George Gets The Yellow Jersey

Last week’s yellow jersey was a close contested affair – Vicky completed 90.5 miles, I did 97.9, but George just pipped us both racking up 104 last week.  King of the Mountains goes to Richard who is back on his bike, starting with a “gentle” 46 miles on Sunday!

I’ve updated the map (finally!) and it’s me, Vicky & George who are ahead, getting close to Dijon.  Ben and Richard are both just south of Paris.

http://goo.gl/maps/TuKfW

It’s really good to see some longer rides appearing on the tracker – both Vicky and I managed rides of over 50 miles last week and George’s longest recorded pedal was 43.5.  Julia, David, George & myself are planning a group ride on Saturday from Bishops Waltham – let me know if you’d like to join us.

It’s also good to see some after work rides appearing – somehow, David & Julia squeezed 10.5 miles into Monday evening on top of lawn mowing & other exciting jobs.  George has also been managing to ride into work a couple of times a week from Bishops Waltham, which helps with the miles.

On the sponsorship front, we're just over £1,100 with just over a month to go before the challenge commences!

Gin

Gin's first long ride

I do a fair amount of mountain biking - but I think the last time I did a longish road cycle ride, it was from Glasgow to Edinburgh back in 2010 for a Start challenge.  For that, I was on a mate's (unfamiliar!) racing bike & I knew my training hadn't been right about 2 streets into the ride!

So this time, I have a bit more experience to draw upon!  I'm going to be doing the challenge on a hybrid - and I suspect I'll be the only one to do so!  It's the bike I use to commmute most days & the only nods it makes to hybrid-ness are a mountain bike frame and disc brakes.  I have tried it on gravel paths - and it is so not suited to non-tarmac.  I love the more upright posture it gives me than a pure road bike & since switching to discs on my mountain bike, I've not been a fan of rim brakes - it's not what I'm used to.  I will be fitting clipless SPD type pedals to make it a bit speedier and have already changed to stronger tyres.

So the bike is going to be more familiar - how about the training?

On Saturday, I set off from my home in Eastleigh to Rockbourne - a lovely chocolate box village near Fordingbridge that's home to my boss Sarah.  My route planning was OK, but there was one nasty hill going up a dual carriageway where I needed to turn right - poor views of speeding cars & no speed for me due to the hill!  Having survived that, I enjoyed fantastic views of the north bit of the New Forest.  I got to Sarah's about 45 minutes earlier than I thought which was a good confidence booster.  Quaffed vast quantities of homemade elderflower cordial and refused offer of a sandwich as (unusually for me) I really wasn't hungry. 

Heading back, it felt harder.  The day had got much hotter and I really regretted not sorting out a bottle holder for the frame or taking my rucksack that has a water bladder built in.  To drink, I had to stop & dig the bottle out of my pannier so it wasn't surprising that I wasn't drinking enough.  My stomach was also hurting.  Legs were fine though! I pulled into a tea shop & made myself eat scones & had a drink - this seemed to make a difference & I got home OK.  Stomach still not good that evening - I think due to dehydration & not eating the right stuff at the right times.  I will be stocking up on M&S Veggie Percy Pigs for the challenge as they've worked well for me on long runs in the past.

58 miles pedalled, averaging 10.6 mph.  I won't be in the same league as Ben, George, Richard & Nick for speed, but I think that's a respectable pace.

Gin

Thanks to Whitbread and Kingfisher

Victoria Johnson will be our tour manager - as organising events is her USP, this radically increase the chances of everything running like clockwork during our challenge!  She's at the Bristol Balloon Fiesta at present running the Start/B&Q Energy Saving Shop Roadshow.

Whitbread have very generously offered us big discounts on hotel costs - we're very grateful for this support.  Kingfisher will be sponsoring windproof gilets for the team - we wanted something that would go over waterproofs & other layers but still look distinctive.

New riders to add to the team too: Ed Wilton from Kingfisher and a colleague from Brico Depot.

Ben's set us a new target of £6K for sponsorship - this is what M&S Plan A's team raised on a similar event & we'd like t at least equal their efforts.  £270 raised so far - so we have some way to go - check the latest total here.

Last week's yellow jersey goes to (drum roll!) Ben who clocked up 73 mile last week:

• Ben 73
• Gin 62
• George 38
• Vicky 12.5

On the tracker, I've gone past Paris, with Ben & George not too far behind. 

No news on Richard's leg - except that Caroline reckons he's hard to keep up with on crutches so I guess recovery is going OK!

Training Update 31st July

Sad news – Richard Cowley has torn ligaments & is currently on crutches – not sure if he’ll be fit for the ride or not.  He was well ahead on training & was going to be up front with Nick for speed – Froome to Nick’s Wiggins perhaps? Here’s hoping that Richard recovers very soon.

               

And controversy – David was claiming 600+ miles, but further investigation revealed that this had been completed on a bike with a motor – a rather lovely Triumph Tiger – so his ranking has been reassessed!   I’m claiming I should get more credit for the miles I did last week on the basis they were all off road & therefore subject to greater rolling resistance than for the roadies amongst you – but suspect I won’t get far with that argument!

Anyway, after all that, last week’s yellow jersey goes to Mike who racked up an impressive 122 miles:

122 Mike

77 Matt

69 Ben 

57 Vicky

55 Rick

55 Gin

54 George

50 Hayley

14 David

14 Julia

I’m awarding King of the Mountains to Hayley from BioRegional – great to see you on the tracker.  On the map: http://goo.gl/maps/cbk86 you’ll see that Richard, me, Matt, George & Ben have passed through Lille, Vicky is in the middle of Lille and Mike has also made it across the Channel.  Slightly unfairly, I’ve only logged 50 miles for Hayley so far…

The previous week’s yellow jersey appears to go to me, but I think that may be down to lack of tracker completion by others!

Sponsorship – we’re at £250 so far: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/bqsrpedal

Gin

Training progress - Weekly Update

George pedalled 73 miles last week, so he gets the metaphorical yellow jersey - a shock result made possible by Richard's training easing up!  Vicky gets "King of the Mountains as she's just updated the tracker with 110 miles since it started.

On the map tracker, I'm very happy to be second on the way to Lille - Rick, Vicky and Mike are now on here too: http://goo.gl/maps/rBtv

Welcome to Shaun Terry from B&Q Dover who is joinng the team for the full ride - some of his colleagues in Dover are also interested in doing at least a stage.

 George's training thoughts
35 miles through the fantastic Hampshire countryside and for the first weekend in a long while the sun shone.  Rode out with 10 others and managed to get some decent hills in - Hampton Hill near Swanmore, Beacon Hill from Exton, and to finish the day back up the South Downs from Cheriton.  You can certainly tell we have had months of rain with the amount of mud and stones on the roads.   

More on cycling in the rain....

A quick poll of commuters in the bike shed reveals that cycling to work in the rain isn't as unpleasant as you might think - however, given that the number of bikes in the shed plummets as the rain falls, maybe I'm only talking to the hard core cyclists!
There's nothing wrong with being a fair weather cyclist - after all, it's still another car journey saved - but I found this article that gives some advice on making rainy pedalling a bit more pleasant.
I'm a big fan of waterproof socks - it might be a bit psychological, but if my feet are dry, it gives me the illusion that things aren't too bad.
Now - time to surf for a bike/boat hybrid....
Gin