IOW Randonee this Sunday

martin said:

I am going for this but need to start as early as poss (ie before 10 am). Is there usually any
problem getting over with bike on the Portsmouth-Fishbourne Ferry? Don't want to book a specific
sailing due to the vagueries of South Central Trains.

No need to go round to the car ferry. Just come over on the catamaran from Portsmouth train station
to Ryde pier head. And no need to book on either ferry if just bringing a cycle.

Jan

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.

Quoted message said:

No need to go round to the car ferry. Just come over on the catamaran from Portsmouth train
station to Ryde pier head. And no need to book on either ferry if just bringing a cycle.

Thanks, I used the Fishbourne route as did not fancy riding up the main road from Ryde. Excellent
ride. Much harder than L2B. Harder than a few 200k's in fact.Anyone who has not done it, make a
diary date for next year.

martin said:

.

Quoted message said:

No need to go round to the car ferry. Just come over on the catamaran from Portsmouth train
station to Ryde pier head. And no need to book on either ferry if just bringing a cycle.

Thanks, I used the Fishbourne route as did not fancy riding up the main road from Ryde. Excellent
ride. Much harder than L2B. Harder than a few 200k's in fact.Anyone who has not done it, make a
diary date for next year.

Glad you enjoyed your day. Wasn't the weather fantastic. After reading the local paper I realised
that the nearest start checkpoint for you mainlanders would probably be Havenstreet, so Fishbourne
would have been the best route over.

Jan

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In article said:

Excellent ride. Much harder than L2B. Harder than a few 200k's in fact.Anyone who has not done it,
make a diary date for next year.

It was certainly knackering with the wind and the hills! I made the loop 66 miles and completed it
in 3h59m. The weather was fantastic; my arms are brown and I have helmets strap marks on my face!

See you next year!

Mark

Mark Drayton said:

In article said:

Excellent ride. Much harder than L2B. Harder than a few 200k's in fact.Anyone who has not done
it, make a diary date for next year.

It was certainly knackering with the wind and the hills! I made the loop 66 miles and completed it
in 3h59m. The weather was fantastic;

I started (with my daughter, 15) from Yarmouth and we had the hardest wind and hills first. I
decided on the bike, not the trice, and it was still a real grovel at times, but mostly enjoyable.
Best part was reaching the top of Blackgang with an ice cream van serving tea and cakes. It took us
just under five hours riding but we left it a bit late, requiring some hard bit and bit averaging
20mph+ to make the cut by just three minutes. Worst bit was no tea at the finish :-(( , so it was a
grumbling slog back up to Totland YH.

Anyone know how many rode? It didn't seem to be that many, yet 1000+ rode last year.

Today, the ride home was perfect. 60 miles tailwind all the way.

John B

John B said:

Mark Drayton said:

In article said:

Excellent ride. Much harder than L2B. Harder than a few 200k's in fact.Anyone who has not done
it, make a diary date for next year.

It was certainly knackering with the wind and the hills! I made the loop 66 miles and completed
it in 3h59m. The weather was fantastic;

Blimey. My wife says that's not possible :-).

Quoted message said:

I started (with my daughter, 15) from Yarmouth and we had the hardest wind and hills first. I
decided on the bike, not the trice, and it was still a real grovel at times, but mostly enjoyable.
Best part was reaching the top of Blackgang with an ice cream van serving tea and cakes. It took us
just under five hours riding but we left it a bit late, requiring some hard bit and bit avearaging
20mph+ to make the cut by just three minutes. Worst bit was no tea at the finish :-(( , so it was a
grumbling slog back up to Totland YH.

Five hours? Good going. Top marks to that 15 y.o daughter.

We did it on our Pino funny looking tandem along with two not-so-keen-cycling friends on solos and
took 9 hours dead.

We had three punctures between us, the first on the way to the start when my friend the Cheating
Czech had his about to disintegrate front tyre go off with a bang. Mr. Organised here had put a
folding tyre in the luggage so we fitted that and my only spare tube. (My friends were less well
prepared, carrying no spares).

We got a snake bite somewhere near Wroxall and I couldn't find the holes nor get the bloody valve
ring off. Bum. A bit of smart thinking and use of a bottle opener on my swiss army knife as a wrench
did the trick.

The third was when the folding tyre unmounted itself from the Cheating Czech's front wheel (the rim
was a bit wide for the 23mm tyre I think). The inner tube had a hole about a quarter of an inch wide
and half an inch long and we had no spare. (at this point Cat Head (the other friend) remarked it
would be useful to carry spare innertubes on a ride like this. I nearly did him an unpleasantness.)
A big patch reinforced with insulating tape did the job. A nice bodge.

And we got interviewed by the local paper at the Havenstreet start.

Tim
--

fast and gripping, non pompous, glossy and credible.

In article said:

Quoted message said:

Mark Drayton said:

It was certainly knackering with the wind and the hills! I made the loop 66 miles and
completed it in 3h59m. The weather was fantastic;

Blimey. My wife says that's not possible :-).

My legs agree!

Quoted message said:

And we got interviewed by the local paper at the Havenstreet start.

We got interviewed by Cycling Weekly at Havenstreet 🙂

Cheers,

Mark