IOW Randonee 2010 Sunday 2nd May

[srw]

But, like you, the promenade and subsequent climb got us totally by surprise.

Ah. I should have said that we cycled 100% of the legally cycleable bits. We ignored the routing up the hill round the town centre and pushed through the one-way street instead!

There was another tandem who overtook us just before the monster climb on the military road, and sped off the hill rather more quickly than us. Another one arrived at the chain ferry just after us. On the chain ferry we also bumped into someone who'd started at the Wootton camp-site (so had quite a way to go), and who said she'd found it very hard going, even though she was used to loaded touring.

Kudos, incidentally, to the young lad (15-year-old?) on the Apollo mountain bike - knobbly tyres and all - who made it round just after us. That was certainly a bike I'm glad I wasn't riding!

 

[Paulus]

Hi there Mac B, My friend struggled on to Yarmouth before packing. Having some family on the island, he phoned his Auntie to come and get him. It could of been him I suppose,about 18 years old, he was riding a silver Shorter Rochford bike. He had various cuts on his knee and a sore elbow.

 

[bridgy]

Sounds like I had a slightly less eventful day than some!

I started from Alverstone at 9ish and finished there at 2.30 - the bad weather started for me between Yarmouth and Cowes. Despite my best efforts my chocolate raisins got wet - disaster! (Oh and my phone got wet and packed up too!) I was joined by a friendly chap from Yorkshire riding a Cannondale racer before Cowes and we stuck together (mostly) all the way to Bembridge where he finished - hello if you're reading this (never did catch your name!), and thanks for the company and route guidance on a couple of occassions!

Thankfully neither of us suffered punctures as we'd both managed to lose our pumps at some point!

Will hopefully be back next year for better weather - my uncle who lives on the island has done the Randonnee 18 years in a row before this year and says the weather's never been as bad, so lets hope it was a one-off!

 

[srw]

I started from Alverstone at 9ish and finished there at 2.30

So what's the trick to 68 miles* in 5.5 hours? (Other than - be very quick?)


*The website is lying when it says 62 miles. Either that or we took a very indirect route.

 

[bridgy]

I agree it's about 68 miles according to my cycle computer (very disheartening when I first did it a few years ago and thought I was nearly done only to realise I had 10 more miles to go!)

Don't know if there's a trick to doing it in 5.5 hours - I'm sure I'm by no means the fastest! - apart from don't stop much, don't get lost, and don't get any punctures - oh, and eat lots of chocolate raisins!

 

[MacB]

5.5 hrs doesn't seem too fast, even in my sorry state I still managed a rolling average of 11.7mph. This equated to just under 6 hours of saddle time, we also made the distance 68 miles. The amount, and length, of stops I needed were what made it a long day for Mistral and Bollo. Fully fit I wouldn't expect my saddle time to exceed 5 hours max and there were some sections where we could have seriously motored...or at least the other two could have without the rear anchor

Then it just comes down to how long you want to stop for. In normal circumstances I'd have expected Sundays weather to get me round faster. Warmth and sunshine could have made some pub gardens irresistable.

 

[srw]

5.5 hrs doesn't seem too fast, even in my sorry state I still managed a rolling average of 11.7mph.

Yes - when you put it like that, it seems achievable! That's slower than we typically do, completely unladen, in the rolling bits of the Chilterns in normal summer temperatures.

As it was, we managed a spectacular rolling average of 9.5 mph, with a bit of luggage, and vicious weather. I suspect that 60 miles in our legs and the wind and cold knocked a good mph or so off our average speed. Not to mention the fact that that this was the first time on the tandem for a month or so.

At least that's what I'm claiming.

Actually, to be fair to both of us, one of the things the weekend demonstrated is that we need to play around a bit with the riding positions - my stoker especially is currently riding far flatter than she can really manage, and I suspect I could take another quarter-inch of saddle height. But since I damaged a muscle earlier in the year through riding too high I'm being very circumspect.

 

[bridgy]

5.5 hrs doesn't seem too fast,

Hey, you may be right, but I much preferred it when we were talking about 5.5 hours being impressive

 

[ufkacbln]

Buy a Garmin and cheat!

It has an autostop and start feature, so records cycling time. My actual time was 6 hours on the Garmin, but eight hours if you include a couple of pubs and a lunch

 

[MacB]

Hey, you may be right, but I much preferred it when we were talking about 5.5 hours being impressive

That's fair, especially as our total time was the heart of 9 hours

 

[Archie]

Archie - I saw the Carrera Subway 8 a couple of times (there can't have been more than one) - nice to see another hub gear in a day of roadies.

If it had my new bar ends then that's an affirmative! Saw a few tandems during the day but didn't spot a Rohloff hub, probably because I was either grinding uphill myself or whizzing down the other side at high speed (the combined weight of me, the bike and the (single!) pannier had some hefty momentum). If I had I'd have definitely asked about it.

Going by earlier descriptions I saw Cunobelin after Arlesford - I think he was directing some 55kers back to the right course - but discounted it might be him despite the trike on account of the Saltire; always though he was English, despite the Celtic reference. In fact I saw him staring at me on the ferry. In fairness I may have been staring first, he's a bigger bloke than I imagined!

 

[ufkacbln]

If it had my new bar ends then that's an affirmative! Saw a few tandems during the day but didn't spot a Rohloff hub, probably because I was either grinding uphill myself or whizzing down the other side at high speed (the combined weight of me, the bike and the (single!) pannier had some hefty momentum). If I had I'd have definitely asked about it.

Going by earlier descriptions I saw Cunobelin after Arlesford - I think he was directing some 55kers back to the right course - but discounted it might be him despite the trike on account of the Saltire; always though he was English, despite the Celtic reference. In fact I saw him staring at me on the ferry. In fairness I may have been staring first, he's a bigger bloke than I imagined!

The Saltire is a pressie from my mother (Ayrshire) as we are touring up there this year... my father's family was Welsh, and I was born in Leicester so I am "mixed Celtic" in origin

Lots of people got lost at the checkpoint and missed the turn. It was quite obvious in some cases.

As for the Ferry - It is often the same problem that you had. Quite often a bike or person reminds you of a forummer, but of course you don't always know for certain!

Mind you I couldn't talk to a single pannierist!

 

[Bollo]

A tandem's-worth of gold bragging rights here, please.

Bollo, MacB and mistral - I think you passed us while we were lunching (and sheltering) in Whitwell. There was a trio of cyclists roughly answering to your description pulled off the road just after the turn-off at the bottom of Niton, who pulled away just as we stopped behind you. We then passed the same trio a few miles later, paused by the roadside. Hello if it was you.

......... too, up and through the South Downs (Winchester - Arlesford - towards Basingstoke then turn right), and could have carried on a while longer. ......

Yep, that was us I think. I remember seeing a Thorn Rohloff tandem a couple of times, and also a derailleur-equipped Thorn tandem on the ferry back. There's no sound quite like a Rohloff in 5th or 7th.

Winch-Alresford-Basingstoke along the NCN23 is my 'big commute' and a very lucky lad I consider myself. Its hilly but very pretty. Hope you enjoyed it.

Cunobelin, I think we saw you parked up at Bembridge. You might have seen MacB 'refreshing his lungs' outside while me and mistral had coffee and sweets in the school.

 

[ufkacbln]

Must admit I am thinking of getting a flag made up next year with my name and avatar

 

[Paulus]

Cunobelin, I rode alongside you, without knowing it was you, for a while between Bembridge and Alverstone, and then again near Yarmouth. I was on a blue Condor Italia. There was also a couple on his and hers recumbents that I passed between Wootton and Nettlestone, did you see them at all?