The Great Manchester Cycle

Well it was an early start today and as I got out of bed this morning at 0530 even the dogs looked at me as if to say what are you doing you madman!!

Today was the day of the 2013 Great Manchester cycle and I had myself booked on the 52 mile route. Anyway as Lynne and the kids went up to Newcastle yesterday it gave me chance to totally strip down my bike and make lots of mess cleaning the drive train and getting everything in great working order for the ride in the morning. With my attached to my bike and my chest number pinned to my jersey I was all ready and raring to go!

So early to bed and a good nights sleep then up early and out the door (after walking the dogs etc) by 0645.

I rode my bike up to the start of the event so before I had even started that was just over 8 miles in the bank.

As a British Cycling member I get priority start too so along with several hundred others i got the opportunity to start at the front. I was about 30 minutes early so when they said start at the front I really did, right at the front!!! that is until team Emmerdale (non of which I recognized) slotted in in front of us.

Anyway once the flag dropped the horns came out and for about 10 seconds I was leading the field with a big smile on my face. My first lap was very fast even though all that happened was I got passed by just about every man and his dog. Lots of the riders from the start set off at about 30 MPH and kept it there. I settle down to around 20 MPH as i knew that 4 laps of the 13 mile course would take its toll on those that start too fast and push too hard. Besides its not too often you get to ride around Manchester on totally closed roads and not have to worry if the next car that passes you will hit you!!!

So after a good lap of the city taking in the Mancunian way, Old Trafford and lots of other sites I had my legs warmed up and felt really good. Bring on lap 2.

I kept the speed up for this lap and found that I was already starting to pass a few of the now knackered riders that had stormed past me earlier on. Going past the feed station at Old Trafford I could see that people were already stopping for food and those around me started to look tired. I was very aware at this stage that this is when people make mistakes. I was very careful when drafting onto the back of another rider to give myself escape options plus let the rider know that i was right on there wheel. You see Pro racers do this all the time and it really does make such a difference to the amount of effort you have to put in. The big danger is though that you clip the wheel of the rider in front and as I saw happen so many times today it sends you crashing out with a hard hit and a badly damaged bike. so many riders in the next few laps would find themselves on the deck loosing skin and if they are lucky just have a bit of gravel rash. The other great danger came from other riders passing too close or just not giving slower riders no room. I saw the aftermath of one poor chap having gone into the barrier on the dual carriageway thanks to the inconsiderate cycling of others. Makes you realise that even BMW drivers can ride bikes!!!

So Lap 3 began to make my legs hurt a bit and I could feel my energy reserves getting low. I downed one of my ever disgusting but essential energy gels and took on some more fluids and after about 10 minutes had a huge burst of energy! Thankfully they really do work.

The 4th and final lap. this was starting to get hard but I pushed on determined not to let anyone else pass me. as I came around to start my lap I realised the finish line wasn't open yet which meant I hadn't been lapped yet. I was surprised at this as I was sure that I was riding far slower than I really was. So gritting my teeth and having Sergeant Major Matt going bonkers (in my mind) constantly screaming "Don't even THINK of stopping" and "Catch that man in front, he's soft and you need to crush him". My alter ego obviously hates civilians and and sign of weakness! I got my head down and pushed harder with every pedal stroke. My legs by this point were burning and each hill seemed steeper, even though the course is practically flat. I made a conscious decision not to stop at the feed station mush to the pleasure of Sergeant Major Matt. No big slap on the back and well done though just more "Catch that man" to spur me on.

Eventually the Manchester City Stadium came into view and I even managed to stay in the right lane to head for the finish not go for another lap (I could have done another lap though). I picked up my goody bag being handed out and stopped my Strava app. To my surprise I had finished with a time of 2 hours 33 minutes according to Strava. But the same app also had the distance at just over 50 miles not 52 like the organizers said it was. Hmm which is more accurate I wonder.


After a short ride back home of 8 miles I had finished the day with just over 66 miles in the bank and slightly sore legs.

My bike still felt great and the irony of it all was that I managed to get a personal record on the hill up to my house after nearly 66 miles of riding! That made me laugh when I looked at the ride later on.

It was indeed a Great ride around Manchester and I really enjoyed it.

It is up to this point the furthest I have ridden in one go and will only be surpassed by next week when I am going to ride the Cheshire Cat.This is a 100 mile ride with some real monster hills, that tend to eat up riders and spit them out again. I don't think I will be getting any personal records after riding that one on the way home. With a really good day under my belt and the fact I am really knackered,  I now have an overdose of cycling to with as the Tour de France is currently on TV too. Oh the joys!!

It will obviously be a 100 mile+ week next week. Only question is how much + is it going to be??

I will keep you posted. Cheers.

Ride on film!!

Well when I say on film what I really mean is one of my mates from work got me on camera using his helmet cam as we went for a short ride though Stockport and up the hill to Denton then on to Hyde. It does however give you a little idea on the speed we can travel at plus how nice it is to ride by bike from a cyclist point of view.

The video itself can be found here and as you can see its quite a hot sunny day in Stockport and I really should have been wearing a short sleeve jersey not a long sleeve practically wool thing I had on. Got a little on the hot and sweaty side really. But all good fun and a nice bit of training for the commute home too.

Anyway onward and upward. I am starting to really log some miles plus doing the longer rides at weekends is great too. I am thinking about doing something like the following at the weekend.

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Now this will be quite a hard one all be it only really has two hills in it. However one of those two hills is called Cragg Vale which just happens to be part of the Tour De France route for 2014 too.

A chance to ride in the Tyre tracks of cycling greats me thinks!!

So will be this or possibly a lap of the M60 but I certainly need to be putting in some distance that is for sure.

I will keep you posted and see how it goes at the weekend. Happy riding :)

Rolling the Moss

I had a great idea this morning for a nice ride that wouldn't take too long. It involved hill number 43 from the top 100 greatest cycling climbs. but to get there i would have to navigate the wonders of Stalybridge and then over Dove-stones to get to Holmefirth. It was quite a hot day today but deceptively windy one I got up on the tops too. This slowed me down somewhat on the road over to Holmefirth but I did eventually get there. and had a bit of a moment when I couldn't remember which turning I had to take. Thankfully I did stop to check at the right one before I found myself too deep inside the land of the summer wine!

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So in all it was a 43 mile slog, Dove-stones was hard work and really got the legs warm especially in the head wind that I experienced all the way up. Near the top the little wimp in my head went wouldn't it be nice to just turn around and cruise back down the hill!! Of course as always Sergeant Major Matt gave wimpy Matt a whole hearted slap and told him to shut up whining or he would eat him!! The bazaar thoughts that go through your head when your hanging out of you proverbial.

The ride across the tops was long and not as flat as I thought it would be but then came the first descent of the day at speed. Little would I know it wouldn't be even half as steep or fast as the next descent after that.

Anyway I reached Holmefirth and turned towards my goal of the day Holme Moss. Now for those of you that don't know it Holme Moss used to be used by the Great British Milk Race when that was around many years ago and is currently (but I may be wrong) part of the Tour of Britain cycling route too. It is a cat 2 climb so is a bit of a beast. The icing on the cake though has to be the distance markers that you get all the way up from the bottom of the climb. It starts at 1 1/2 miles to go and works its way down in 1/4 mile segments, this may be a great thing for the Pro's to measure the distance and help them gauge when to turn up the heat, but for someone like me who is just doing this for training and is a real amateur then all these markers do is kill me a 1/4 mile at a time and make me think surely that  was more than that and I must nearly be there by now!!.

Anyway when I did reach the top which by the way only took me 28 minutes, i got the customary happy snap of me with the summit marker in the background.

I must have looked completely nuts yet again

This is what the summit looks like

This is the view back down the hill. The white line in the road is what all the distance makers are measured from. Great view from the top too.

It doesn't look it but this is the road ahead back down the hill. Oh my goodness me it was steeper and faster than any road I have ever been on. It really did scare the pants off me in some places, but being grown up and sensible (apparently!) I didn't go eyeballs out sprinting round the bendy bits.

So after all this excitement and leg burning stuff I dropped down into Glossop then up to Charlesworth through BroadBottom and over to Mottram then Finally back home for tea and medals!!!

We when I say tea and medals I really mean a shower then out to pick up the family from where I left them a few hours earlier.

It was all good fun though.

Now for my next big ride I am still undecided and I am open to suggestions if anyone has any. Still working towards the Great Manchester ride at the end of this month followed shortly after by the Cheshire Cat. Busy Busy and lots of mileage ahead. Bring on the HILLS!!! :)

A Monk and Two Passes

I should really say two Passes and a Monk as today I decided to ride out to Glossop Over Snake pass to Ladybower, East to Castleton, Up over Winnets Pass, down to Chapel-en-le-Frith, then up though Hayfield to Monk lane finally descending into BroadBottom then back over the road to Hyde.



It was a good run and I particularly enjoyed it. There was the Wiggle Tour of the Peaks going on today too so on some parts of the route including Winnets Pass I did run into a few riders taking part. Everyone was so friendly I was constantly waving and saying hello to people it was great!

I stopped at the bottom of Winnets Pass to take a picture of the Monster that lay ahead.

A chap out with his family started to chat to me and mentioned that he had seen lots of people passing by on bikes all wearing numbers, he was interested to find out what it was all about and I think even a little interested in cycling too.

The Pass itself however was a grueling and steep climb. The hard thing about the whole climb was defiantly having limited visibility as the road wound up the gorge so you could only see a few meters, maybe only 100 at most ahead. The sheer wall of tarmac I was riding up just seemed to go on and on, I have read in the top 100 hill climbs about how your legs and lung burn when you try to climb assents of such difficulty and I can safely say today I felt that burn indeed. It was over 26 miles to the foot of the pass including climbing and ascending the Snake Pass too. By the time I got to the bottom of the gorge my legs were already well warmed up along with the rest of me too as it was quite warm out there today.

I battled my way up the Pass and I am sorry to say I did have to stop 3 times as I just couldn't keep the momentum and my legs were burning, my heart felt like it was going to explode at any second and my lungs felt like they have never worked so hard. I did make it though without having to get off and push (as I saw some people do).

From there it was a beautiful ride into Chapel-en-le-Frith along the Edale Valley. followed by a very fast decent into the town and before I knew it I was turning right and heading north again up to Hayfield. In comparison to the hills I had already rode today the hills up though Hayfield and north towards Glossop are minor lumps in the ground. However with tired legs after such a long ride I certainly felt like they just dragged on for a very long time indeed. Again I passed lots of riders heading south and down to the finish of the tour and looking very knackered along the way.

I did finally reach the top of Monks Lane and having never been up to the top of the summit in good weather I thought it would be nice to take a picture of the view.

It was pretty spectacular and you can see the whole of Manchester from up there. Just to Prove I took the photo I even did one with me in it too.

 I must have looked completely mental.

Then for the very steep descent into Charlesworth which I decided not to go all out on as it really was that steep and gravelly, plus after such a long ride my arm were in bits. Anyway I hopped over the Main road through Charlesworth then down the hill to Broadbottom and with one final leg aching climb I made it to Mottram then down the road to home.

All the time I was out I had the screen on my phone turned off so I couldn't tell how far or fast etc. So after a long hard slog with a number of long hard hills I was impressed by my total mileage. "More of the same please!" screamed the voice in the back of my head, where as my legs just said "We are not currently operation right now, please leave a message after the tone!!". Shut up and get on with it legs is my answer.

Now I am busy re-hydrating and recovering and thinking about the likes of Holme Moss to add to my list of conquered hills too.

I am also still really looking forward to the Great Manchester Cycle. Its quite flat so should be quite fast one. Bring on the BURN!!!