Ripcor host two Time Trials in the Spring and Autumn on the Drift Road circuit, Ascot. For anyone who hasn't time trialed before, it is often referred to as the race of truth. It is pretty simple. You vs a clock over a set distance. Fastest person wins.
Early starts, long rides and taking full advantage of the longer daylight is key at this time of the year. 10000km.cc is a collective of cyclists who are about going far and not necessarily going fast. The Blue Egg Audax was a fantastic ride with about 30 cyclists travelling out north of London to the cycling cafe The Blue Egg. We encountered many punctures, gravel roads, great company and coffee.
We all go out for our regular weekend rides. We have a leisurely coffee stop. We eat some cake. We pedal home.
85km with brilliant company is a great ride and a full morning on the road. 160km spent exploring is one of the most perfect ways to make the most of every hour offered up by the long, bright, sunny days of summer.
But what happens when you keep going? When you've seen the sun come up and watched it set again? When you've turn on your lights on and pedal into the darkening road ahead with no intention of going home?
What happens when you spend 24 hours straight on the bike?
I've always been one for a spontaneous challenge. Each year these seem to become more and more unrealistic, as I set myself targets that are daunting, but just the right side of the achievable to remain tantalising doable (just).
Most recently, I spent the last few days of summer 2015 cycling across Romania and climbing the legendary Transfăgărășan and Carpathian Mountain range. Covering 800km in 5 days, and taking in more than 13,200m of climbing, I rode with a team of riders across Romania. From Bacau, we headed over the Transfăgărășan (voted the most beautiful road in the world), across the Carpathian Mountains, into Transylvania and finished exhausted, sick from altitude and and sun stroke, but incredibly proud at Sinana.
With pain and suffering from the last challenge having faded, leaving behind just the enjoyable memories collected along the way, the question soon reared its head: what's next?
In a bid to answer it, I thought about my strengths. I used to race track. I train for power. I can go flat out over short distances.
And then I headed to the other end of the spectrum: endurance. Going far is something I know, but not well. I've never truly tested how far I can go (both literally and metaphorically speaking) and where my limits lie. In that unknown lies the excitement, the trepidation and the challenge.
That's why, on the 18th and 19th June 2016 – the weekend of the summer solstice – myself and Chris Pressdee will be cycling around Richmond Park for 24 Hours.
The ride is not just an opportunity to hammer myself into the ground. It has a greater purpose: to raise money for The PACE Centre, a charity my cycle team, Ripcor, has supported for 10 years. A family-centred charity, PACE provides an innovative education for life to children with sensory motor disorders. It's based on a belief in each child’s ability to learn and they tailor that service to their individual needs. The unrelenting, inspiring work of every member of staff transforms the lives of the children that they help.
On the Richmond 24, the aim is to get as many other riders and clubs involved as possible. Minute men, pace setters, wind buffers, friendly faces, domestiques, fresh legs, a change in conversation – the involvement of everyone and anyone will be integral to getting us through the daylight element of the challenge.
When night falls, it will just be Elvis and I, grinding it out in the dark. Our only company will be each other and the deer that roam the park.
Until then, the training continues. So far, it's been weeks of as big a distances as I can muster. Anything from 240-320km can climb to more than double that as I head out on long, weekend rides. With seven weeks to go, the mileage keeps increasing. I'm mixing early morning rides with cycles that begin in the middle of the night and high intensity turbo sessions as I try to acclimatise my (increasingly aching) body to functioning well on a bike at during its darkest hours. Advised to focus on my heart rate (and keeping it low), attacks off the front and chasing down those riders in the distance remains tempting, but is something I'm learning to do less of.
I've no doubt that what lies ahead is going to be brutal. There are going to be times when I want to throw down my bike and admit defeat. Beyond the support of the day, I know what will get me through each of those 1,440 increasingly grueling minutes will be the effect the money raised as a result of the challenge will have on The PACE Centre and the lives it touches.
Distance and hours on the bike remain King. I don't know how many kilometres we'll have clocked up by the time we see our second dawn, but whatever it is, it'll be a first and a Richmond Park record.
As Berkshire’s premier cycling collective In Ripcor and down right good folk, we are celebrating our 10th Anniversary this year by aiming to raise £20,000 for our friends at The PACE Centre.
To date we have cycled over 3,500 miles and helped raise in excess of £500,000 for them. Whilst our team continues to grow our commitment to our charity remains as strong as ever and is an integral part of our DNA.
Please feel free to sponsor us here and in doing so, help the children who are a constant source of inspiration for us.
It's all good.
Team Ripcor is a cycle club like no other. Formed in 2006, membership is exclusively limited to lovers of beer, cake, chips and cycling who share a serious ability to laugh at each other and more importantly themselves.
We ride socially. We race occasionally. We also raise money for The PACE Centre and to date have cycled over 30,000 miles and helped raise in excess of £500,000 for them.
Ripcor the Movie is a celebration of the unique culture of our club. Filmed one Summer by John Scrivener & the team at Let’s Talk Film and climaxing with our attempt to conquer the fabled Alpe D’Huez, it has gone on to win film awards both in the UK & the US, and is available for you to enjoy here:
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/ripcormovie
It’s not big. It’s not clever. But, it’s all good!
So, 10 years in the making; it finally came. The date was the 24th January 2016, a surprisingly warm and crisp start to the day for the 14th round of the London Cyclocross League held at Redbridge Cycle Centre, NE. The race itself was an hour long and you had to do as many laps as you could in that time.
The route was described as 'fast' and largely on 'graveled' mountain bike paths, but due to the heavy rain on Saturday it meant that the grounds were nicely prepared for what would soon become a mud bath.
I was racing in the Seniors category, the last of the day. There had already been another 5 or so races earlier on in the morning, meaning that the circuit was a mud bath! As a completely unseeded rider, I started in last place and had to watch everyone else line up before me. It was great to see CX racers who had just returned from the British Championships lining up, knowing that we were in the same race.
The start was well and truly in a swamp with every rider opting to run rather than cycle off, something at Ripcor we are not always the biggest fans of. So in true Belgian style the Van Dessel steed was slung over the shoulder ready for the run through the marshes, something I had got used to from doing a few Tough Mudders.
The race was of a faster tempo as we progressed up the hills with some traction on the ground to allow you to pedal and even take a few of the jumps but the lower parts of the course were truly a mud pie. 2 laps in and I had to stop to rip the mud off from around the no longer working brakes and a crank that simply would not turn. At this point all bikes had become single speeds or the rear mechs had been destroyed causing riders to abandon. This is a point where a team mate would have been useful with a spare bike and a quick jet wash.
I came 32nd. It doesn't sound that impressive but when starting in last place (roughly 60th) with a handful of abandonments on what many were saying was one of the most fun but toughest routes of the league was, to me more than good enough! To even finish this race was a real achievement considering the amount of riders abandoning through damaged bikes or just not brave enough to deal with all the mud.
I have to say I was truly astounded by just how good my Cyclocross bike was considering the conditions. Sometimes it pays to see what the Belgians ride (the kings of this sport) and many choose Van Dessel’s.
We all have to start somewhere so onwards and upwards with Ripcor Racing in 2016.
