Anyone else doing the brum to oxford ride this sunday?

[l4dva]

Hi guys,

A bunch of us are doing this 70 mile ride on the weekend all of different fitness levels. Do you have any last minute tips for the day? Like what we should be eating the day before/on the day? What we should be talking with us, we all have the standard puncture kits, mini tools etc but is there anything else we could need? should we ride together at the slowest riders pace or just go at own pace?

Is anyone else on here doing this ride aswell?

One of the guys dose triathalons regularly, he has a hybrid bike and should be able to complete this no probs.

I have a cross bike and regularly commute to work and do longer rides on weekend (max so far 36 miles), so im thinking this will be a bit of a struggle, if I don't get the right fuel and pace my self properly etc. I did find the 30 ish mile rides that i have done have been pretty comfortable, im not totally unfit so feel somewhat prepaired!

The third guy is a big swimmer and runner but hasn't properly rode a bike in years lol. I gave him my old MTB and he has rode it once or twice, he feels quite confident about it, even those the bike is complete rubish, front gear mech dosn't actaully work properly, it will drop the chain back into the granny when he lets go of the shiffter, so he will have to hold it in place for the whole ride or ride the whole thing in the granny chain ring lol he is confident and isn't bothered about the condition of the bike

The last guy is a tad over weight, but has lost a fair amount of weight in training for this ride and is coming along really well he deff caught the cycling bug! He prob be the slowest rider amongst us.

And to add to it all none of us have rode together. We all live in different places. So as you can guess were prob going to be the most unprofessionall looking bunch there, but where not bothered as long as we complete it! Lets hope its not raining!!

 

[I am Spartacus]

Are you riding back again....? or setting up on the reservation?

yee ha

 

[upandover]

Hi,

I was wondering about it. Have you have a route map arrive, do you know the route (i.e. places it passes through) please.

Thanks
Steve

 

[l4dva]

Haven't got a clue what the route is, we get the maps on the day. Come along it should be good!

 

[upandover]

Found it, or an older one at least - looks good.

 

[l4dva]

Just checked the weather looks like we are going to get wet lol Well at least we won't get dehydrated!

 

[upandover]

It does rather. Hmm. I'#ll be leaving first thing, so it looks like it will follow me to oxford

 

[l4dva]

One of the guys has chicken'd out, so if anyone wants to save registration fees and use his race number etc your welcome too.........

 

[upandover]

I'd love to obviously, that would be great. It's running rather late now though. What time will you guys be arriving?

Thanks
Steve

 

[l4dva]

Upandover - appologies that didn't quite work out! Did you do it in the end anyways?

I really enjoyed that ride!! Finished it in 5 hours and 9 minutes, even though my calf had cramped up majorly about 35 miles in had to stop for about 15 minutes to sort myself out. Still carried on though! My back went at about 50 miles, was in pain after that, legs were still going on though, so I deff need to work on that!

Damage report for today isn't too bad, one knee is in pain and the calf and just generall aches, not sure if ill be able to commute to work on the bike this week though, usually takes me a good few days to recover after long rides so will see how the week goes.

The ride it self was really good, was my first bike event, the other riders really firendly and helpfull, the route was brilliant (apart from all the hills in the middle) some very fast downhills, and some very scary bends at the bottom of a few downhills but I loved it

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I did part of this ride on Sunday morning - just happened to be on one of my regular routes. Picked it up in Brailes, through Traitors ford and on to Hook Norton (shlurp!).

I was blazing a trail though and went through at about 8.00a.m.

Lovely day for a ride too!

 

[upandover]

Hi,

Yes, I had a great time. I overslept so didn't start to 8:20, but had good company a lot of the way. I completed it in 5h35, with three sub-15m stops to let my back recover (put it out a few weeks ago).

Great time. I had one dispiriting moment when (my computer having broken), some bloke told me there were 15 miles left, when I was (rightly) expecting about 8! crawled the next three miles until some guys I recognised from earlier passed me, and I clung to them for a couple until I got my energy back. I had cramps as well, but fortunately, not until I stepped of my bike at the finish!

Pleased you had a good time. I'm wondering what to do next now - good to have done it.

Steve

 

[l4dva]

Good work steve, I stopped the clock on some of my stops so the total time took was prob longer! But im just glad to have finished! Really need to work on my lower back though, I'll have to google some exercises for it!

 

[jimboalee]

I've done this ride several times. The support is excellent ( well, it was ). The Women's Institute put on a good spread at the Brailes ??

The mistake was to ride back to Brum along the route. There are NO shops.

Subsequent rides had the return up the main road through Banbury and Warwick where there are at least filling stations for drinks and nosh.

 

[upandover]

i'm just glad to have finished! Really need to work on my lower back though, I'll have to google some exercises for it!

I was pleased to finish too. Well done -i think it's a great time. I haven't started any back exercises yet, as I've been waiting for my back to heal properly, but I should be getting some from the chiropractor I'm visiting next week. If you don't find any online, I'll post them here.

Cheers
Steve