Ride with Brad

[Benmac]

Anyone else on here doing this tomorrow?

Am doing the 100k myself. Officially this is because I want to get back in time to watch the Man City vs Saints game; unofficially it's because I'm not used to that size of hill at the moment so 160km with that amount of climbing was a bit of an ask.

Eschewed going to get my number this afternoon which would have been a nice run in the Exige and am now regretting it as it'll add more faff to the morning.

[aspender]

I'm doing the 160km but currently looking around at the scenery and feeling a little bit anxious. It isn't this hilly in Hertfordshire :-) sure it will be fine!

[yellowjack]

No chance, as it's far too far Oop North for me. My ears would pop and all sorts going up that far

[phil-sti]

Well just seem a few of them riding around
billington, there where no smiley faces and the weather is awful.

[Benmac]

Back home now. Was good but the climbs, oh the climbs. The two bigguns, waddington Fell and nick o'pendle were fine, hard but able to pace myself nicely and finished strong. After Nick o'pendle though onto smaller roads (which were my only criticism of the route as some of them had grass running down the middle) it was evil as it just kept going up and down. Down was hard given the weather and the state of the roads (earlier in the day I'd topped 60 coming down Waddington Fell!) and up was just ha as the gradients were often severe. Loads of people pushing which I refuse to do but I did stop and have a couple of breathers mid climb.

I did get to "ride with Brad" for, ooooh, 2 seconds as he sailed past me on one of the later climbs. Annoying as it was just before the top and after that was a fairly gradual descent so might have had a chance with staying on his wheel for a little while if he'd been along 30 seconds later or if i'd been 30 seconds faster of course! Ah well.

What was nice was all the people out on the route. Every village had people waving and cheering you along (all there waiting for Brad to go by really but it was nice nonetheless).

Bike is fking filthy.

[aspender]

Just drove hOme two hundred miles hoping my legs didn't start cramping again... At one point on a high teens gradient in the last twenty miles I did a good impression of an upside down ant as I lay on my back, legs in the air trying to bring them back to life

To quote Wiggo himself: I didnt actually know it was that hard. The last twenty miles were brutal

[rhinochopig]

Benmac said:

Back home now. Was good but the climbs, oh the climbs. The two bigguns, waddington Fell and nick o'pendle were fine, hard but able to pace myself nicely and finished strong. After Nick o'pendle though onto smaller roads (which were my only criticism of the route as some of them had grass running down the middle) it was evil as it just kept going up and down. Down was hard given the weather and the state of the roads (earlier in the day I'd topped 60 coming down Waddington Fell!) and up was just ha as the gradients were often severe. Loads of people pushing which I refuse to do but I did stop and have a couple of breathers mid climb.

I did get to "ride with Brad" for, ooooh, 2 seconds as he sailed past me on one of the later climbs. Annoying as it was just before the top and after that was a fairly gradual descent so might have had a chance with staying on his wheel for a little while if he'd been along 30 seconds later or if i'd been 30 seconds faster of course! Ah well.

What was nice was all the people out on the route. Every village had people waving and cheering you along (all there waiting for Brad to go by really but it was nice nonetheless).

[b]Bike is fking filthy./b]

Well done mate. New wheels work ok?

[Anthony Micallef]

Benmac said:

Back home now. Was good but the climbs, oh the climbs. The two bigguns, waddington Fell and nick o'pendle were fine, hard but able to pace myself nicely and finished strong. After Nick o'pendle though onto smaller roads (which were my only criticism of the route as some of them had grass running down the middle) it was evil as it just kept going up and down. Down was hard given the weather and the state of the roads (earlier in the day I'd topped 60 coming down Waddington Fell!) and up was just ha as the gradients were often severe. Loads of people pushing which I refuse to do but I did stop and have a couple of breathers mid climb.

I did get to "ride with Brad" for, ooooh, 2 seconds as he sailed past me on one of the later climbs. Annoying as it was just before the top and after that was a fairly gradual descent so might have had a chance with staying on his wheel for a little while if he'd been along 30 seconds later or if i'd been 30 seconds faster of course! Ah well.

What was nice was all the people out on the route. Every village had people waving and cheering you along (all there waiting for Brad to go by really but it was nice nonetheless).

Bike is fking filthy.

Well done! I live in the Pendle area and im new to cycling so find it difficult to go on routes that arent too hilly. I drove over the Nick of Pendle today as i went to Waddington for lunch. Saw lots of cyclists struggling up the Nick and felt sorry for them as they had another big climb ahead of them coming out of Sabden!

[Benmac]

rhinochopig said:

Well done mate. New wheels work ok?

Ya. Yeah, they're great. A lot more zip in them when it heads up than my other sets.