The Imperial Century A Month Challenge Chatzone

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Rickshaw Phil

Overconfidentii Vulgaris
Moderator
Scraping in by the skin of my teeth, I got mine done yesterday. If I'd failed I don't have another day free for the remainder of the month.

107.56 miles around north Shropshire - yes, a very well repeated lot of riding but I needed something relatively easy having only done short commutes since finishing the Coast to Coast right at the start of September. 13.8 mph average, which I'm fairly happy with and the legs felt surprisingly good. @gavgav has invited me out for a ride this evening, so we'll see if I still think the same later on.:laugh:

Ride report here for those who are interested: https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/your-ride-today.173254/post-7501170
 

footloose crow

Veteran
Location
Cornwall. UK
28th September

I am riding at the last minute again. Weather and laziness have combined to create barriers to solo pain. Sometimes it just feels too hard.

I thought I had planned a good route today with some new lanes that I hadn't been down before, forgetting the lesson I learnt last month about 'new lanes'. The reason I haven't gone down them is that they are narrow, twisty, broken and very, very steep. I have more height gain on this ride, than a similar length ride in Mallorca's Tranmuntana mountains which took in most of the major cols. I never got above 170m above sea level, just kept doing hill repeats on different lanes.

I should go the way I always go, they are easier roads! Lesson learnt, maybe.

This ride took me down to the Lizard initially, mercifully much quieter now that the main tourist season is over, but with un-forecast clouds and drizzle instead of sunshine. Fortunately the weather finally read the forecast and the rest of the day was in sunshine and whilst not warm, it was certainly not cold. Short sleeves and gilet weather.

The trek north from the Lizard (no other direction being possible on a promontory) is a slog. Against the wind and with a slight 1-2% gradient uphill until Culdrose Naval Station appears and it's possible to dive down into Helston, through the Penrose Estate path and into Porthleven.

Portleven looked picture postcard perfect on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Fishing boats bobbing, sea sparkling, happy crowds, music and food. Then up over the Penwith hills and a combination of unknown lanes until reaching the north coast again. Familiar roads following the cliffs, down into Portreath for an ice cream, the beach busy, up again and then down into Perranporth. Perranporth also still quite busy but now now the air was cooling and the beach emptying.

On and on along very quiet lanes, the sun low over the fields and shadows lengthening, legs hurting and I haven't stopped once to buy food or drink today because there were either no shops or they were closed or for some reason just I didn't want to stop. I found some gels in my handlebar bag and had packed some crunchy healthy bars I didn't starve, but by now I can feel the beginnings of a bonk. No matter because home is close and if you just keep pedalling you get there eventually. And so I did.

tempImageTe1v0V.png

Nearly home now

Eight hours, 103 miles, 2200 metres of ascent. 20km/h average speed. 146w weighted average power - I am a weakling.
 

robjh

Legendary Member
28th September

I am riding at the last minute again. Weather and laziness have combined to create barriers to solo pain. Sometimes it just feels too hard.

I thought I had planned a good route today with some new lanes that I hadn't been down before, forgetting the lesson I learnt last month about 'new lanes'. The reason I haven't gone down them is that they are narrow, twisty, broken and very, very steep. I have more height gain on this ride, than a similar length ride in Mallorca's Tranmuntana mountains which took in most of the major cols. I never got above 170m above sea level, just kept doing hill repeats on different lanes.

I should go the way I always go, they are easier roads! Lesson learnt, maybe.

This ride took me down to the Lizard initially, mercifully much quieter now that the main tourist season is over, but with un-forecast clouds and drizzle instead of sunshine. Fortunately the weather finally read the forecast and the rest of the day was in sunshine and whilst not warm, it was certainly not cold. Short sleeves and gilet weather.

The trek north from the Lizard (no other direction being possible on a promontory) is a slog. Against the wind and with a slight 1-2% gradient uphill until Culdrose Naval Station appears and it's possible to dive down into Helston, through the Penrose Estate path and into Porthleven.

Portleven looked picture postcard perfect on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Fishing boats bobbing, sea sparkling, happy crowds, music and food. Then up over the Penwith hills and a combination of unknown lanes until reaching the north coast again. Familiar roads following the cliffs, down into Portreath for an ice cream, the beach busy, up again and then down into Perranporth. Perranporth also still quite busy but now now the air was cooling and the beach emptying.

On and on along very quiet lanes, the sun low over the fields and shadows lengthening, legs hurting and I haven't stopped once to buy food or drink today because there were either no shops or they were closed or for some reason just I didn't want to stop. I found some gels in my handlebar bag and had packed some crunchy healthy bars I didn't starve, but by now I can feel the beginnings of a bonk. No matter because home is close and if you just keep pedalling you get there eventually. And so I did.

View attachment 788455
Nearly home now

Eight hours, 103 miles, 2200 metres of ascent. 20km/h average speed. 146w weighted average power - I am a weakling.

No idea about power as I don't measure it, but 8 hours is my back-of-an-envelope benchmark for 100 miles even in less challenging conditions than yours, so well done.
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
October's qualifying ride all done and dusted. A ride following the Medway to the coast, then on to Whitstable, along the coastal wall to Herne Bay and Minnis Bay. Turning south past Manston airport to Sandwich where I had a sandwich.
Back west to Wye and onwards hitting the Pilgrims Way to home.
Lovely weather all day. Topped out at 16.9° with the sun making an afternoon appearence and no wind to moan about.
120 miles for the day.
Century ride #359
Imperial Century Month #179
Screenshot_20251012_155407_Garmin Connect.jpg


20251012_114644.jpg


20251012_083604.jpg
 
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footloose crow

Veteran
Location
Cornwall. UK
12 October....somewhere new!

I did the Wessex CTC New Forest randonnee at the weekend. I was supposed to be doing it with my brother who lives in that area but he was moving house instead. We camped about 10k away so that gave me another 20k to make up a 180k ride overall - or 112 miles in imperial. A surprising 1360m of ascent, I thought southern England was flat? There were hills....

About a 1000 other riders on the event which gave a choice between 100k or 101 miles so bits of it were quite busy. I didnt find anyone going at my pace so I rode the entire thing alone. I was passed by serious looking, silent young men on shiny carbon bikes who seemed to be both deaf and dumb as they never responded to my cheery greeting as they passed. I also passed frequent gaggles of women chatting happily and small groups of club riders but all were either too fast or too slow.

I managed the 100 mile part in 6 hours and 51 minutes (moving) and the whole ride with stops, riding to and from the start, hanging around etc in 7h 41mins, so significantly faster than riding around Cornwall. I barely stopped at the controls as I had promised my wife I wouldn't be long and may have forgotten to mention I was doing the imperial rather than metric version. She was however very patient and understanding!

Lovely scenery which I didn't stop to photograph. Heath and woods, villages and a section of the South Downs and all in autumn colours.

IMG_0445.jpeg

I looked a bit haggard by the time I got back to the camper van!
 

robjh

Legendary Member
October's is now in the bag, done on Wednesday 15th when I rode along the Dorset and East Devon coasts from Swanage to Exeter. I had made this trip especially in order to get this month's century on some less familiar roads with good scenery, and came down the day before by train, finished off by a ride through the New Forest and Bournemouth to get to Swanage YHA.

I knew it was going to be a hilly route, with numerous descents to sea level followed by stiff climbs back up, so left myself what I thought was plenty of time, and even got in a bit of sightseeing around Swanage and the hill fort of Maiden Castle outside Dorchester. Then, at about 35 miles my rear gear cable snapped, leaving me with only two gears using the front chainrings. I thought of abandoning at this point, and if I had had an internet signal to check the train times I might well have done so, but instead I managed to rig up the remaining cable to a bolt on the seat stays so that I could, by fixing this cable tighter, force the derailleur inwards and so set the two gears lower in the range for climbing, and then loosen them again on the flat. It was a very manual process but without it I would have never had a gear range sufficient for the steepest climbs and not cripplingly slow elsewhere.

I made it to Bridport for a quick lunch stop, concluded that it was OK if slow, and decided to carry on. Never ideal though and I did a lot of very slow grinding up hills, and later on changed my route to avoid the worst of them, but I made it to Exeter after dark, in just enough time for my 8pm train home. I was very glad in the end that I had left myself such generous timing.

Total 106.5 miles / 171.4 km for the ride. My 177th century ever, and 82nd consecutive month.
strava here

Start of the day above Swanage
20251015 Dorset coast ride (2) Durlstone.jpg


Sunny spell near Lulworth
20251015 Dorset coast ride (10).jpg


Gear cable bodge - attached to bolt on seat stay. I could adjust the tension by stopping, unscrewing and pulling it looser or tighter.
20251015 Dorset coast ride (20) broken cable bodge.jpg
 

13 rider

Guru
Location
leicester
October's is now in the bag, done on Wednesday 15th when I rode along the Dorset and East Devon coasts from Swanage to Exeter. I had made this trip especially in order to get this month's century on some less familiar roads with good scenery, and came down the day before by train, finished off by a ride through the New Forest and Bournemouth to get to Swanage YHA.

I knew it was going to be a hilly route, with numerous descents to sea level followed by stiff climbs back up, so left myself what I thought was plenty of time, and even got in a bit of sightseeing around Swanage and the hill fort of Maiden Castle outside Dorchester. Then, at about 35 miles my rear gear cable snapped, leaving me with only two gears using the front chainrings. I thought of abandoning at this point, and if I had had an internet signal to check the train times I might well have done so, but instead I managed to rig up the remaining cable to a bolt on the seat stays so that I could, by fixing this cable tighter, force the derailleur inwards and so set the two gears lower in the range for climbing, and then loosen them again on the flat. It was a very manual process but without it I would have never had a gear range sufficient for the steepest climbs and not cripplingly slow elsewhere.

I made it to Bridport for a quick lunch stop, concluded that it was OK if slow, and decided to carry on. Never ideal though and I did a lot of very slow grinding up hills, and later on changed my route to avoid the worst of them, but I made it to Exeter after dark, in just enough time for my 8pm train home. I was very glad in the end that I had left myself such generous timing.

Total 106.5 miles / 171.4 km for the ride. My 177th century ever, and 82nd consecutive month.
strava here

Start of the day above Swanage
View attachment 790333

Sunny spell near Lulworth
View attachment 790334

Gear cable bodge - attached to bolt on seat stay. I could adjust the tension by stopping, unscrewing and pulling it looser or tighter.
View attachment 790335
Well done on carrying on and a good roadside hack
 
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