I'm looking for a challange

[Noodley]

Greenbank, the Snow Road ride certainly looks interesting/challenging. 186 miles in a day would be impressive especially considering it isn't flat!

I've never done anything remotely AUK style. What would be needed? I assume that I would have to take food etc, so panniers would be required? Would there be places to stop along the way? Would I be on my own most of the time? Would I need to grow a beard?

Magnatom, if you are interested in riding the Snow Roads give me a shout. The organiser is a friend of mine and I've also cycled the route more than most so can advise. The calendar events takes place on the Saturday5 June 2010 but you can ride it anytime as it's also a Perm.

I'm sure it's the kind of route which would raise some money as people in Scotland will have all heard of Cairn O'Mount, The Lecht and Glenshee...and will be impressed that you are cycling them all in a day.

Alternatively there is another (slightly shorter) route with the same amount climbing. 228km route with 4800 metres climbing from Kirrie to Tomintoul and back, taking in Glenshee and The Lecht in both directions

 

[Coco]

Cycle to Fort William and then climb Ben Nevis.

Is there anywhere that your mother used to visit on holiday or somewhere of significance to her?

 

[magnatom]

Cycle to Fort William and then climb Ben Nevis.

Is there anywhere that your mother used to visit on holiday or somewhere of significance to her?

Unfortunately due to 3 knee ops climbing is out of the question.

Funnily enough, though, my mum had two places where she regularly went on holiday, Santa Ponsa, Majorca and Blackpool. I spent many holidays there as a child with my mum. I remember staying in the Linden Lee B & B on the sea front near the south pier (a white building with wood beams on the outside if I remember correctly). Always the first two weeks in July. I hadn't even thought of that until you asked the question. Blimey.

That settles it. I'll be riding from home to Blackpool in a day. I just need to start organising, training and raising money.

Some time in the first two weeks in July.

 

[jimboalee]

Unfortunately due to 3 knee ops climbing is out of the question.

Funnily enough, though, my mum had two places where she regularly went on holiday, Santa Ponsa, Majorca and Blackpool. I spent many holidays there as a child with my mum. I remember staying in the Linden Lee B & B on the sea front near the south pier (a white building with wood beams on the outside if I remember correctly). Always the first two weeks in July. I hadn't even thought of that until you asked the question. Blimey.

That settles it. I'll be riding from home to Blackpool in a day. I just need to start organising, training and raising money.

Some time in the first two weeks in July.

Was she a golfer?

Go via Ayr.

Riding solitary??
Don't forget to get a lot of proofs and take loads of photos.

 

[Greenbank]

So how about this then. This would be my home (approximate) to in-laws (approxmate) challenge. Approximately 190 miles.

Is this doable in a day?

Perfect. 190 miles (305km) and about 2500m of climbing, that puts it at the "moderate" level. It's also mainly downhill after Sedbergh.

The old adage goes: if you can do X miles then you can do 2*X miles. Since you've done a 100 mile ride you can do a 200 mile ride.

Definitely doable in a day. You get about 21 hours to do a 300km Audax.

The Dean I've done twice (307km and 3900m climbing). First time was horrendous weather and took me almost bang on 21 hours. Second time (this year) was nicer and took me only 19 hours. The fast lot were round in 14 hours.
The Elenith I've done twice (305km and 4700m climbing). Both times I've taken almost exactly 20 hours.

Flatter 300s:-

Flattest Possible 300 (304km, 2000m climbing) was only 16h30min. Slower the second time I did it as I'd done 300km to get to the start to make it into a 600km ride (done in 39 hours).
Clapham to Thorne: 315km, 1500m climbing was 18h but I was languishing in cafes and nursing a friend of mine along who eventually gave up at 240km.
Putney to Thorne: 320km, 1500m climbing was 18h again but I was taking it easy into a headwind as the next day was 220km to Alston and the day after was 220km to North Berwick.

Very hilly 300s:-

Midlander Super Grimpeur 300 (321km, 5390m climbing). Utter insanity. Finished with minutes to spare so it was a shade under 21 hours again.

As Andy says, start early (4am is good) and that way you can get across and out out of Glasgow as the sun is coming up. Stop and eat every 40 miles or so (Johnstonebridge services are perfectly placed for lunch at about 80 miles, Carlisle at about 120 miles, etc).

Long distance is all in the head. Once you're past 100 miles then there's no difference between it being a 120 mile ride or a 875 mile ride like London-Edinburgh-London (quite similar since LEL required a minimum of 288km per day). All it requires is for you to keep feeding yourself properly, and not to take the easy option and give up. It's just sitting on a bike and turning the pedals.

 

[wyno70]

Dover???? I've never heard that referred to as the corner of anything????

 

[magnatom]

Perfect. 190 miles (305km) and about 2500m of climbing, that puts it at the "moderate" level. It's also mainly downhill after Sedbergh.

The old adage goes: if you can do X miles then you can do 2*X miles. Since you've done a 100 mile ride you can do a 200 mile ride.

Definitely doable in a day. You get about 21 hours to do a 300km Audax.

I'm really up for this now. I need to get a turbo trainer!

So, as I can managed 16.5mph on a fairly hilly 100 miler (all be it with help from other riders for about 40% of the ride), what sort of average speed should I be aiming for for 190 miles (assuming reasonable weather)?

Obviously I'd want to be keeping the time at stops to a minimum. The hardest miles on my 100 miler were after a food stop (45 mins). So how long would others normal stop for a bite to eat?

Training will be difficult, as my time is restricted, although I will be certainly be able to do 40-50 milers at least once a week (with some 1000ft hills). Any advice on what ideal training would be?

 

[Greenbank]

I average about 13mph on hilly Audaxes, up to about 16mph on flatter rides (Putney to Cambridge and back, so 230km and 1500m climbing given the detours I took along the way).

At those kinds of speeds you can keep on chugging along mile after mile. The faster you go the quicker you'll burn out. I can do a sub 30 minute 10 mile TT, but I couldn't keep up a similar pace for a 25 mile TT, etc.

Plod, eat, plod, eat, plod, eat, plod, eat, plod, finish.

4am start. 13mph average gives just over 14.5 hours riding time for 190 miles. Add in an hour long stop every 40 miles and that's an extra 4 hours (stops at 40, 80, 120, and 160 miles). That's 18.5h giving a 10.30pm finish. If there's a headwind expect it to be anything up to 1am.

You may not stop for the full hour, but it'll account for other stops and faffing that goes on. I manage to stop for about 1h15 per 100km on an Audax up to 300km. Over 300km it's about 1.5h per 100km as it usually involves a little doze somewhere.

Put it another way, a friend of mine looked at the 12kph minimum average speed for the 1400km of LEL and said "piece of piss, anyone can keep that trivial speed up for any amount of time", when I said "ok, what about if I said you need to do 288kph a day for almost 5 days" he shut up as that sounded much harder, despite them being exactly the same thing.

 

[magnatom]

Thanks for that Greenbank.

I'll have to plan in a weeks sleep afterwards!

 

[Scoosh]

Knowing what a greyhound you are nowadays , here are some figures to encourage you:

I took 8hr 29 min (note < 8 1/2 hrs ) for the Ken Laidlaw, which is 164km and 2500m climbed and the weather was atrocious, as we all know. Our wee group also had some mechanicals and knee probs, so we could justifiably take off 29 or even 30 mins from that time.

Most of my audices (? the plural of audax ) I have averaged around 20kph, including stops. I reckon if I can keep up a riding average of 23kph, I'll be OK. I seem to be able to sustain this for - well 164km thus far and would like to see how much further I could go on. I've only needed to keep going for 164km. When the goal is a bit further, well you just have to pedal a bit further ....

We have got some friends who stay in Orton (near Tebay services) and have always fancied cycling down to visit them .....

 

[magnatom]

We have got some friends who stay in Orton (near Tebay services) and have always fancied cycling down to visit them .....

Having some company on the ride would definitely be most appreciated, if your offering!

In fact if anyone else would like to come along to support me and maybe raise a pound or two as well (although that isn't obligatory as support itself would be all that is required) then the more the better. In fact maybe I could meet up with a few CC'ers on the way!

 

[Coco]

So that's the July 2010 CC Ecosse trip organised then?

I'm sure we could work out some sort of relay of accompaniment between CC Ecosse and the rest of CC.

 

[jimboalee]

My money is on Magnatom averaging 11.8 mph. ( 11.771 was my calc's result ).

 

[magnatom]

My money is on Magnatom averaging 11.8 mph. ( 11.771 was my calc's result ).

Now there is a way to raise some money. People could lay 'bets' on the average speed I would manage over the 190 miles. I would have to be blinded to this of course (otherwise I might cycle slower to favour someone in particular). The winner would take half the takings, and the rest would go to charity.

So Jimboalee is that a rolling average, or does that take into account rest stops? I'd hope my rolling average would be higher, although probably not 17mph!

 

[magnatom]

P.S. So how did you calculate it?