One of errant members, Dan (I love a mountain climb Rough has kindly suggested 2 rides for tomorrow evening, thanks Dan!

Both leaving Pitstone Roundabout at 1830 please remember that Rule 87 applies!  Note both routes can be downloaded using the Export feature on the top ride of the web page

A Lumpy Tuesday Night
Distance 37.3 KM; Ascent 466m or for those not adhering to Rule 24 thats 23.2 miles with 1528 ft of climbing 🙂

For those wanting a hilly challenge, we’ve packed as many hills into as short a route as possible. Starting with our good friend Ivinghoe Beacon, the route then turns towards Ringshall descending before climbing up the Nettledon Road. A short blast through Berkhamsted then sees the route turn up New Road towards the top of Tom’s Hill. A descent of Tom’s Hill leading to a left hand turn at the bottom to lead up past The Valiant Trooper. From there, progress is upwards again as the route heads towards Wiggington via Hemp Lane. Descending via the back roads of Tring the route finally goes out towards the Marsworth reservoirs and turns back towards the bottom of Castlemead and Pittstone roundabout.

You can download the route in TCX form here. Other formats are available using the “export” tab in the top right hand side of the page.

A Little Less  Lumpy on Tuesday Night
Distance 23.7 KM (14.7m); Ascent 240m (787ft);

For those wishing to keep the ride slightly shorter, or with slightly less ascent, this route should suit. Following the other group up towards Ivinghoe, you’ll wave goodbye to your compadres as they turn left for the Beacon. Carrying straight on, you’ll turn left slightly later on towards Aldbury up the Stocks Road. Upon reaching Aldbury you’ll do a right, left shimmy by the pond to carry on towards the Valiant Trooper. Up the side of that and onto New Road. From there it’s up towards Wiggington via Hemp Lane. This route essentially flattens out as an overall profile from here though there’s an immediate descent from Wiggington down to the Wingrave Road on the outskirts of Tring. Down to the Marsworth reservoir and out towards Long Marston, the route then turns right towards Cheddington and finally makes another right before heading back to Pitstone.

Two rides for this week.

10am start, 35 miles route

10am start, 25 miles route

As always, we meet at the Rose & Crown.

Sally’s gone off cycling to the mountain tops
Elke’s stuck at home with all the kids
Big Dave’s going out for a big slap up lunch
So Jenny is in charge – no counter bids!

Ob-la-di, ob-la-da life goes on brah
La la the Tea Ride goes on
Ob-la-di, ob-la-da life goes on brah
La la the Tea Ride goes on

Mary often finds us a nice new, friendly church
Sally likes it at The Cog in Tring
Big Dave’s happy as long as there is cake
But a favourite has to be the church in Wing

Ob-la-di, ob-la-da life goes on brah
La la the Tea Ride goes on
Ob-la-di, ob-la-da life goes on brah
La la the Tea Ride goes on

Happy ever after on our Tea Ride trail
Sally tries to keep us all in line
Doesn’t matter who is out she’s rarely seen to fail
And Aussie Jenny, we know you’re gonna do just fine!

The Tea Ride.  Saturday, 10am, The Rose & Crown.  Battling on regardless……

A few of the regulars are otherwise occupied in the Alps at the moment but the Tuesday ride is still on. We meet at the Pitstone Roundabout tonight at 6:30pm.

The Route

Two rides and two start times this week.

9am start 49 miles loop via Whaddon

10am start 29 miles loop via Great Brickhill

See you at the Rose and Crown.

Meet at the Rose and Crown at 10 am prompt for more cycling, tea, cake and adventure.

We leave at 6:30pm from Pitstone Roundabout.

The Route

Please bring a copy of the route with you.

Three rides on offer this week for what looks like it should be a dry Sunday morning –

8am start 62 mile loop around Leighton and Luton

10am start 31 mile loop via Berkhamsted

10am start 21 mile loop to Great Gaddesden

As usual, we start and finish at the Rose and Crown, Ivinghoe.

Meet outside the Rose and Crown for more tea, cake and adventures. Bring a raincoat just in case…

Good luck to Elke and Jose who are off to the Isle of Wight to do 100 miles whatever the weather. Have fun!

Carrying on from our recent rides on a Tuesday evening with Richard and Trevor from the Bossard Wheelers, there had been talk of Time Trials and wondering what it would be like to ride one. Trevor has kindly sent us this message about a local “open to all” event that only costs £3. Don’t be put off by thinking this is something only for the super fast – 10 mile time trials are a long lived tradition of British Cycling and how better to celebrate the Tour starting in Britian this weekend by giving something new a go.

Here is the invite from Trevor –

Greetings All

Well the grapevine tells me that you had a really good ride on Tuesday evening and your enthusiasm to have a go at the dark art of time trailing is fired up!

I spoke with Tony Farnborough who organizes the North Bucks Road Club (NBRC) evening events and he is very happy to designate next week’s event as a “come and try” to enable non affiliated riders to take part.

We meet outside the new McDonalds (was known as Kelly’s Kitchen) by the A5/Watling street roundabout at this end of Milton Keynes at 6.30pm on Weds eve. We then “sign on” at Tony Farnborough’s car and are issued with a race number. Cost is £3 for non NBRC riders

You don’t need any specialist equipment and any bike is allowed provided it is roadworthy. Helmets are not compulsory, but I would always recommend you wear one.

We warm up along the course and up towards Brickhill until the event begins, after that it is considered bad form to be warming up on course. As there are normally around 20-30 riders it is generally not a problem getting the warm up done before the event start.

Riders go off at 1 minute intervals, with first rider off at 7.15 the start is just round the corner from the meeting point. The course then runs straight over 1st 2 roundabouts before turning left onto the Stoke Hammond bypass at the next roundabout then turn at the first roundabout up bypass and retrace turning right at next roundabout and straight on at following 2 roundabouts to finish opposite the start point.

http://gb.mapometer.com/cycling/route_3883305.html hopefully this link should take you to a map of course. It is relatively straightforward, from a ride point of view the key points are:- 1st and last roundabout, tight on way out and bad road surface on way back. road rises from 2nd to 3rd roundabout and again on way up to the turn. It is then fast for 1st bit of return and then the sting! the rise up to the 5th roundabout and the warning lines just add to the pain!! It is then a fast run down and along to the finish.

The basic rules of time trailing are very simple, it’s an individual un-paced effort, each rider starts one minute apart and normally the faster riders are interspersed within the field to avoid any pacing. If you are caught the rule is that the overtaken rider ensures there is a sufficient gap to avoid any charge of gaining assistance.

Normally if you are caught the overtaking rider will pull away without any need for you to slow, occasionally this isn’t the case and it may be that you find you are recovering and able to go faster. It is ok to re-pass them provided that you are able to do so and make distance on them.

The classic mistake made by novice riders is to go off too fast, 10 miles is further than you think when you’ve burnt all your reserves before the turn! Everyone is different and it is vital that you ride your own race. It is a cliche, but you need to work within your limits and don’t worry about other riders. 

Always remember your safety not your ride is the most important thing, don’t take risks, we have all occasionally been held up and delayed, when this happens remember there is always another race.

Yours in sport
Trev