TdMB minus 54 days
Bike of choice : Kap ... bit pointless this line innit ?
Distance : 94Km
metres climbed : +1090m
It's been a threatening stormy day all day today but the plan was to slope off from work "early" at 5pm and put in the first long commute home of the year. This means riding past the start of the normal climb to Lans and heading West and round the side of the vercors in the direction of Valence.
The target was to ride up the Gorge des Ecouges, a fantastic scar in the west flank of the Vercors, then over the Col de Romayer down into the Gorge de la Bourne and then up to the plateau and hence Lans. It's the simplest long commute available ....
Did you spot the fact that the was, was in bold ?
So we headed off, Fred and I again, straight into a fierce headwind and assumed the 2-up formation taking 2Km turns .... absolutely HAMMERED the first 35Kms !
We were well warmed up by the time we got to the bottom of the climb, and then deflated as we rode past the sign telling us the climb was closed. Popped into the wee village and went to ask what was wrong at the Marie (toon hall) ... is it really closed or can we sneak past the edge of the roadworks with our bikes ?
Turns out there's been another massive rockfall up by the tunnel near the top. The road is completely blocked and as it's been cut into the rockface itself, sneaking round the side would require climbing gear that we don't have in our jersey pockets .... merde !!!! This is the 2nd time we've been spurned by this climb. Same thing happened at the same place 2 years ago. It's one of the harards of living on a limestone massif. Looks like it'll be closed all summer too as they don't even have a date for the surveyor to come and look at it.
Shame as it's a superb climb.
OK so we can jump on the tailwind and be back in Grenoble in jig time or head into that headwind for another 25Kms to Pont en Royans and salvage the ride by going all the way up the Bourne ... the other option is Nan - Malevas - Romayere - bourne but it's already too late for that one.
Headwind it is. By the time we actually started climbing we had over 60Kms of thrashing into a headwind on the flat in our legs, that's not something I do but I guess it's all good preparation.
The climb up the Gorge passes quickly even with a 10min phonecall stop along the way and before long the mental calculations are estimating a ride distance of 94ish Kms .... laps round the village are planned to bring it up to the metric ton.
With 10Km's to go the storm that has threatened all day unleashes itself and the importance of metric tons are rapidly washed away. 94 it is for the day :O)
Magic - oh yeah Fred ... he still had to ride down my regular commute to Grenoble, I offered him my car but we both knew that he was already as wet as he was going to get and it's just as fast on the bike.
Another great ride and more burny leg pain so it must have been useful
Showing posts with label commute. Show all posts
Showing posts with label commute. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
TdMB : around the world in 80 days
Bike of choice : Kap
Distance : 30Km
metres climbed : +830
They say you can go around the world in 80days .... so if that's true, it's gotta be long enough to get ready to ride a teeny fraction of that distance.
It was hot today and I knew I was dehydrated when I left the office but a last wee moment of bravado with one of my readers (I've got 2 now, my distribution doubled overnight) had me promising to put in a 1000m climb tonight just because it's another arbitrary number to tick off. The theory was simple, ride up th commute, go straight past the house, stop at the boulangerie and grab a cake before riding on up to the ski station and scoffing said cake in the dying embers of another spectacular spring evening in the Alps.
Did I mention I got a bit delayed leaving the office and I was dehydrated ?
Neither of these things were a problem till I hit the bottom of the climb, 100mtrs later I knew it wasn't going to be hurty :O( .... and was it only yesterday that I said " the fatigue of those first rides is already gone and the dull pain of a lot of effort hasn't arrived yet " NEVER say stuff like that and definately don't write it down.
I slogged and huffed and puffed for 20mins then pulled over to rummage in the bottom of my sack for an energy bar I knew I'd seen. A Trans-Provencian Mule bar was retrieved and scoffed and on we trudged. It hurt a lot all the way but this is a good thing, it's going to hurt a wee bit more on the day, aclimitisation is a necessary evil.
Thankfully the higher I went the cooler the air was and the pain eased - perhaps it was the mule bar, who knows but my mind turned back to the 1000m chat. I'm behind schedule but the boulanger won't be, by the time I get there it's going to be closed and the cake was going to evaporate like a snatched away carrot.
I'll do it anyway, I told Rob I would, stuff that I'm tired and I can make a cake at home, the 1000m can wait for another day ... but it was a baby step it needs to happen - eh WHY we've still got 80days to go and you can go round the world in that time, allegedly .... thinking hard, Lans is in sight. OK new plan instead of riding through the village past the tauntingly closed cake shop I'll ride up the other side of the valley to the Croix Perrin and back down thereby achieving the nominal number.
200m to the top of the climb - I like that plan it works !
150m to the top of the climb - like hell it does, were tired and need to play the long game
100m to the top of the climb - no comon we said we would
90m .... pfffft
85m .... aye but it's important
80m to go to the roundabout and a car draws alongside .... quick glance left, hey it's Wendy of the Chant !
whatyoudoinghere ?
I'm coming to visit you
Hey fantastic, team car with a spare bike on he roof and all thoughts of another 200m climbing are gone.
It was a good decision, the target lives for another day and the legs deserved the break.
Oh and another great thing happened, waaaaay back down there a third of the way up the climb, a car passed me with wee kids I've never seen before hanging out the window.
And they barked at me :O)
Distance : 30Km
metres climbed : +830
They say you can go around the world in 80days .... so if that's true, it's gotta be long enough to get ready to ride a teeny fraction of that distance.
It was hot today and I knew I was dehydrated when I left the office but a last wee moment of bravado with one of my readers (I've got 2 now, my distribution doubled overnight) had me promising to put in a 1000m climb tonight just because it's another arbitrary number to tick off. The theory was simple, ride up th commute, go straight past the house, stop at the boulangerie and grab a cake before riding on up to the ski station and scoffing said cake in the dying embers of another spectacular spring evening in the Alps.
Did I mention I got a bit delayed leaving the office and I was dehydrated ?
Neither of these things were a problem till I hit the bottom of the climb, 100mtrs later I knew it wasn't going to be hurty :O( .... and was it only yesterday that I said " the fatigue of those first rides is already gone and the dull pain of a lot of effort hasn't arrived yet " NEVER say stuff like that and definately don't write it down.
I slogged and huffed and puffed for 20mins then pulled over to rummage in the bottom of my sack for an energy bar I knew I'd seen. A Trans-Provencian Mule bar was retrieved and scoffed and on we trudged. It hurt a lot all the way but this is a good thing, it's going to hurt a wee bit more on the day, aclimitisation is a necessary evil.
Thankfully the higher I went the cooler the air was and the pain eased - perhaps it was the mule bar, who knows but my mind turned back to the 1000m chat. I'm behind schedule but the boulanger won't be, by the time I get there it's going to be closed and the cake was going to evaporate like a snatched away carrot.
I'll do it anyway, I told Rob I would, stuff that I'm tired and I can make a cake at home, the 1000m can wait for another day ... but it was a baby step it needs to happen - eh WHY we've still got 80days to go and you can go round the world in that time, allegedly .... thinking hard, Lans is in sight. OK new plan instead of riding through the village past the tauntingly closed cake shop I'll ride up the other side of the valley to the Croix Perrin and back down thereby achieving the nominal number.
200m to the top of the climb - I like that plan it works !
150m to the top of the climb - like hell it does, were tired and need to play the long game
100m to the top of the climb - no comon we said we would
90m .... pfffft
85m .... aye but it's important
80m to go to the roundabout and a car draws alongside .... quick glance left, hey it's Wendy of the Chant !
whatyoudoinghere ?
I'm coming to visit you
Hey fantastic, team car with a spare bike on he roof and all thoughts of another 200m climbing are gone.
It was a good decision, the target lives for another day and the legs deserved the break.
Oh and another great thing happened, waaaaay back down there a third of the way up the climb, a car passed me with wee kids I've never seen before hanging out the window.
And they barked at me :O)
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
TdMB minus 81 days
Bike of choice : Kap
Distance : 50Km
metres climbed : +430 ish
With a couple of reasons to stay up on the plateau today, I decided to work from home. This has several advantages and one disadvantage - no commute.
The first advantage being that I could wear my cycling gear all day with the bike parked up next to my desk ready to roll as soon as a window of opporchancity presented itself ... surprisingly that didn't actually come until the early afternoon as the morning was full of conf calls and a couple of reports. At 2pm the gap appeared and I was out in the sunshine spinning down the road before the last mail even got out of my outbox.
I had to go to the next village to pay some bills and was soon out on the back road spinning up the first climb. I'm stunned again to find how fast my body has reacted to the demands of exercise again, the fatigue of those first rides is already gone and the dull pain of a lot of effort hasn't arrived yet. Small climbs were being thrashed and the big ring hammered every time it could be engaged. Round trip was a joy, paying the bills wasn't and I was back at the desk with only a small pile of new demands to deal with.
At the end of the afternoon, I shut down the laptop and commuted back to where I'd been sitting before firing up the coffee machine. 50Km's in a working afternoon can't be sniffed at ... long may it last !
Distance : 50Km
metres climbed : +430 ish
With a couple of reasons to stay up on the plateau today, I decided to work from home. This has several advantages and one disadvantage - no commute.
The first advantage being that I could wear my cycling gear all day with the bike parked up next to my desk ready to roll as soon as a window of opporchancity presented itself ... surprisingly that didn't actually come until the early afternoon as the morning was full of conf calls and a couple of reports. At 2pm the gap appeared and I was out in the sunshine spinning down the road before the last mail even got out of my outbox.
I had to go to the next village to pay some bills and was soon out on the back road spinning up the first climb. I'm stunned again to find how fast my body has reacted to the demands of exercise again, the fatigue of those first rides is already gone and the dull pain of a lot of effort hasn't arrived yet. Small climbs were being thrashed and the big ring hammered every time it could be engaged. Round trip was a joy, paying the bills wasn't and I was back at the desk with only a small pile of new demands to deal with.
At the end of the afternoon, I shut down the laptop and commuted back to where I'd been sitting before firing up the coffee machine. 50Km's in a working afternoon can't be sniffed at ... long may it last !
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
TdMB minus 82 days
Bike of choice : Kap
Distance : 33Km
metres climbed : +830
Commute home - Grenoble, Sassenage, eh-hop-up-we-go, Lans and then a spin on the plateau
If you look at the numbers you might note a slightly gratuitous "10%" theme to this ride ;o)
Plan (a) was to get up early today and go for a big ride before work, plan (b) was to get out at lunchtime instead, plan (c) was in itself nearly scuppered but thankfully salvaged.
A simple commute up the hill from work with a wee lap on the plateau just to hit the 33Km mark although by definition I overcooked the perfect tenth in altitude. It gave me an idea though, will look for a loop that give's me some unimportant percentage of the TdMB with no overall altitude difference to keep my engineering mentality occupied.
I'm not really sure why the muscle memory is there but I'm oh so glad that it is, ride felt easy, I wasn't pushing it at all, left the office tired (in glorious sunshine) and still put in a very respectable 63mins for the climb itself so I'm just a little bit pleased with myself tonight.
The engines are running and it would appear that they didn't sieze up and go rusty during the down-time. Time to start planning some stepping stones to up the game and build some of that stamina stuff (and get a bit more regular with the plan)
Confidence level jumps up from 14 to 17.3% as a result
Distance : 33Km
metres climbed : +830
Commute home - Grenoble, Sassenage, eh-hop-up-we-go, Lans and then a spin on the plateau
If you look at the numbers you might note a slightly gratuitous "10%" theme to this ride ;o)
Plan (a) was to get up early today and go for a big ride before work, plan (b) was to get out at lunchtime instead, plan (c) was in itself nearly scuppered but thankfully salvaged.
A simple commute up the hill from work with a wee lap on the plateau just to hit the 33Km mark although by definition I overcooked the perfect tenth in altitude. It gave me an idea though, will look for a loop that give's me some unimportant percentage of the TdMB with no overall altitude difference to keep my engineering mentality occupied.
I'm not really sure why the muscle memory is there but I'm oh so glad that it is, ride felt easy, I wasn't pushing it at all, left the office tired (in glorious sunshine) and still put in a very respectable 63mins for the climb itself so I'm just a little bit pleased with myself tonight.
The engines are running and it would appear that they didn't sieze up and go rusty during the down-time. Time to start planning some stepping stones to up the game and build some of that stamina stuff (and get a bit more regular with the plan)
Confidence level jumps up from 14 to 17.3% as a result
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