Well this morning saw me up stupidly early to get down to the New Forest for the 100k 'Gridiron'.
This is the 4th time I have ridden it and the first time solo.
The first time I rode it was with all the Hook lads (and their partners in some cases) for charity in honour of the sad passing of the Harwood's mum and Hoop's fiancé.
That first time we went round in a wheels turning of around 4.5 hours, with the lead group of around 15 of us moving at the pace of the slowest and stopping when punctures occurred. The second time there was only 4 of us and we did it in a wheels turning of 4 hours 16.
Last year I took Dean out to do it and we got around in 5 hours, with Dean, an expert off-road mountain biker having his eyes opened to the unrelenting nature of distance road cycling.
I always believed I could get round in a sub 4 hour time, so riding alone this year I was able to push for this goal.
Unfortunately I have no trip computer on the bike at present, having broken it recently and not bothering to replace it yet as I am looking for something to use on the bike and for the running. Having no measure of speed as consequence, I decided to start along with the serious club cyclists to try and tag along with them as I figured they would be doing the pace I need to make my target. Unfortunately they have proper road racing bikes, and I ride a mountain bike with road tyres, although with higher gearing on it than a standard mountain bike. Needless to say I have to work a damned sight harder to match their speeds!
Here's some photos of the ride:
This is the 4th time I have ridden it and the first time solo.
The first time I rode it was with all the Hook lads (and their partners in some cases) for charity in honour of the sad passing of the Harwood's mum and Hoop's fiancé.
That first time we went round in a wheels turning of around 4.5 hours, with the lead group of around 15 of us moving at the pace of the slowest and stopping when punctures occurred. The second time there was only 4 of us and we did it in a wheels turning of 4 hours 16.
Last year I took Dean out to do it and we got around in 5 hours, with Dean, an expert off-road mountain biker having his eyes opened to the unrelenting nature of distance road cycling.
I always believed I could get round in a sub 4 hour time, so riding alone this year I was able to push for this goal.
Unfortunately I have no trip computer on the bike at present, having broken it recently and not bothering to replace it yet as I am looking for something to use on the bike and for the running. Having no measure of speed as consequence, I decided to start along with the serious club cyclists to try and tag along with them as I figured they would be doing the pace I need to make my target. Unfortunately they have proper road racing bikes, and I ride a mountain bike with road tyres, although with higher gearing on it than a standard mountain bike. Needless to say I have to work a damned sight harder to match their speeds!
Here's some photos of the ride:
The club cyclists behind who I tagged along on the first stage
Skies beginning to clear
The first checkpoint
The view south across the national park from the northern edge
Some of the ubiquitous (and suicidal) New Forest Ponies
Me in full flow
As you can see the scenery is pretty special and one of the reasons I keep on coming back. You also have to dodge the ponies, donkeys, pigs, cows and sheep en-route which serves to break the monotony!
The first 2 legs I rode with the same club guys, but on the last leg I was all by myself, with a pretty stiff head-wind as I reached the Hamble estuary, which was full of sail boats taking advantage of the weather, the smell of the salt air filling my nostrils... Or was it just from my sweating?
I crossed the finish line in 3:51:16 a time I was very happy with.
The route can be found here.
"Unfortunately I have no trip computer on the bike at present, having broken it recently and not bothering to replace it yet as I am looking for something to use on the bike and for the running."
ReplyDeleteI see you use Runkeeper; if you have a GPS-enabled iPhone then I recommend Cyclemeter. It has all the usual bike computer functions plus more, and if you don't want to mount the phone on your handlebars you can set it up to give you voice updates of your progress, speed etc.