blog

After 4 weeks the house is coming along well and some progress is being made on my workshop so I thought I would see what the local cycle club Sunday Club Ride was like. I emailed the contact and was told, “It’s the CX season with a race on the same day, so only a B group ride this week. You would be most welcome to join us. Flash 9:30 Welshpool.” Flash turned out to be the leisure centre. Sounds ok so I plotted a route to the start. Most of the routes are hilly but the A road between Newtown and Welshpool isn’t and shouldn’t be too busy on a Sunday morning.

At the allotted hour I set off on the luxo-cruiser thinking that I did not want to set high expectations by going on the grin machine. I also wanted a granny ring for the hills. On reaching the A road I was met by a police motorcycle outrider – an oversize load was coming through; should only be a 2 minute wait. I waited and in the distance saw a group of riders who could only be club members making the trek from Newtown to Welshpool – the ride start alternates between the two and club members gather at one to ride to the other. They too were held up by the load but soon enough we were on our way. Just ahead I saw a club jersey waiting at the side of the road so pulled into to introduce myself and check that everyone was heading to the same place. The following group soon caught up and in fact were going at great speed. The challenge was to get on the wheel. And then it was hell for leather for Welshpool – with speed somewhere between 20 and 25 miles per hour! I was later told that some riders just go for that blast and then go home.

At Welshpool about 15 riders turned up, all male, mainly on Giant bikes (local bike shop is a Giant franchise), all carbon and too many deep section wheels for my liking. It’s the “B” group – it should be ok. Straight out of Welshpool we hit the first climb. Just over 300ft in about 3.6 miles. I did not disgrace myself but arrived in the second half of the group. From then on the ride was a bit of a blur. This was no “B” group, this was a bunch of testosterone fuelled blokes out to outdo each other. On the flat (what passes for flat in this neck of the woods) speeds were over 20 miles an hour. On the down hills I could not keep up with anyone. One kind guy, thank you Paul, dropped back to give me a wheel to hang onto as we raced along the B road towards Shrewsbury. 15 bikes slightly strung out with me giving everything I’ve got to stay in touch. Brief respite as we regroup at Chirbury. They slow for a right turn where a car is coming out only to find it is a lone house – rather startled lady driver wondering why 15 lyrca clad men want to turn into her drive. On through Worthen before finally a right turn towards Minsterley. I have no idea what these places were like; never before have I had to sustain such a pace for so long – it hurts! Paul reassured me that this was unusual – Club Rides were not normally like this – but he did say to expect that on some sections some riders might go for Strava segments and there were a couple of places where the club seemed to have a switch – you reach the place, the switch is switched and everyone goes like a bat out of hell!

From Minsterley it is a lovely climb to Gravels, gentle gradient 700ft of climb over 5.2 miles. It’s an A road but no traffic. I got stuck behind the two slowest climbers for a bit but then made my way past them and for ever upwards. I have no idea how far ahead the rest of the group were but I just made my way up at my steady pace and enjoyed it as best as I could – though mutterings about a “B” group could be heard under my breath. Thankfully we regrouped at the top. The descent towards Bishop’s Castle was rather into the wind and although going at over 30mph and pedalling as fast as I could I was left standing. A very short but very steep climb out of Bishop’s Castle put us on a road which goes along one side of the Vale of Montgomery with a stunning view of the other – I had noted this road driving along it a week earlier thinking it would be spectacular to cycle it. It would be but I think this is one of the roads where the switched gets switched. Thankfully three guys held back and paced me along but even then keeping up took everything I had and little left for taking in the view.

Finally the cake stop…. must have been about noon, but I have no idea as I was too exhausted to do anything other than order a tea and the most calorie laden thing I could see. The banter round the table was about how individuals had done their turn on the front, how long, how fast and what happened when the next one took over. The relief provided they could hold the wheel of the over-taker and what happened if they could not. This was everything that I had feared about this club; a British Cycling affiliated club whose only interest is speed and competitiveness – not my scene at all. 54 miles at an average of 16.9 mph – explains everything!

Luckily the cake stop was about 2 miles from home and much of it uphill. I bade farewell and literally crawled home. If the road turned upwards at any angle however shallow I was reduced to the lowest gear possible.

There is a Wednesday ride – apparently it is more leisurely – and this Club Run was “highly unusual.” Do I believe them? They had better be right if I want to ride again with this group. Otherwise I am going to have to set up my own group!

After the best part of two weeks very hard work unpacking boxes, trying to get rooms sorted in our new house and thinking that the next contractor would turn up in the afternoon, I was encouraged to get out on my bike. So I did, only to get a phone call half an hour later saying that the TV aerial man had arrived. Cue a dash back home to find out why we had so many TV sockets, none of which appeared to work. The hill up to our house from the village centre is seriously steep but thankfully very short. Nevertheless I appeared at my own front door panting hard.

Today, being Sunday and missing the Sunday ride – thought about you – I set off up the hill from our house. That there is a single arrow on the map is but the merest hint of what is to come. Long and very steep with little respite. Despite a few weeks off the bike I did manage it, but what a brutal way to start a ride. Finally reaching the summit there was a good downhill in compensation but I knew that I wanted to reverse that particular road for the journey home.

Of the ride itself – to Welshpool – I would note that one could survive on two gears, one very low and one very high. The flat road – well there wasn’t much – but I could see that a third gear might have a use – until I turned into the wind. Forget the middle gear, not needed. In Welshpool I found a Tourist Information Centre where I was able to buy a CTC guide (and not CUK) on rides in the area. There are some really interesting looking rides that are very accessible from home and they note the food stops – I have a ride calendar!  In compensation for the hills, the views were glorious especially coming back to Montgomery, with the ruins of the castle sticking up from a sheer cliff face. Also of note was the state of the roads: firstly in very good repair and secondly the car drivers, or rather the lack of car drivers, even on a B road. The few that passed by were almost French in the courteousness towards a lone cyclist, moving right over into the other lane – well it was a dead straight Roman road with nothing oncoming.  Cycling here is going to be very hard but great fun.

The workshop is planned but not built, as other rooms have taken priority but I think it is now pretty high on the agenda as I shall have to review the gear ratios or get fitter or lose more weight or all three. I have found a local bike project but the throughput of bikes sounds very low – they have 2 needing work and one of these is just tyres, the other has a stuck seatpost so may not be fixable if it has cold welded itself to the frame. Good thing that I need to do some work on my bikes.

The key challenge with living in deepest darkest rural Wales is the broadband speed. It is frankly non-existent. It is an order of magnitude slower than the standard broadband speed which BT should be providing – and BT say they will achieve that for the whole country in the next 3 years (dream on!) Uploading photos is therefore a bit of a challenge, I tried and got: ” An error occurred in the upload. Please try again later”.  There is only one thing for it – carry on sorting out the house and then get on the bike.

Hope to see some of you soon up here – bring the mountain legs or an electric bike!

Do you fancy trying the Prudential London/Surrey 100-mile bike ride in 2018? It’s a fantastic experience and we have the chance to book a guaranteed place with the charity I rode for this year The Caring Cancer Trust. They have 20 places and you can grab one if you book soon, we already have 11 of these places reserved in the first couple of weeks. Unlike a lot of charities, they aren’t too demanding, they have a registration fee of £25 and will be pleased if you can raise anything over £200 – I managed £500 for them this year. The charity was so pleased with what I did they have asked me to co-ordinate their Prudential for 2018 hence first dibs to West Surrey CTC riders!

This charity’s purpose is to send children in remission from cancer on adventure holidays with any excess money being used for ethical cancer research (caringcancertrust.com). This is a small charity based on the Isle of Wight, they have no paid employees just dedicated volunteers and all their income comes from the one shop they run in Ryde and donations. All the money they raise is used for their work with children, no big salaries are paid and they don’t have opulent offices to support. They don’t supply cycling tops or provide teams on the course cheering you on or provide a party or massage in Green Park but they are very supportive and very easy to deal with.

The advantage of booking your place now is: –

• A guaranteed place
• You can reserve the date
• Make an early accommodation booking probably at the best rate
• Plan your training over a long period
• You don’t have to wait until the end of January or early February to know if you have a ballot place
• If you enter the ballot and are unsuccessful you then have to start looking for a charity place
• Many charities expect you to commit to raising £600+ in sponsorship money

If you’d like further information or to reserve a place don’t hesitate to contact me on 01252 716660 or brian@caringcancertrust.com ,  I will be away on holiday in Canada from 3^rd to 18^th September.

Kind regards

Brian Keen