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LBHIFI

Veteran
Location
Liseleje
All in all I know my strategy was all wrong and when my expected drafting partners didn't show up I should have just gone for a good average power throughout the race and ignored everyone else.
Sorry about that. I was really looking forward to that race, but a nasty cold came in the way :cursing::cry::cold:. Been trying to shake it off a since the weekend and haven't been on the bike since the last Chain Gang race. Hopefully I will be back in business tomorrow.
 

kipster

Guru
Location
Hampshire
Sorry about that. I was really looking forward to that race, but a nasty cold came in the way :cursing::cry::cold:. Been trying to shake it off a since the weekend and haven't been on the bike since the last Chain Gang race. Hopefully I will be back in business tomorrow.

I fully intend to ride tomorrow regardless of my lingering pain. I might not be competitive tomorrow, but I'm likely to be more competitive than at the weekend after some real life velodrome pain on Saturday.
 

Breedon

Legendary Member
Going eat a s $#@t load of pasta for my dinner at work tomorrow ready for the chain gang, not going to make the same mistake as last time, steady pace at first see how things are panning out within the field then half way increase pace pick my target then aim for that.

Seems like a good plan what possibly can go wrong.
 
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bridgy

Legendary Member
Location
Cheddar
Is this a common thing and will it pick up and synch the rides that weren't synched ?

Blimey there's a lot of posts to catch up on if you miss looking in on the forum for a day!

@gos - yes the auto strava syncing seems to stop working for a couple of days reasonably regularly. I don't know if older un-synced rides appear on strava when it starts working again as I tend to manually upload them to strava when it doesn't work. It doesn't duplicate them when it starts working.

As others have already said, if you want to do it manually, just download the "fit" file and upload to strava. You just need to remember to change the activity type to "virtual ride" as it defaults to a normal ride when you do this.
 
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BILL S

Guru
Location
London
Thankyou Bill, that genuinely made me swell with a little pride.
You always used to be my target, but upon my return I assumed you had advanced too far ahead for it to ever be the same.
Last night gives me hope.
That said, even though I was of similar performance on BKool last year, you clearly demonstrated your dominance in the real world.
I remember discussing before the DD, about staying together, if we could, but if one was feeling stronger, just go do your own race.
On that first 6 mile climb out of Builth, you turned to me and said, "shall we push through to the front and stay with the leaders?"
You obviously took the sweat, snot and tears to be representative of my cruising effort.
I tried my utmost to casually say, no you go for it.
Oh yes, and I fall off!

Adam, the speed you've come back from nothing and your present weekly progression makes me think you'll probably be beating me straight in about 2 weeks time. Then you'll be starting behind me in the handicap races and I'll be desperately trying to get into your slipstream in the chaingang races to try and hang on. :hugs:

Not that I didn't enjoy your post :hyper:and for a little while feel quite puffed up myself :dance:before reality put me back in my place once I thought it through. In the DD I think, while hating the thought of going out in the cold, rain and wind, once I got going I was just so fired up that I got the performance boost I needed. It also stopped me feeling the cold and I didn't even know my fingers were injured until it was over. I always perform better in races, and always want to be up front if possible.

The next few weeks is going to be interesting that's for sure.
 

BILL S

Guru
Location
London
Sorry about that. I was really looking forward to that race, but a nasty cold came in the way :cursing::cry::cold:. Been trying to shake it off a since the weekend and haven't been on the bike since the last Chain Gang race. Hopefully I will be back in business tomorrow.

No worries at all Lars. Hope you get better really quick. If you're about for the next one we can try for a quick start and see if we can catch Adam who'll only be a few seconds up the road from us. Such a brutal ride though It's worth keeping some energy for the end, which I didn't do last time
 

Roleur1

1st cat roadie back in the day
Location
Newport Pagnell
March chaingang ride 1. Pico Peñas de Dios (La Yesa - Villar del Arzobispo)......oh thats a familiar 'pleasent' ride...just did it again. lovely. Quite a bit of little ring for a flat ride. be prepared!

Ill be locking my suitcase when you lot are trying not to barf.....have a good ride.
 
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BILL S

Guru
Location
London
Bill I get the impression that you would destroy us in the real world. As Adam says, you've clearly demonstrated your dominance in the real world in the past.

Bkool doesnt really give a good indicator of real world cycling ability, given the quirks of the system and the way it can be exploited. You're one of the most steady consistent riders on here and I for one wouldnt fancy lining up beside you with a real life mountain in front of me! :surrender:
Good of you to say Rick but I don't really think that's the case. I can do okay in the real world or on bkool, but there's a few riders on here in the goats and chaingang who are clearly making a good bit more power than me. They constantly outshine me in the goat rides but I think some of them are having tyre problems in the chaingang rides. I wouldn't fancy my chances in the real world against these guys. I may be consistent as I pretty much always show up, but that's because this turbo malarkey is still high in my list of priorities. My mind is perhaps more easily tricked than most :wacko::crazy:.
 
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BILL S

Guru
Location
London
March chaingang ride 1. Pico Peñas de Dios (La Yesa - Villar del Arzobispo)......oh thats a familiar 'pleasent' ride...just did it again. lovely. Quite a bit of little ring for a flat ride. be prepared!

Ill be locking my suitcase when you lot are trying not to barf.....have a good ride.

Have a great holiday Mark. Looking forward to doing some of your rides if you're able to get then recorded on your go pro and loaded onto bkool.
 

Roleur1

1st cat roadie back in the day
Location
Newport Pagnell
for sure Bill. I have 5 hours available on a 32gb memory card but I think one of our group is taking a laptop so I might be able to download onto a portable drive. Ill record some of the more interesting up and downs as well as some of the dicking around thats bound to be going on.

Right there...shows the difference between then and now. last there in 1995, carefree as just got engaged to Tina, plenty of cash, micro mortgage and not a garmin or computer in sight (unless you count the old blue 2 button Avocet with the front wheel magnet). We followed our noses, got lost, got shagged in all the meanings of the word and just lived and breathed bikes for a week. Now its route planning, garmin downloads, gopro, portable drives, mahoosive mortgage, stress about being away for a week and what will need doing when I get back and almost certainly the only shagged being experienced will be after a 5 hour ride.....joys of growing up!

Still all I have to worry about for the next week will be what I am going to have for breakfast, cheese or ham panini for lunch and how many san miguels will come over the bar in the evening. Happy days.
 

Add

Guru
Location
Powys, Wales
for sure Bill. I have 5 hours available on a 32gb memory card but I think one of our group is taking a laptop so I might be able to download onto a portable drive. Ill record some of the more interesting up and downs as well as some of the dicking around thats bound to be going on.

Right there...shows the difference between then and now. last there in 1995, carefree as just got engaged to Tina, plenty of cash, micro mortgage and not a garmin or computer in sight (unless you count the old blue 2 button Avocet with the front wheel magnet). We followed our noses, got lost, got shagged in all the meanings of the word and just lived and breathed bikes for a week. Now its route planning, garmin downloads, gopro, portable drives, mahoosive mortgage, stress about being away for a week and what will need doing when I get back and almost certainly the only shagged being experienced will be after a 5 hour ride.....joys of growing up!

Still all I have to worry about for the next week will be what I am going to have for breakfast, cheese or ham panini for lunch and how many san miguels will come over the bar in the evening. Happy days.
^_^
 

bobinski

Legendary Member
Location
Tulse Hill
Hey - Bill & Bob...thanks for your openness on here today. It gives us all an insight into what is going on physiologically and mentally with the guys at the top. Suffering and cycling are familiar bedfellows - always have and always will. Its the toughest sport in the world. One famous team manager once quoted 'you play soccer but you cant play cycling' - even though I have a long cycling history and consider myself an experienced rider, I remind myself that competitive cycling is never 'played'...its just so true. Just imagine efforts like that that last three hours or more.

I think one of the Lotto Jumbo lads recorded an average wattage of 400 or so during one of the Tof B stages last year and said it was harder than the classics he had ridden that year - so again confirmation that suffering never goes away.

For those of us on here without the benefit of a cycling history and the experience that would give it must be really difficult to understand the level of pain and suffering that the good guys go through. It really is incredible. I rode as an amateur in Belgium and France through the 90's EPO era & it was an education.

My personal experience last night was that it was as hard a half hour as I can remember - just chuck in a roaring crosswind, rain, cold and some Belgian toothpaste (google it!) for the real world experience.

Mark

Mark,
I think I left something like Belgian toothpaste on the laptop. That or spittle or sweat...
I have to say that suffering is part of the attraction. Hopefully going quicker the outcome.
Sounds like you had an interesting time. I look forward to a story or 2 in future. Oh, You are
not too far from the top yourself!
 

Roleur1

1st cat roadie back in the day
Location
Newport Pagnell
Bob ..I know what you mean about the suffering. its sort of cleansing and pure. Belgium..well yep a few tales. Pot Belge, injections on the move, dealing with on bike involuntary bowel movements an hour into a 7 hour epic, northern france cobbles....stables as digs...jeez.

You know what...we have to line up a summer cyclechat camp and ride weekend...meet and greet....
 

Roleur1

1st cat roadie back in the day
Location
Newport Pagnell
Belgian toothpaste.....anyone whos ridden in the Somme flatlands of flanders and northern france in the spring will know it....pigshite mixed with fine clay grit that plasters everything in the wet. really abrasive fine gunge...a delight in your bidons and lips every time you take a drink....that gritty crunch on your teeth and tongue....hmmm
 
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