The 2016 Half Century (50 KM or 50 Mile) A Month Challenge - Chatzone

[kapelmuur]

I've now taken the plunge and entered the Manchester 100.

@ColinJ Thanks for the advice, I know the climb at Styal and usually avoid it because the road is narrow and there's a lot of traffic. There are more pleasant routes out of Wilmslow towards Altrincham.

@Katherine I guess you know that refreshments have to be paid for? My niece did the ride a couple of years back and the food had run out by halfway. Luckily we were in Nantwich to cheer her on and were able to buy food in the town for her.

 

[ColinJ]

I've now taken the plunge and entered the Manchester 100.

@ColinJ Thanks for the advice, I know the climb at Styal and usually avoid it because the road is narrow and there's a lot of traffic. There are more pleasant routes out of Wilmslow towards Altrincham.

Go for it!

You are right about the traffic on that climb at Styal. When I found myself trapped in top gear and ground to a halt, I had a queue of traffic building up behind me, unable to overtake because of oncoming traffic! It was pretty humiliating to climb off the bike and drag it out of the way to let the cars squeeze by!

Oh ... I remembered there being a big railway viaduct there but my memory is playing tricks on me. I just relived the descent and climb on Street View and it is only a small road bridge over a river.

And ... I calculated the average gradient, 20 metres of climb in 270 metres ~= 7.4%. Not a killer, but way too much for me in 53/13!

 

[Katherine]

I've now taken the plunge and entered the Manchester 100.

That's great. Good luck!


@ColinJ Thanks for the advice, I know the climb at Styal and usually avoid it because the road is narrow and there's a lot of traffic. There are more pleasant routes out of Wilmslow towards Altrincham.

@Katherine I guess you know that refreshments have to be paid for? My niece did the ride a couple of years back and the food had run out by halfway. Luckily we were in Nantwich to cheer her on and were able to buy food in the town for her.

I'll bring some snack bars as well as some cash.

 

[Lilliburlero]

My biggest ride ever coming up on Saturday, as I'm entered in the 81 mile Wiggle Yorkshire Tour.
My previous best has been 63 miles, so just a few extra miles...it will get me my imperial half / metric century for the month though!
Really looking forward to it, even if the weather forecast looks a bit damp.

Wishing you all the best on tomorrows ride ND

Shame about the weather

 

[NorthernDave]

Wishing you all the best on tomorrows ride ND

Shame about the weather

Thanks
This is tomorrow's forecast - the Thirsk is under the blue bit near the 27mph wind symbol...

 

[kapelmuur]

Of interest to Manchester 100 riders, it clashes with the Nantwich Food Festival. Nantwich will be rammed with visitors and the surrounding roads congested, a mystery to me why the ride organisers have moved their date to clash with the Festival.

On the upside it means that there will be a huge choice of delicious food and drink available in Nantwich, some of us will be tempted to ride no further!

 

[NorthernDave]

Apologies (again) for my tardiness, but despite predictions of the apocalypse we completed the Yorkshire Tour last Saturday.
Not only my longest ride (to date) at 80.89 miles (130.8km), but also the most climbing at 4,064ft, according to Mr Garmin. The more eagle-eyed of you might have spotted the report in the 'my ride today thread'. I'm off to add it to the 'other' thread now...

There was another milestone achieved on Saturday too as I passed my target mileage for the year, with 4 months to go:

Saturday was also probably one of the last serious rides on my trusty Road Comp too, as I picked up the new Road Pro Carbon on Sunday.
Deep down I want to keep it, partly for sentimental reasons and partly as a winter / bad weather bike but the honest truth is that we simply don't have room for it...decisions, decisions, eh?

 

[Lilliburlero]

Apologies (again) for my tardiness, but despite predictions of the apocalypse we completed the Yorkshire Tour last Saturday.
Not only my longest ride (to date) at 80.89 miles (130.8km), but also the most climbing at 4,064ft, according to Mr Garmin. The more eagle-eyed of you might have spotted the report in the 'my ride today thread'. I'm off to add it to the 'other' thread now...

There was another milestone achieved on Saturday too as I passed my target mileage for the year, with 4 months to go:
View attachment 141021
Saturday was also probably one of the last serious rides on my trusty Road Comp too, as I picked up the new Road Pro Carbon on Sunday.
Deep down I want to keep it, partly for sentimental reasons and partly as a winter / bad weather bike but the honest truth is that we simply don't have room for it...decisions, decisions, eh?

Well played ND

 

[ColinJ]

Tuesday's 50 km ride felt pretty lumpy so I checked my GPS and mapping software ... 1,050 m of climbing! The Garmin Edge 500 GPS gives a figure about 80% of what my Memory Map software does. MM seems to calculate every tiny undulation in every road rather than what cyclists actually perceive as climbs, so I normally work on about 80% of the figure that MM comes up with. I will feel fairly happy trusting the figure that the 500 calculates in future.

I did a 55 km ride today and that one had nearly 1,100 m of climbing so it seems that the going rate round here is about 20 m of ascent per km. More if I make an effort to seek out the hills, less if I try to avoid them, though I can only really do that by sticking to the busy valley roads which I generally prefer not to.

 

[Sbudge]

Apologies (again) for my tardiness, but despite predictions of the apocalypse we completed the Yorkshire Tour last Saturday.
Not only my longest ride (to date) at 80.89 miles (130.8km), but also the most climbing at 4,064ft, according to Mr Garmin. The more eagle-eyed of you might have spotted the report in the 'my ride today thread'. I'm off to add it to the 'other' thread now...

There was another milestone achieved on Saturday too as I passed my target mileage for the year, with 4 months to go:
View attachment 141021
Saturday was also probably one of the last serious rides on my trusty Road Comp too, as I picked up the new Road Pro Carbon on Sunday.
Deep down I want to keep it, partly for sentimental reasons and partly as a winter / bad weather bike but the honest truth is that we simply don't have room for it...decisions, decisions, eh?

Nice one, 3 milestones in one go. Bravo that man!

 

[tallliman]

Finally got round to doing an update...bit iffy for one of the days as I'll need to update the ride with the full ride when I get back from tour due to Garmin failure.

 

[*Dusty*]

I did a half century last weekend, going for the full century this weekend. Wish me luck!

 

[Sbudge]

I did a half century last weekend, going for the full century this weekend. Wish me luck!

Metric or Imperial :-) ? Either way it'll be a great accomplishment! Good luck indeed.

 

[*Dusty*]

Metric or Imperial :-) ? Either way it'll be a great accomplishment! Good luck indeed.

I still measure miles, stones, feet and inches. Can't get on to these new fangled kilometre thingies!

 

[Sbudge]

I still measure miles, stones, feet and inches. Can't get on to these new fangled kilometre thingies!

Oooh, Imperial Century is a nice one. Have a great ride!