We all use it.. The phrase 'if it's not on Strava it didn't happen' is something we have all heard many times as well. Why not give me a follow:
Prudential Ride London 100
We agreed to ride it as a team. That was the plan.
On the 31st July a budding group of 4 Ripcor Riders were lined up at the start of the Prudential Ride London 100. We entered as a team through the British cycling scheme allowing affiliated clubs to enter a team to race together and aim for the best time.
The Route; 100 miles of closed roads through London, into Surrey and back into the city finishing on The Mall outside Buckingham Palace.
The Elevation; There were a few major climbs, Leith Hill, Box Hill and Wimbledon Hill (chucked in at the end providing the main challenges over the 100 mile loop.
The Weather; Dry, slightly windy but warm. Much better than previous years with the 2013 rendition having the aftermath of a hurricane to deal with.
With thousands of riders taking part in what is known as the largest festival of cycling the roads, even though closed were busy with riders able to take up the full width. One major incident caused us to be delayed for roughly an hour and lead to a bit of impromptu cyclocross along a public footpath.
Leith Hill is always a challenging climb but with this number of riders along the relatively narrow lane added to the need to keep your head sharp, similarly with Box Hill but things seemed more leisurely by that point for our team.
We finished the 100 mile route in 5 hours dead, crossing the line next to eachother, a tremendous effort for all involved and great fun. We will be back next year!
Fizik Saddles
A key thing about being able to plough down more and more miles adding further and further distances are making sure you comfortable.
Fizik has always been a brand that I have used with saddles due to finding the range comfy, flexible, light and strong. I rode the 24 hours around Richmond Park on an Arione R3 and Antares R5 which allowed for different positions on two different bicycles and had slightly different sit bone resting points. Crossing between the two on the two different bikes allowed for a change in positioning and flexibility.
Currently, Fizik and myself are collaborating to work out what is the best saddle for myself for long distance ultra endurance. They have kindly provided me 3 different saddles to use:
Each of these saddles I will be putting through their paces and seeing how my body reacts and responds to each of them, so far I have put a few miles down on the Kurve and the strength and flexibility in the saddle feels great. Lets see how it goes over a longer distance. This weekend will be the first real test for the Arione K1, being used on a cycle from one coast to the other.
Workshop Coffee
Cycling and coffee. Two things that go hand in hand. Before, after or during a ride, it all works. That wake up caffeine hit, mid ride motivational boost or a means to an end to cause an excuse to talk about the bike, off the bike. Workshop Coffee had been a regular on my list of breakfast after training places, have a look at this little video done by the lovely chaps at Let's Talk Films.
The Telegraph London Cycle Sportive powered by Maserati
On the 26th June on what was a chilly start to the day, but fresh, dry and a great start to a Sunday out in the hills of Surrey.
The route itself is 166km and heads out into the North Downs offering stunning views over the Kent and Surrey countryside and Biggin Hill, then the route heads towards Reigate and Dorking where you get to tackle a timed climb of Box Hill. The route climbs 1098 meters and has a max elevation of 275 meters. Finally you return into London for a spin around the iconic Herne Hill Velodrome, a place where Sir Bradley Wiggins himself trained as a kid!
Heres my ride:
Richmond 24: Cycling for 24 hours around London's Richmond Park
The big day came, and went. 24 hours around London's iconic Richmond Park. It was a mammoth challenge to ride for 24 hours around a 6 mile loop. 520km were covered, 4168m were climbed, and at least 143 chocolate bars 4 pizzas, countless waterbottles and hundreds of coffees were consumed.
Focus Challenge
In collaboration with Focus Bikes, 9 different cyclists were selected from a mix of backgrounds and disciplines to ride and race some of the German bicycle brand's bikes. As a fan of Focus already this became too good of an opportunity to turn down. Each rider has been setting their own personal #focuschallenge which you can follow through that hashtag.
The Bike:
Get ahead of the disc brake revolution, and your opposition, with the Focus Izalco Max Disc Dura Ace Road Bike 2016. A race ready disc equipped road bike, rather than just disc brakes added to an existing model, this is a showcase of German engineering at its very best.
The phenomenal Izalco Max P2T 10 Disc Carbon fibre frame weighs just 790 grams, with the Izalco Max P2T 10 Carbon T4 fork adding a mere 325 grams. Thanks to their revolutionary Rapid Axle Technology (RAT), this slight weight increase over the calliper version also comes with a stiffness increase. RAT gives the excellent strength and lateral stiffness of thru axles with the fastest wheel-change system ever.
The carbon fibre fork comes from one seamless piece gives superb lateral stiffness for performance, with the necessary shock absorption to remove the vibrations coming from the road to boost comfort. The tapered headtube adds stiffness. The lengthened chainstays additionally contribute to the handling.
Having worked with the AG2R La Mondiale team, Focus now individually designs each frame size so that all of them offer the perfect balance of stiffness to weight that their engineers desire. The professional touch continues with the internalisation of cable routing, with all the necessary space for electronic groupsets.
Superb quality is continued with the Shimano Dura Ace 9000 eleven speed parts. More carbon fibre is added by the FSA SL-K crankset that allows efficient power transfer. Weight is also saved with the inclusion of a stylish Fizik Cryano handlebars and exceptional Antares R5 Manganese saddle that is comfortable and pressure relieving.
Finally the DT Swiss R23 tubeless ready wheels offer you the snappy response you would want from this bike that is undeniably ready to race. Thankfully, should you just want it to rack of some fast miles of recreational riding, then the carbon seatpost adds another level of comfort to that already provided by the saddle and excellent frame design.
London-Brighton-London, Through The Night
As part of the preparation and training for the Richmond 24, James Berry and myself ventured out to ride London to Brighton, and back through the night. It's well known I am not the biggest fan of night riding and this hilly 220km route is not one for the faint hearted and equally challenging as the sun starts to set hitting the country lanes.
Silverstone Team Time Trial
Ripcor decided that, now was the perfect time to start with some more racing, a 9 man time trial at Silverstone, an experience not to be turned down.
The idea of the event was that we had to cycle three laps of the GP circuit (17.3 gruelling Kilometres) as fast as we could and the 5th team member across the line stopped the clock. Tactics were discussed and it was agreed (unanimously) that we would ride as a unit and not shell riders out the back as they had finished their super-human effort. Other teams chose to adopt the opposite approach and we frequently passed these discarded strays looking spent and glum as they slowly returned to the pits rolling gently around off the racing line.
88 teams were registered and with 9 members per team that makes 792 riders. Teams rolled off at one minute intervals starting at 1900 sharp. We were allocated team number 66 and a departure time of 19:04.
We finished together as a team with a time of 26 mins and 58 seconds. By no means the quickest but it made for an experience for all to have finished together as a team.
Ripcor 10 Mile Time Trial
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- The Blue Egg Audax
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.
Richmond24- The Preperation
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.
The PACE Centre
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.
Ripcor The Movie
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!
London Cyclocross League
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.