Its hard to believe but we have now been going for over two years, in fact our second anniversary passed back in July and we’ve not yet had an opportunity to celebrate its passing.

Of course over the two years lots of people have joined us, and there is now the regular Saturday tea ride in addition to the original Sunday ride. You will have seen from some of our earlier posts that we feel its time to look at how we run the club  and to make sure it continues to meet everyones expetations. So as well as having a drink or two it would be really good to talk through your ideas, and critisms, so that we can continue to provide a cycling club that one way or another offers something for everyone.

As for this weekends rides…………….You don’t really expect us to publis these on a Thursday do you?

So please join us at the Rose and Crown at 8.00pm on Wedneday 27 September, for an isotonic drink or two. The other one has kindly agreed to provide the velos with a free meal as a thank you. If you prefer vegetarian please let us know beforehand.

This week’s ride is the same one we published last week as we swapped it on the day for a “Normandy Landings” Training Ride. Again we are welcoming all abilities and plan to have a fast and normal paced groups leaving the Rose and Crown at 10am tomorrow.

The normal paced team will ride together as a group at the pace of the slowest person, so if you are concerned about how fast you can cycle, please don’t feel that you won’t be able to keep up with us. There will be an experienced lead rider who will know the way and also can assist with any punctures (but do please bring your own spare inner tube).

Planned route

Cycle safely.

Calling all Tea-Riders!

Following Mary’s multi-county churches excursion last week, we will possibly be sticking a little closer to home – or at least not clocking up quite so many miles!  Well done to all those who completed all or part of the Historic Churches Bike & Hike (37 miles this year) and a “Thank You” from Mary for the funds raised for Mentmore Church.

So, 10am at The Rose & Crown.

Tea & Cake? Or a breakfast fry-up/brunch?  The choice is yours!

Hello All,

Tomorrow’s tea ride will also be the ‘Ride and Stride’ churches ride, leaving from the Rose and Crown at 10am. This is a sponsored event- sponsored by the number of churches we visit. Mary has devised a route for us. There will be a shortcut home after about 2 hours for those that need to be back, but otherwise clear some time and join us for longer. It will be a very comfortably paced ride that will suit anyone. Hills can be walked up, no one gets left behind. The weather looks lovely, cleverly arranged by Mary. Anyone not wishing to collect sponsors of their own can just sponsor Mary (I have). All welcome.

See you tomorrow.
Sally

Way back, almost a millenium ago, the tuetonic plates that sit below our land and seas meant that our european neighbours were far closer than they are today. In fact France, Belgium and Spain were London suburbs. The wet divide we know call the English Channel was little wider than the Thames is today. 

This particulary grated a little known french man by the name of Norman who promptly turned his 2CV upside down and rowed it across the salty river. After a few bottles of red wine and a quick walk down to the sussex coast he promptly stuck one in the eye of king Harold. He was so pleased with himself that he drank some more wine and threw up on the carpet. Thus the Bayern tapestry was created.

For several years Normans’ chums drank wine, built churches and created the foundations of modern law. That is until saxoviking had had enough and pushed them back across the wet divide. Thankfully the tuetonic plates moved France further away and the 2cv’s sank long before getting back.

Several squirmishes followed, as the English forged ahead with boat building technology. Most notably Argincourt and Crecy fell to the longbow, ensuring that the french remained at home eating pastries.

Now by the 1800’s they’d got a bit tired of Johnny English popping across for some cheap beers. So angered were they, that a little known man, who was named after some multi coloured ice cream decided to bring an end to it. There followed ferocious battles both on land and sea. Little Napolean had conquered much of the former English suburbs by the time of Trafalger, and was feeling so confident that he gave Lord Admiral Nelson Mandella a poke in the eye. This upset some Brits a bit so they promptly gave the infidels a bloody nose and sent them packing.

After this relations progressed, and the French returned to wine and getting rid of their nobilty. In fact things become so good that in 1914 we sent a few boys across to help them out with their German enemy. In 1918 some of our boys even came back.

This was only a temporary measure, as the Austrian with the dodgy moustache, and a fondness for four seater convertables decided to pop back into France for an expresso and some paintings. This time the germans were a bit better prepared and hung around for 6 years. It took the plucky brits a few goes to get them out and needed some help from those who favour a big mac.

So where are we now? Well Wiggo and his side burns have shown them how to ride a bicycle, and just in case they forget, a few of our friends are popping across next week to remind them. This raises several questions.

Will the hills be steep enough for Jim?

What tune will the tandem be dancing to?

Has Dod got his spoke spanner?

Will be Pete be sending back a postcard with some kind words?

Will Graham be far enough ahead to get in a couple of “grand wife beaters”?

These questions probably wont be answered, but you can give them a good send off by joining them on Sunday morning for their final ride before they depart. Here’s the route.

 SUNDAY RIDE

Now before I go here’s some news about a little social gathering so that we can get together and discuss what we’d like from the club and just have a general jolly. It will be on Wednesday 26th September at the Rose and Crown, and as a thankyou to all the Velos a complimentary buffet will be provided. Please email back if you can make it, so we can have an idea of numbers. There won’t be any cidre though.

Many of you may know that Jose and I are keen supporters of Action Medical Research (AMR), organisers of many great rides including the Bucks 100 on 16th September.  If you are looking for a great ride from Waddesdon Manor, please give it a go.

Jose and I will not be riding it as we have voluntered to assist in the running of it.  The organisers are looking for other volunteers to help if you can spare the time and are prepared if needed to contribute towards  expenses if needed and in addition give free entry to one of their 100 Series Rides next year.  If anyone is keen to help please drop us al ine via the website.

Whilst riding or helping we will of course be thinking of our brave Crusaders on the Normandy Conquest Ride!!

In celebration of what is turning out to be a hugely successful 2012 Paralympics, we here at Velo Towers thought that it would be fitting to plan a route this week that takes us close by it’s birthplace, Stoke Mandeville.

Our resident bike mechanic, Dod, has kindly volunteered to lead out a more relaxed paced 12 mph group so … if you haven’t been out with us for a while and want to gently ease yourself back into cycling, this is a great opportunity to catch the decent weather and stretch those legs. We will be meeting at the Rose & Crown Ivinghoe on Sunday (2nd September) at around 9:50am with a view to setting off at 10am.

Velos Sunday Route

Cycle safely.

Cycling’s High Point of the week – hoping for a sunny one again tomorrow…

10am, The Rose & Crown.  Come and enjoy some gorgeous Buckinghamshire countryside with a good helping of Tea & Cake along the way.

And a reminder that next week is also the ‘Ride and Stride’ event – Saturday 8th September.   This is open to all Velo’s riders – Mary will put together a route visiting a few churches who will be serving tea and cakes.

For those that pre ordered and have paid your jerseys are ready for collection in the Rose and Crown!

If there are others interested in ordering a jersey please email us!

I am sure that like me you will not have missed the Lance Armstrong story that has or is going to lead to his disqualification from cycling. Here we have a man who has overcome cancer, won the Tour de France 7 times, and has protested his innonence consistently in the face of doping allegations. It seems strange that a man with such determination no longer has the motivation to defend himself in the face of such allegations.

Now I’m not going to spend too much dwelling in these events, like me you can find significant commentary on the matter in your regular daily read. But it has got me thinking. As ever what follows is based on no research whatsoever, and whilst it may purport to be fact, it may not be.

War is a tragic event, history is littered with it, and despite the modern age continues in lots of places around the globe. I don’t wish to diminish in anyway the horrors, but it could be argued that the side effects have advanced human development at a rate that would not have happened otherwise.

The second world war and the subsequent cold war has created an era of flight that has shrunk the planet and ensures that you get to your holiday destination in a matter of hours and not days. The development of rockets made the space shuttle possible, and has put vehicles on Mars.

Not far from us, up at Bletchley, world war 2 boffins cracked thousands of codes, and created the early computers that have in turn enabled me to comminicate with you via the wibbly wobbly web this morning.

So what’s this got to do with Lance? This is where the lack of research may start to show.

As I understand, young Lance liked to train at altitude, where the body has to work on a reduced oxygen level. Once the body has become acclimatised to this, it is able to perform at normal levels. A prompt return to normal altitude and the subsequent increase in oxygen gives a significant improvement in physical performance.

Of course the modern cyclist cannot spend enough time at altitude, and so the allegations are that after such training, blood is removed and then stored in readiness to be re-introduced at key sporting events.

So how might this benefit the aspiring Fatlete? Well many of us like to enjoy an evening sampling some isotonic beers or wines, but sometimes we don’t get the opportunity, or we simply need to save a few pounds towards our new shiny machine. But now all you need to do is to simply drain of a few pints of the red stuff after your night out and stick it in the fridge. The next time your short of pounds or hours just reinject for that instant slightly intoxicated feeling.

More sound consumer advise from the Vinghoe Velos. Now to the more important stuff, tomorrows ride;

29 miles

Andy Beezer has agreed again to lead a steady paced group to ensure that anyone, as long as you’ve got a bicycle, gets to enjoy the ride whatever your fitness or speed. So no excuses.