RR Oakham 150/160/170

vernon said:

Hills - grumble, grumble,
I thought Rutland was mean to be flat grumble, grumble,
So that's what they've done with the [censored] heaps from the coal fields - build
Audax routes on top of them
Too hilly for badgers....
Too wet too!
If Newton hadn't discovered gravity perhaps I wouldn't have suffered so much

FWIW "flat" wasn't any better than "hilly" yesterday. I rode to
Cambridge and back (211km round trip) and the wind across the Fens was a
bully.

Luckily, it backed more SW later in the day so blew me along Ten Mile
Bank at a rare rate of knots.
This was my first 200+ for 20 months and I'm looking forward to booking
some official Audaxes now. My time was 11.25 hours, average 18ish kph.

One thought that helped to keep me going through the low spots was the
fact that whilst I was doing 200 in the flattest part of the country,
the Elenith chaps were doing 300 in the Welsh mountains 🙂

--
Chris

vernon said:

Tony, I *will* buy you a beer when our paths cross again.

Without a doubt - and just to make sure, you can do it as one of the
controls :-)

A good route, well timed weather avoidance, good company, pleasant
controls, all in all a great event. Never mind making the cut, we did
better than the bewildered masses that spent the day in garden centres
etc...

From the GPS track I see we did 156km with a total of 1548m climbing
(and 1548m descent too!), total time was 11hrs 40 min at an average
speed of 13.4kph and a maximum (somewhere) of 49.3kph.

Many thanks to the guy at the start for the advice that the course was
"not at all hilly", cheered me up no end on all the climbs.

Surprisingly, the ones that got me down were the long drags up main
roads rather than the short sharp jobbies. In fact, the chevron climb up
the Harby Hills was actually fun; does that mean I'm now certifiable??

Here's to the next one - a 300 for me out of Poynton, longest ever and a
night start to boot. Here goes...

bfn,

Tony b

Quoted message said:

Without a doubt - and just to make sure, you can do it as one of the
controls :-)

From the GPS track I see we did 156km with a total of 1548m climbing (and
1548m descent too!), total time was 11hrs 40 min at an average speed of
13.4kph and a maximum (somewhere) of 49.3kph.

An approximate gradient profile of the ride can be seen here:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=109967

Quoted message said:

Many thanks to the guy at the start for the advice that the course was
"not at all hilly", cheered me up no end on all the climbs.

Surprisingly, the ones that got me down were the long drags up main roads
rather than the short sharp jobbies. In fact, the chevron climb up the
Harby Hills was actually fun; does that mean I'm now certifiable??

What suprised me was realising that we had ridden up some of the really
enjoyable descents on the homeward leg. The long drags were soul
destroying.

Quoted message said:

Here's to the next one - a 300 for me out of Poynton, longest ever and a
night start to boot. Here goes...

Good luck with that one. Still some way to go before I tackle a 300 :-)

Vernon

Quoted message said:

FWIW "flat" wasn't any better than "hilly" yesterday. I rode to
Cambridge and back (211km round trip) and the wind across the Fens was a
bully.

I've found that flat can be as challenging as hilly when riding around Selby
and Cawood, the terrain is similar to the fens and no hedgerows to offer a
respite from the wind.

Quoted message said:

Luckily, it backed more SW later in the day so blew me along Ten Mile Bank
at a rare rate of knots.
This was my first 200+ for 20 months and I'm looking forward to booking
some official Audaxes now. My time was 11.25 hours, average 18ish kph.

Well done.

Quoted message said:

One thought that helped to keep me going through the low spots was the
fact that whilst I was doing 200 in the flattest part of the country, the
Elenith chaps were doing 300 in the Welsh mountains 🙂

I'm not one that can seek confort from others' discomfort at a romote
location, I want to be able to see them suffering ;-)

The early hills were a bit of a pain but worse on the way back. On the
good side we were lucky with the wind - I didn't get a straight
headwind until I reached the cross country diversion - hoiking bikes
over fences at 90 miles is a cruel test. Didn't quite beat the weather
back but was sustained by the bacon bab at the Methodist Hall.
Generally a nice day and next week my first 300 for four years.

"mbike" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The early hills were a bit of a pain but worse on the way back. On the
good side we were lucky with the wind - I didn't get a straight
headwind until I reached the cross country diversion - hoiking bikes
over fences at 90 miles is a cruel test.

It was possible to wheel the bikes around the maze-like barriers though it
wasn't too obvious.

Quoted message said:

Didn't quite beat the weather
back but was sustained by the bacon bab at the Methodist Hall.

We were really lucky in that we passed through the tail ends of the deluges
and were sheltered near the methodist hall when the last one passed
overhead.

Quoted message said:

Generally a nice day and next week my first 300 for four years.

It was a challenging ride and one that I'll return do do next year. I'm
currently plotting a 200km permanent which just might get done in the next
few weeks. The 300 can wait a while yet though one is on the cards for this
year.