Trans Cambrian Challenge

...and here's one for September, too: the Trans Cambrian Challenge

Team One-Ninety.....the next challenge.....

After the success of our recent Dragon adventure we need something to focus on. So here it is.....

Starting at the Gite this route follows most of the end of Stage 15 of the Tour and the start of Stage 16 but, in a compromise to fitness levels and given that we are (not yet!) pro-elite riders, does miss out the HC climb of the Port des Bales.

Just under 80 miles in total.

We would probably be best doing this on the Thursday when the tour finishes at the top of the Tourmalet but climbs it from the opposite direction from which we would be approaching. This means the roads would be open and would give us more flexibility with time.

Some stats probably worth considering:

The climb of Bwlch 2 is approximately 1300 feet

Col des Ares - 800 feet

Col de Peyresourde - 2800 feet

Col d'Aspin - 2400 feet

Col du Tourmalet - 4100 feet

Bit of a challenge! But what would Lance and Brad do.......?

Team One-Ninety.....

....just don't mention 'gelgate'........

not forgetting Phil....

who very very sensibly did the 130km route in


Phil Kruszewski
Race No: 1321
Time
06:50:47
Split 130km Elapsed
03:11:02

Excellent work Mr K.

F

and the results were

Race No Firstname Lastname 190 km Time Split 190km
1999 Sean Gerrard 08:51:53 02:57:40
2086 Rhidian Jones 09:03:41 02:57:41
1510 Jonathan Wright 08:56:07 02:57:41

Suffice to say we are all chuffed to bits and now have a benchmark for next year. Which is approximatley how long it will take me to recover......

Photos (official or otherwise) to follow.

What a fantastic experience and despite us all having to dig deep at times, it was worth the effort and also the training since October last year.

A personal huge thank you to Cal, Amy and the kids for coming along to support us, which for me kept me going (in particular at Crai, but also knowing they would be there at the end). Also another massive thank you to everyone who sponsored me. I targeted myself to raise £1000 and it has just gone to over £1200 which is brilliant.

I intend going nowhere near a bike for at least a week (which a selection of parts of my body will be very grateful for).

I will allow LTB and Tempo to openly debate "Gelgate" that ensued much controversy on the last Bwlch climb as well as overall times etc (I was sure I went over the split time mat first....) I, for one, am grateful to have a) finished and b) survived.

Farmer.

MASSIVE THANK YOU

TO ALL WHOLE SPONSORED FARMER.

THE TARGET HAS BEEN HIT......

I HOPE TO DO LLOYD AND YOU ALL PROUD.

RHID

Into the breach.....

here she is. ready for action. After some major fettling yesterday a crisis of the highest order started to emerge and it was quickly diagnosed that the precious ones rear hub was badly damaged and simply "would not do" for an event of the order of the Dragon. Thankfully one of Britains emerging talents of cycling came to the rescue and a set of race wheels were very kindly provided to see if Farmer could get up em hills a bit quicker. The rear hub is now being repaired for the pre-Tour de France expedition......

Tempo also partoke of some fettling and it seems the Scott no longer makes the sounds of a motorbike. Shame really, we will have to pack the clothes pegs and playing cards....

LTB meanwhile was indulging in some excellent preparation at the Wales Open on a "corporate"..... reports coming in last night suggest he was taking lots of carbs in the from of white wine and the evening menu at the Hardwick...... Nuff said.

Hopefully a little stretch for us all this afternoon, interspersed with major pasta in take and generally being sensible....

See you on the other side.

F

Well, here it is then. 4 days to go and the last few weeks of preparation have set me up wonderfully. Camping for three nights led to late nights, minimal sleep, lots of fish and chips and a few drinkies to wash it all down. Excellent elite athlete preparation.

Hopefully all of the winter training will kick in on Sunday and it wont matter a jot, but still a bit annoyed with myself. Oh well, bring it on Dragon.

Out tonight for a decent ride and I know LTB and tempo were out yesterday. Some mechanical tinkering to do on the precious one (which is always a bit dangerous just before you need it to work reliably!!!) and also need to stock up on Eddie Izzard quantities of energy gels etc. Lets hope there is a Mr Whippy on the route.

Blog later.

Farmer.

(number 2086)

Training continues in heat wave conditions

Apologies for the lack of blog activity, I think the team have become so focussed on putting the miles in that we have used all of our energy up!!!! Either that or we are just plain lazy.

On top of this Farmer has temporarily lost his ability to "track" rides due to a new Gooseberry phone. Both Tempo and LTB dont appear to be able to lower themsleves to track anything any more, mainly becasue they are concentrating on their split times, king of the mountains challenge and generally being very childish and indeed quite selfish.

Others have meanwhile been putting the slow steady miles in with a focus on sportife and endurance. One exception to this is Farmer wiping the floor with Tempo on last nights "30 mph sign sprint challenge".

Anyhooo. A series of really decent loooooong rides have been put in over the last few weeks, including some 50-60 milers over the mountains. We have probably covered the "top loop" of the Dragon ride a couple of times. Fingers crossed for fine weather on the day.....

Training continues despite only 12 days to go!!!! Dont forget to sponsor via the link to Justgiving if you have a couple of quid to spare...

F

Solo Loop

To try and keep the legs going, Farmer whizzed out for a solo Llangorse stadard loop and managed to clock a 53:57 time. Over a minute quicker than previous Farmer efforts..... Tempo was tied up with work commitments as was LTB, tasing for his new Spring wine list........In other news, good to see Cleggy and David getting on so well eh? Lets see shall we.

Can you guess which I am?

F

In which Farmer and Tempo learn that it's not summer yet

The top loop of the Dragon Ride. Here it is.

Top Loop Two - Sunday's Hangover Cure

A proposed route for Sunday. Starts at Storey Arms thus taking out a big climb, which feels a little bit like cheating, but makes it manageable for those of us with proper jobs (which one of us is that again?). 8am start. Drive to Storey Arms - 5hrs ish?

Cross border trip

Another trip to Herefordshire on a beautiful day, although a head wind down the Golden Valley preceeded by some brand new chippings on the Cusop Rd out of Hay hindered progress somewhat. Nearly as bad as a volcanic ash cloud, but I battled on. I was joined by Special Phil, LTB and LTB junior to Hay who then left me for some sufferfest climbing up Hay Bluff which was rewarded with a Mr Whippy (must be a Northern thing). Tempo didn't join us as he was in the pub celebrating his 45th birthday with Cal whilst wearing his new Whiter than White kit.......

Here it is:http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/workoutdetail/index.do?id=2375574

Farmer

Best laid plans.....

Unfortunately the top loop of the Dragon will have to wait for another day and Farmer did a Pengenffordd loop to stretch the legs. Nothing remarkable, but Roast Pork, gardening and playing with the kids beckoned!!

http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/workoutdetail/index.do?id=2319893

F

onlytheorangeone.com

Despite the recent team "divide", I have non-selfishly battled on through illness, loneliness and the pressures of having a proper job and managed to get some solo training under my belt:

http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/workoutdetail/index.do?id=2294757

http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/workoutdetail/index.do?id=2294770

The latter was quite respectable although nothoing on a par with the elite riders of course....

I even went out on the MTB last night (alone, of course as the elite team had gone out for a 120 miler earlier that day due to not having to work)....and I have to say I have missed the little orange beauty...a quick 10 mile loop (via some secret onlytheorangeone.com trail routes) was had and felt good. Didn't track it. Well not on this blog anyway....

The sub 50 club ...

The light was getting dim, I hadn't ridden since Tenerifgate...decided to just do the loop
Started quite well, the feeling was coming back and this happened.

Belated Tales of Tenerife

Hard to believe that i've been back a week already. Managed to survive the Easter frenzy and finally have a chance to update my warm weather training exploits.

It was a complete chance and suprise that whilst enjoying a cool San Miguel one evening (beer not the man!) that good old Tempo announced he was in the hood. This is my version of the ride which ended rather messily for me but at least I have a benchmark for pain thresholds now.

Where i was based although lovely meant i had to repeat my rides quite often - so i rang the changes as much as possible and heres the rest.

Climbing through the banana plantations

Along the coast road and back

Steady 25 mile climb to Santiago del Teide

10 mile leg crusher

Tenerifegate

Some warm weather training which, as it happens, was perfectly timed to coincide with the return of winter to the British Isles. Cycling in Tenerife is superb: great roads, great climbs, ace weather and motorists who not only respect cyclists, but actually give little 'toots' of support as you are battling your way up the volcano!

In a seven day holiday I only managed to climb on the bike three times but each trip was worth it. The first up to the little town of San Miguel was more or less just to see what the roads were like and to stretch the legs after the flight.

The second was the big one. Meeting LTB on the coast road we wound our way up through the banana plantations, through the town of Guia de Isora and up into the forest. It soon became clear that LTB was the victim of a dodgy piece of Monkfish Carpaccio and was struggling. 'Chapeau' to him though, as he ploughed on with a Lance-like 'death stare' to an altitude of 1500m before being forced to pack it in, head back to the hotel and, it later materialised, throw up on the way down.

I struggled on, and after some 5 hours of climbing, reached the summit. Which wasn't really a summit at all, but a plateau, which resulted in me cycling about for quite a bit just to make sure that I had reached the highest point and couldn't be accused of doing only half a job!

Great descent to the villa, reaching speeds of over 50mph and overtaking the odd car or two!

Third trip was a shorter run but along wonderful twisting hairpins to the village of Vilaflor.

Abandoned.....

Despite my comrades selfishly taking themselves away to warm weather training venues, the Breconshire low altitude, cold weather training went well.....up until Wednesday. When it snowed.... and hailed and snowed and blew a gale. I am not bitter at all. In fact I admire my teams mates logistical skills to cunningly end up on the same island. Brilliant. I am looking forward to the "cooling" off period of 4 weeks of non-communication and solo training.

A reverse tumble, that bailed out due to fatigue, doom, weather and some sort of strange cycling dead leg syndrome. This could be directly linked to fitness or bitterness.

http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/workoutdetail/index.do?id=2243915

Loop. When there was a 59 minute break in the weather. Yes, this is sub-1 hour. This was achieved by anger alone.

http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/workoutdetail/index.do?id=2253642