beautiful panoramas and vistas he needs, but it's the personal and psychological journey he hopes to capture from participants participation. 

I let Will know that I was interested in his official LEL documentary. At his request, I sent him a letter (email) with a few paragraphs about myself and my riding experience. Hopefully, he'll be arranging a day to meet with interested participants (like myself) before the event, and will be in touch once a date is set. For those unable to make it to London to meet with him, he'll try and arrange a meeting over skype. My letter is presented below:

Hi Will,

My name is Tim and I’m a 30 plus year old cyclist who isn’t a big fan of hills or head winds but is keen to take on many a cycling challenge. I have completed numerous challenges in my time including LEJOG and PBP. This year I am hoping to complete LEL.

I first cycled an audax in 2010 and became hooked. Without really realising what a huge challenge PBP was going to be, I decided that was my goal. Training was fun but hard. My qualifying events were great – I completed the necessary SR series (a series of rides consisting of a 200, 300, 400 and 600k rides). My SR was tough as I also ensured all these individual rides had AAA (Audax Altitude Award) points, essentially ‘hilly’ points to go with them. Further to that, I made sure all these rides were Black Sheep events too – just because the organiser (Mark Rigby) was a nice chap and his routes were awesome.

And then came PBP. My girlfriend, now wife (Sarah Jane), best buddy (Chris Hodge) and his son (Ben) all came to France with me. Sarah Jane was there to support me throughout PBP and Chris and Ben were there to see me off. 77 hours and 14 mins after starting the PBP and I had finished it! What an awesome event this was but how hard it was too.  I vowed I (probably) wouldn’t complete such a strenuous event again but ‘talked the talk’ about completing LEL in 2013.

After PBP, I took on challenges of a different sort. Firstly, I became a married man and not long after became a father (to my beautiful daughter Lunar). Ideas of LEL were quickly dismissed. Then, my best buddy Chris informed me that he had joined audax UK with a view of cycling the LEL with me. Chris so wanted to ride a (ultra) long distance event, especially as he waved me off for the start of PBP but did not participate in the event. My wife granted me permission to enter and as chance would have it, Chris and I both got a place!

Cheers,

Tim T (aka Doo)

Stroud 5 Valleys 50 (permanent audax, March 2013) and other short stories

What an awesome week on the cycling front. Managed to complete 3 rides before the weekend. The first route was a trip around 'The Deer Route' with Ron. Since being equipped with my Garmin 800 it has made it possible for me to add maps to this blog, so a map of said route is presented below. This was a 'clean' version of the route as we did not stray off road at all. During our ride we saw a deer (how appropriate), a badger and possibly a bat. Sweet.

My second trip was a route I named the 'CS Stolen Route 1'. This route was so named because I stole it from a Strava user whose initials were CS, and 1 because it was the 1st route I stole. (My plan is to steal several routes from Strava users that are close to my area as I have few of my own and don't mind being un-original). This was a short route, just under 30k and had an elevation of 450 metres. Gordon (my virtual partner) became a 'dopple' (in fiction and folklore, a doppelgänger is a paranormal double of a living person) of CS and raced against me. Luckily, Gordon cycled at the same speed CS did when they rode the route - on a mountain bike. As I cycled using 'Florence', my single speed road bike, I was able to leave Gordon left for dead!

My third cycle was the 'Stroud 5 Valleys' 50k audax. This was a permanent audax event, that I had cycled 4 times already this season. This event was a relatively short affair (53k) but had plenty of hills - an elevation of 1,183 metres (and scored 1 AAA point). The map presented towards the end of this blog clearly shows the hills encountered. On one occasion that I cycled this event I was stopped by cows in the roadside. No cows stopped me this time around, however, wild horses blocked one summit (hence the long face).

The horses were peering over the wall, gazing at other horses. How sweet?! The weather was fine too and way better than last time I cycled (where it was snowing) and I think this is why I had my quickest completion time of 3 hours and 21 minutes.

Cycled 126k thus far this week. Hope to further this total and cycle 'The Dean', a 300k event over the weekend. The weather folk are forecasting snow, so I'll guess I'll just have to let you know if I go or no....

Garmin, Gordon and I

At last I got my Garmin 800 GPS thing. Have played around with it and customised it a little and it has already changed my cycling experience. The Garmin even comes complete with a 'virtual partner' stored within it. My virtual partner is called 'Gordon' (the moron) and I raced against him on my first use of said machine. What better course to follow than my TTT 20 Route?!

Sadly, Gordon beat me on my first test run, reaching home about 45 seconds ahead of me. Grr! Am not sure how to download routes (particularly audax routes) yet but am hoping with a few days of playing it all will become familiar. By adding this sneaky route into my training schedule, I have brought my yearly total distance up to 1,052 miles thus far.

The Poor Student 200k permanent audax (March 2013)

This week saw me complete 'The Poor Student' 200k permanent audax. I had cycled this event at least once before (as a permanent) and possibly as a calendar event too. Despite cycling this event before, it was not how I remembered.

My memory told me that this ride had a nasty section of hills around the middle of the route.  For this reason (plus added convenience of beaing nearer home) I chose to start and finish this audax from the Chipping Camden control – ie cycle section 3 first. At silly o’clock in the morning I set sail from Chipping Camden wanting to take full advantage of daylight. It was a cold and bitter start, about -5C. I expected hills, but none appeared save a little climb after passing through Draycott Village. None of this stage looked familiar until I reached the control at Peartree Services in Oxford. Experienced a few navigation issues before I reached the control because I didn’t study my route sheet beforehand. Where it stated ‘2x mini-rbt, sp Oxford’, I took it to mean ‘cycle over 2 mini roundabouts sign-posted Oxford’ rather than ‘take second exit sign-posted Oxford’. There does not appear to be a universally accepted way to write a route sheet and all organisers use a slightly different language. Am hoping my ordered Garmin 800 will help with said issues. When the control came into sight I had to battle with busy traffic at the Peartree roundabout (despite following cycletrack) to actually reach the control. When I finally reached the control it was about 9 a.m. Sadly there was no Mc Donalds or Burger King for breakfast purposes - instead I settled for a KFC. Chicken and chips didn’t seem quite right at this early hour but fuel and proof of passage (POP) was required. The KFC was washed down with a ‘medium’ cup of tea from Starbucks, this ‘medium’ tea was pint sized!

Leaving the control at Oxford was nice – the sun was shining bright now and this part of the route looked familiar. The route took me right through Oxford Town Centre (I think) and passed through Queen Street – a pedestrian only area. Again, I didn’t study the route sheet beforehand and cycled right through Queen Street until this bloke (dressed like a mayor) shouted ‘don’t be an idiot, get off your bike, this is a pedestrian only area’. Last time I cycled through here I had no such problem – I later found out (was written on bottom of route sheet) that this area is only a pedestrian area from 10 a.m. Following the Queen Street menace I cycled up Cumnor Hill which wasn’t such a hill really. After the hill, I headed for Appleton and the route didn’t look familiar at all until I reached the control in Malmesbury. For whatever reason I didn’t find my bike behaving as well as she usually does (and especially during this section) – I had a creak coming from ‘goodness knows where’, my saddle dropped and the tyres were rubbing against the mud-guards. On a brighter note, my front mech was working fine! Navigating became an issue again too – I got my left and right mixed up at least once, made similar roundabout errors like earlier and could not find a sign post pointing to Garsden. I ended up going off course about 10k and passed through a place called Brinkworth. For once I didn’t mind going off route, as Brinkworth was ‘The Longest Village in England’ and made a good photo stop. 

Whilst taking said photo an apache helicopter flew overhead too. Awesome! Found my way to Malmesbury and stopped at the Summer Café for POP purposes. I had tomato soup at this control but it was nasty! The soup wasn’t really soup at all, it was (I believe) pulverised chopped tomatoes. Malmesbury itself was pretty and deserving of a photograph.

Again, the final section didn’t look familiar. I cycled along long country lanes that seemed to stretch for miles. Many horses, cows, sheep and birds could be seen along the way. At one point I saw a Mad March Hare running along a deserted field with its big ears standing upright in the air. Once I reached signs for C. Abdale and Salperton the route became tough. It was here that big hills had to be climbed (no AAA points though) and fast descents navigated. In my perceived wisdom, I saved the hardest section till last. Ouch, these hills hurt. I dread to think what the hills in ‘The Dean’ are going to be like in a few days time. I think the pain made me lose concentration as I didn’t pass through Salperton Park because I didn’t find it! I really needed that Garmin! Not sure where I went off route but I was soon back on track. The final few kilometres were great – all the menace ascents had been and gone and a fast descent took me back down to Chipping Camden, the arrivee! This was a great ride despite me feeling more tired than usual. I cycled a total of 214k (12k off route) in 11 hours and 1 minute. Yay, a successfully completed 200k at last!

Completed my desired kilometres for the week (200k). My yearly total now stands at 1,032 miles (just 68 miles under target). Next week I hope to cycle 'The Dean', which should bring my yearly mileage above target!