Halfords has acquired Tredz and Wheelies for £18.4m to help it grow its online presence. Both will continue to trade as standalone businesses under their current management
With a scheduled start of Godalming we feel that we have an early contender for the wooden crank award for our fellow rider who went to Guildford. We finally started from the roundabout where the A3100 meets Chalk Road. We doubled back on ourselves and set off for Selbourne via Elstead, Churt Arford, Bourdon and Blackwater. A distance of 34.5m, a reasonable speed of 12 mph and an average temperature of 14°C made for a lovely ride though the average temperature belied a large variation depending on the cloud and tree cover which made me alternate between being pleasantly warm and a little cold.
Selbourne is a lovely coffee stop, friendly, great cakes and you can get the teapot filled up with hot water. But where is lunch going to be? Well we can go the flat route to Kings Worthy or the hilly route to Bishops Waltham. We were informed that we were going to Kings Worthy for the simple reason, as we found out, that the Captain has moved on from bluebells and now it is wild garlic that we must admire. If my limited map reading skills work, Mill Lane just south of Empshott is the place to go for a visual and olfactory treat. The nature watching part of our rides is definitely growing in importance. Have you head a cuckoo yet? No. Have you seen a few Highland Cattle on the ride? Yes.
But flat this route was not. A few “bunnyhops” of severe gradients tested us. Heaven only knows what the lumpy route to Bishops Waltham would have been like. I recorded a total climb of 6,200 ft over the whole day. Last year we were doing 5,000 ft of climb a ride. I fear that the expedition to Corsica has led the Captain to refine his perspective on hills.
The churches we passed en route are noteworthy for their architecture, one appearing to be in the Norman style with its round arch windows and dog tooth stone work and another showing some distinctive Early English simple four-centred arch windows and buttresses. A beautiful rose window caught the eye but I couldn’t tell you which church they were. Some lovely houses observed as well.
After 24 miles, the garden centre in Kings Worthy provided excellent food. The sandwiches were of doorstopper dimensions and the cakes were good. Rain set in before we set out so jackets were donned and wishful glances made to see if it was going to be long lasting or a passing shower. Luckily it was not too heavy nor lasted too long. The ride home was 49 miles with a maximum of 40 mph just by freewheeling. The total ride was 107 miles. The joys of long days.
On behalf of Peter Hackman…
Hi All Group 4’s,
I was supposed to be leading tomorrow’s ride from Pirbright to Frensham GC, however, the forecast is looking decidedly wet so I have decided not to ride.
If anyone decides to go I’m sure you know the way there and please take care.
Best regards,
Peter Hackman
Kind regards
Laurie Mutch
+44 7887 650 777
Thank you, those 13 of you who asked me to be their proxy at the recent CTC/CUK AGM. There were about 50 people present in the meeting, and from the voting figures announced in the meeting it would appear that they were able to cast roughly 100 proxy votes between them in addition to their own. The chairman on the other hand held about 2900 proxy votes, including 900-odd discretionary ones which were all cast in favour of the Council line as set out in the April ‘Cycle’. Thus all resolutions were decided in advance of the meeting by the proxy votes, and the only two that did not go the Council’s way, via directed proxy votes vested in the chairman, were:
Resolution 6 – passed: that candidates for election to Council must have been fully paid-up members for at least a year;
Resolution 8 – passed: that CTC follow the recommendations of NCVO – Report of the Inquiry into Charity Senior Executive Pay.
Yesterday I made all the decisions, what to wear, which bike and when I would bail out. I had studied the map most carefully and much though I wanted to cycle to East Meon, as I had once visited a school chum who used to live there and I have never been back, I thought that the ride back to W Horsley would get me home long after my elder daughter had departed following her flying visit. And as teenagers like lying in bed I would have been long gone before she surfaced.
Today, I put one top on but a few minutes later changed my mind having felt the chill when I let the chickens out of their house. I was aiming to leave by 7.50 but my indecision meant it was 7.55. It is 16.8 miles to Elstead so I was going to have to get the wings on. I had chosen the grin machine, currently sporting the power tap hub so I have all the stats to see how the legs were shaping up. One hour and 5 minutes at an average speed of 15.37 mph and an average (normalised – see one of my earlier blogs which defines normalised power or look here http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/normalized-power,-intensity-factor-training-stress) power output of 198 watts including the climb up the Farnham Road to the Hogs Back from central Guildford and into Elstead via Shackleford.
To my great delight John W joined us for the ride making excellent progress in his recovery. Lead by Nick and with a host of regulars, seven of us set out for Lasham. Nick definitely finds interesting routes around Farnham – via Rowledge – and enjoys taking the wrong turn somewhere north of the A31 on the way to Well. In deference to John the 21.9mile to Lasham took 2 hours 8 minutes, an average speed of 10.2 mile and an average (normalised) power output of 123 watts. Don J was just leaving as we arrived and Dane was finishing his drink. Do I have the lemon meringue pie or cake? There are times when even a choice of two things is too much choice. Cake wins.
Bailing out, as the was the original intention, means about a 70 mile run, I get to see my daughter but I would like to see East Meon again. I phone home and say that I have changed my mind. I am going to East Meon. We climb on the bikes, the sun goes in and I get those nagging doubts. 2 hours to East Meon, an hour for lunch, almost 50 miles home, easily going to be well over 100 miles and a very late time home. As we set off from Lasham airfield I change my mind again – I am going to bail out; even the suggestion of a train ride from Petersfield back to Guildford doesn’t sound like the right option. Catch up with Nick and share the news.
33.2 miles to home, average speed 15.6 mph and average (normalised) power 154 watts (no big hills). Home by 2:30. Yes it was the right decision.
The power tap hub always draws comments so for the record the actual power stats were:
Instantaneous peak: 708 watts
5 seconds sustained: 625 watts
30 seconds sustained: 430 watts
1 min sustained: 356 watts
2 min sustained: 291 watts
3 min sustained: 273 watts
4 min sustained: 266 watts
5 min sustained: 263 watts
10 min sustained: 244 watts
15 min sustained: 232 watts
20 min sustained: 214 watts
30 min sustained: 205 watts
40 min sustained: 205 watts
60 min sustained: 202 watts
Not my personal best; maybe Paul is right – you slow down with age and I won’t catch up with the 25 year olds.
Suspect I would have to get a therapeutic use exemption for my asthma drug to enable me to claim I was drug free but Chris Froome won’t be loosing any sleep over my stats