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Ready to go

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Nice warning for la marmotte race day..."extreme heat can be dangerous for outdoor activities" Is 176km and over 5000m of climbing plus a TT up the Alpe d'Huez an activity?

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13km of climbing down, still 25km to go!

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The pros tackle this stunning climb today, it will be my turn in 3 weeks!

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The new marmotte route as a result of tunnel closures - it looks awful

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The big guy pulling/dropping thr group up the climb

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Tour Of Wessex

The Tour of Wessex is a fantastic event. Excellent routes, stunning scenery and good, hard riding. Day 1 kicks off with 168Km & 2,198m of climbing. I started the ride in the second group and for the first 40Km to the climb of Cedar Gorge I was with 4 other riders, but a km into the climb I dropped them and caught a few other riders before a really rapid descent into the city of Wells - the UK’s smallest city. From this point is a series of climbs, not too long, but some fairly steep. Most notably is 5th big climb to King Alfred’s Tower. After this climb I stopped quickly for a feed at around 100Km and to refill my bottle before myself and another rider called Kevin, who was riding to raise money for the Nepal earthquake tackled the next 40Km alone. The latter section of the ride was fairly flat, but into a head wind. We caught on to a bigger group about 30Km from the finish and raced for home with a gold time of 05:27:46 and 4th overall. I was pleased to be done because my hot foot problem was starting to rear its head. Stage 2 - even better. Today I was in the lead group and we set a huge pace over the opening 2 hours and in fact covered 103Km in the first 3 hours of the ride. In that first 3 hours was the major climb of Lyons Hills and a few small ones before another large climb from the coast up Daggers gate. It was a stunning climb and the past 20km was quite fantastic to ride on. One horror story - on the descent. It was very fast and even though we had a lead car to follow and clear the road a rider went into a car at high speed and through the windscreen. Incredibly he got up and shrugged it off without a scratch. His bike was in 2. Lucky guy. After stopping at the feed station for fuel about 120km the lead group fractured a bit and I was starting to suffer hot foot and started to drink oceans in the hope it would take the pain away. It didn’t. Other than this, I felt incredible, with the HR at 130-140bpm (some 45bmp lower than my max) I started to put on massive turns on front dropping riders and upsetting a few. The race for home was fast, which was the order of the day. I arrived home 3rd with another gold time of 05:37:40. 185km & 2,255m of climbing. Overall a fantastic event over excellent routes. I will be returning to this event where ever possible. Vital stats - 2 nights camping, 5 bottles, 4 bananas, 5 bars, 7 gels and some amazing fig rolls! Oh and a medal with 2 comfortable gold times.

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Tour of Wessex Stage 2

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Tour of Wessex - Stage 1. Getting back to strength now :)

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Tour of the Peak

What a tough ride. It has just 3 categorised KOM climbs, but there is not a single flat KM in the 183km of the route. The strava profile doesn't lie. My hostel was fairly close to the start line for a 7am start. It was chilly and windy, but dry. Right from the off your climbing out of the town of Bakewell and that is pretty much the order of the day. For the majority of the ride we had to content with head and side winds of up to 30km/h. This meant the first climb of Winnats pass was brutal. 24Km into the ride and it was a block headwind up the climb. It was super hard. After Winnats pass, the road meanders further uphill before a rapid and fairly tricky descent and then straight up another hill. The next 50Km are insulating - climb, after climb after climb. Some steep, some more gradual, but there is no flat. Thank fully I was with a group of 5 so we were able to share the work. About 80Km my recent illness forced me to take a nature break - not good. That sapped me and left me to ride alone for the rest of the ride. 103km with my nose in the wind. Holme moss after 90Km was a familiar climb and now fairly common with the pro’s. It is an epic climb, but sadly the winds made it more challenging that it needed to be. This also made for a scary descent, being blown all directions. Following the descent was 8 further peaks to tackle. Around 130Km I stopped for some food, which was not has exciting as I hoped. Riding over Chapel-en-le-Frith and High Peak towards Macclesfield and the final climb of the Cat ’n’ Fiddle was challenging and frustrating. Downhills are just as just as sapping as uphills when you race down them like me. I hit the Cat ’n’ Fiddle, which I actually enjoyed. It was gradual and for the first time the wind was on my tail and would be for the next 30Km. Woohoo. The the Cat ’n’ Fiddle is a long climb, taking you out of Macclesfield onto the moors, the contrast is stunning. From the climb its a run for home, much like the rest of the ride - up and down. 2 bigger climbs and a few smaller ones break up the last 40Km of the ride, but with the tailwind I was making great progress. I arrived back into Bakewell after 183Km and 3,300m and 6 hours 51 officially, but my actual ride time was 8 minutes less than that due to my forced stoppage. Vital stats - 1 banana. 3 bars. 3 gels. 2 sandwiches.

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Haute Route Office Guide

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Tour of the Peak - finished 6th!

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This is on the menu tomorrow. Round 3/7

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Fred Whitton Challenge 2015

I was always worried about the lead up to this event. The preceeding week was a work trip in Rwanda, with a flight back to the UK departing Kigali 0215 via Entebbe to Instanbul arriving into London at 1600 local time. In hindsight, that was the least of my problems. On the Thursday morning I was struggling. It was looking like I had food poisoning from dinner the night before. I had a Mongolian BBQ, but we selected our own meat and I am fairly sure the cooked meat was put on the plate we selected our raw meat on. Nevertheless, I was struggle to keep food or liquid in all of Thursday, Friday and Saturday resorting to not eating almost to limit my illness. I arrived at my hostel on Saturday in a bad state, but forced myself into eating a 3 course dinner and got an early night. 5am Sunday 10th - I woke up not feeling good still, but forced some toast and an energy bar down and made my way to the start line for 6am in a what was a wet, windy morning. The first hour of Fred Whitton sets the tone, after about 12Km its climb time starting with Kirkstone, which climbs to 454m. It's not a hard climb, but its fairly long. I was fighting my body big time, nothing would work. I had nothing. But I had to keep going - so many people had supported me. The rest of the ride I did on energy gels and will, nothing more. After a fast descent off Kirkstone, its quickly onto the second climb of Matterdale end at 343m. Another fairly gradual climb. What comes next requires some luck. A 15Km push down the A66 into a head wind. If your lucky there will be a group to work with - I had 2 guys for company so we shared duties. Doing this stretch alone would be awful. Around 75Km into the ride and the first monster hits you. Honister pass, with slopes up to 25% and peaking at 356m. The early parts are the trickest, made harder in the wet conditions. Zigzag's up the steeper sections take the edge off and the last few hundred meters are a nice relief. The decsent should be approached with caution, although its not the worst. The first feed station comes soon after, which I skipped before a series of 3 more more climbs. The first is Newlands, and its the hardest at 333m, but the descent is nice and fast. The next two I remember well from my 2013 encounter with Fred Whitton. I flew up them back then, but my illness and lack of food in 2015 was starting to bite and I struggled for pace on Whinlatter. The next section is long and was a full on head wind. Worse still - I was alone and battled the head wind with nothing in the legs. It was awful rarely getting above 25Km/h on the flat. It was a relief to hit Cold Fell and break out of the wind. I rode well up this long climb, its not too steep but long and peaks at 290m. After the descent I stopped at the final feed station for a jam sandwich and some cakes. I was the first man at the feed station and they were not ready. Now, the home straight to Hardknott. Just after the feed station, about 10km from the climb I was joined by a rider - I think we both needed company. We rode Hardknott together - 393m, 30% gradient in pouring rain and gale force winds. I got over the top first and tackled the horrendous descent. Its VERY dangerous. A few Km's later its the last climb up Wrynose. It is nothing to taxing after Hardknott - suddenly 22% is easy ;) It was such a relief to get over the top and tackle the last 20Km. Thankfully on the Wrynose descent my tyre didn't explode as it did in 2013 and I made it back as the 3rd finisher. Ride stats - 2 gels, 2 energy bars, 1 cake, 1 jam sandwich, 0 energy. 102nd overall with 7hrs 5 minutes (an hour slower than planned0. Very happy to finish.

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An unwelcome guest in my challenge. Serve food poisoning from Rwanda, unable to eat for 5 days. Antibiotics!

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Fred Whitton Challenge 2015

Gale force winds, pouring rain, 30% climbs & 3 days of food poisoning. Hard, hard day.