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London-Edinburgh-London

1,000 riders from 33 countries are cycling 1400 kilometres from London to Edinburgh and back again in under five days. This event happens every four years. I was not riding but helping at the St Ives control. For most of the day I was marshalling at the entrance to the control site so I managed to take photos of most competitors. Here is a selection of the the 1334 pictures I took. As you can see, there was quite a variety of machines…

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

LEL St Ives 2013

 

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

The team making sandwiches before the riders arrive.

 

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

First riders arrive…

 

 

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

“I’m so hungry I could eat my route card.”

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

“Who pinched my saddle?”

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

“I’m here to pick up the beer”

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

 

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

Drew Buck, on his Retrodrive bicycle.

 

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

 

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

 

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

“Look, my velomobile has grown a wart!”

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

The team stamping brevets.

 

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

 

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

Wins best beard of the day prize!

2013 London-Edinburgh-London

Surely not riding in Crocs?

Brazilian rider on the last day - across the fens.

Brazilian rider on the last day – across the fens.

 

Video best seen full screen, select HD setting first!

Normandy Tour 2013

St Malo - Le Harve (329 miles)

St Malo – Le Harve (329 miles)

 

St Malo - Le Harve

St Malo – Le Harve

A five day tour of Normandy (with a little bit of Brittany thrown in).

Daily highlights:

Day T-1 Oundle -Portsmouth: Arrived at Peterborough station to meet Robbie, uneventful trip across London from Kings Cross to Waterloo, off at Fratton and cycled to last leg to the ferry port.  Total miles=21. First thing to do once we had settled into our reclining seats was find a shower. As luck would have it it was just next door. Managed to forget to take towel to shower though, so have to put clean clothes on a wet body. Luckily it was still very warm so I dried out pretty quickly.

Day 1 St Malo – Ville Vrard (46 miles): Off the ferry into fog but that soon cleared up and we had a nice sunny day, just like the rest of the week. I managed to break my seat pin bolt just after our visit to the Menhir at Dol. In the end had to stick a carry mat on top of the tent that was on my rear rack and rest the rear of the saddle on that. This gave almost exactly the right saddle height although it was a bit of a suspension effect.

SONY DSC

We stopped in Combourg and had a drink while we waited for the bike shop to open after lunch. We’re in France, everywhere shuts for lunch! However, as we were to find out, this particular shop was actually shut for 2 weeks. Who shuts their shop for two weeks in a tourist town the summer? Obviously, the French! We tried a Super-U to no avail, and in the end rode the rest of the way to Ville Vrard where my father-in-law found a spare bolt from a packet he recently got to fix his strimmer. Morale of the story, I should have gone to a brico-marche.

Menhir at Dol de Bretagne

Menhir at Dol de Bretagne

Day 2 Ville Vrard – Bagnoles-de-L’Orne (88 miles): This was always going to be the toughest day, long and hilly. I would have planned to stop at Lassay had there been a campsite listed there, so we did have to option of stopping earlier if we saw a camping site before the one we knew for sure existed at Bagnoles. We were so shattered by Lassay that we decided to ask the locals if there was a campsite nearby as we didn’t relish the extra 10 miles. The nearest campsite was only 5km down the road so off we went, only to find it had been closed for some years. We were both suffering from the heat and dehydration, I now had cramp in both legs and was reducing to walking up hills and coasting down them, still there was no choice but to plough on to Bagnoles and make the best of it. We rolled up at the campsite at 8.30pm, 13 hours after setting off. On the way we had collected another 3 stamps for our FFCT brevets.

Brunch stop in Fougeres

Brunch stop in Fougeres

Testing my Titanium and rosewood lightweight chopsticks!

Testing my Titanium and rosewood lightweight chopsticks!

Day 3 Bagnoles-de-L’Orne – Pont Farcy (61 miles): Although not as far as yesterday, today had more climbing crammed into those 61 miles. Had we gone due north to the Normandy beaches we would have passed through the heart of Swiss Normandy, but for brevet purposes we needed to go to Mortain on our way to Conde-sur-Vire so we skirted around Suisse Normande this time.

Breakfast pastries at Bagnoles-de-L'Orne

Breakfast pastries at Bagnoles-de-L’Orne

There are 6 possible sites to get stamps from in each département. For the BCN, only one stamp is needed, for Le Brevet des Provinces Françaises (BPF) you need to get all 6.

There are 6 possible sites to get stamps from in each département. For the BCN, only one stamp is needed, for Le Brevet des Provinces Françaises (BPF) you need to get all 6.

First 5 département stamps achieved for Le Brevet de Cyclotourisme National (BCN), just another 90 to get!

First 5 département stamps achieved for Le Brevet de Cyclotourisme National (BCN), just another 90 to get!

 

Bagnoles-de-L'Orne

Bagnoles-de-L’Orne

Lonlay L'Abbaye

Lonlay L’Abbaye

Roadside decoration near Montain

Roadside decoration near Montain

Essential supplies

Essential supplies

Camping at Pont Farcy

Camping at Pont Farcy

Day 4 Pont Farcy – Arromanches (54 miles): A fairly uneventful day, a flat first 12 miles, some cycle paths. then a 56 mile uphill, followed by an undulating ride to the coast.

Vire Valley Cycle Path (Voie Vert), we joined it at La-Chapelle-sur-Vire and rode up to Conde-sur-Vire.

Vire Valley Cycle Path (Voie Vert), we joined it at La-Chapelle-sur-Vire and rode up to Conde-sur-Vire.

Chateau de Balleroy, owned by Malcolm Forbes of Forbes Magazine fame. Has a balloon museum but we didn't go in.

Chateau de Balleroy, owned by Malcolm Forbes of Forbes Magazine fame. Has a balloon museum but we didn’t go in.

 

First sign of the D-Day landings.

First sign of the D-Day landings.

This gun was not in the best condition.

This gun was not in the best condition.

Defensive gun battery at Longues-sur-Mer

Defensive gun battery at Longues-sur-Mer

 

Our one and only puncture.

Our one and only puncture.

Physics in action, beer bottles wrapped in wet tissue paper. In a breeze out of direct sun, as the water evaporates, the heat is drawn from the beer. Wonderful!

Physics in action, beer bottles wrapped in wet tissue paper. In a breeze out of direct sun, as the water evaporates, the heat is drawn from the beer. Wonderful!

Day 5 Arromanches – Le Harve (78 miles): Original plan was to ride to Honfleur by way of Pegasus Bridge and Beuvron-en-Auge, however on leaving Touques Robbie’s front wheel got tangled in a level crossing and his seat tube cracked just above the bottom bracket. We made the campsite after 10 very careful miles only to find it full, so we thought we may as well push on to Le Harve, another 15 miles away over the Pont de Normandie.

Robbie' cracked frame, he rode another 40km on that, keeping the speed down to about 10-12 kph!

Robbie’ cracked frame, he rode another 40km on that, keeping the speed down to about 10-12 kph!

Douvres-la-Délivrande

Douvres-la-Délivrande

Just arrived at Pegasus Bridge.

Just arrived at Pegasus Bridge.

Nah, sorry mate, your big end's gone!

Nah, sorry mate, your big end’s gone!

Pegasus Bridge

Pegasus Bridge

A Horsa glider at the Pegasus Bridge museum

A Horsa glider at the Pegasus Bridge museum

Inside the all wooden Horsa glider.

Inside the all wooden Horsa glider.

A Bailey Bridge.

A Bailey Bridge.

A Jeep with bicycle.  JEEP=Just Enough Essential PArts

A Jeep with bicycle.
JEEP = Just Enough Essential Parts

Lunch, galettes at Beuvron-en-Auge.

Lunch, galettes at Beuvron-en-Auge.

Checking the map while sampling the local cidre

Checking the map while sampling the local cidre

 

Pont de Normandie comes into sight.

Pont de Normandie comes into sight.

Descending the Pont de Normandie

Descending the Pont de Normandie

Last night's camp, didn't bother with a tent.

Last night’s camp at the ferry port, didn’t bother with a tent. Realised in the morning that there was toilet in the far corner of the yard, hmm no need to have waited until night fell, or got up early, for a leak after all!

Day T+1: On the fast ferry to Portsmouth, managed to get an earlier than booked train at Kings Cross by sweet-talking Paul the guard, and back home just in time for the finale of Le Tour on TV. Total miles today 19, total for whole trip – 367 miles.

 

How heavy is my bike?

On the Wednesday evening pub ride I picked up Mat’s bike, a Blue Competition AC1 SL Aero, my god it felt light! Having just manhandled my heavyweight touring bike up the steps to the pub entrance the difference was stark.

I have been riding my old steel fixed recently, and finding that whereas I used to get dropped by everyone whenever the road went uphill, I can now pretty easily stay at the front. I thought that that was to some extent because I was getting fitter. However, back on my Revolution (or the Tank as Mat now calls it) on Wednesday I was again struggling up the hills.

This got me thinking, exactly how much difference will a heavy bike make going uphill? Surely some simple maths will give me a ball park figure…

First, weigh your bike.

Green touring bike: an aluminium framed Revolution Country Explorer – 14.45 kg (including an empty bar bag which is always on, but not the pump).

Yellow fixed: vintage steel track 22.5″ frame – 9.14 kg (with 2 recently fitted bottle cages)

Blue road bike: custom built steel 52cm frame – 9.59 kg

The big surprise was that the fixed was only slightly lighter than the road bike. The Brian Rourke is a slightly smaller frame but does have an extra brake, front and rear mechs, extra chain ring and a 6 speed block. The frame material in both cases is Reynolds 531 steel tubing, so even though they were built 30 years apart, that shouldn’t make much difference.

Next I compared the weights to modern (and fashionable) carbon bikes. The UCI minimum weight limit is 6.8 kg so the most expensive race bikes will be just over that, but what about more reasonably priced bikes? For £1650 a 105 equipped Felt F5 comes in at 8.26 kg, and for £650 you can get an aluminium frame/carbon forked Sora equipped Felt F95 weighing in at 9.54 kg. As the groupsets differ by about £200, you are basically spending £800 for a 1.3 kg weight saving, you could lose that in 3 weeks by being a bit careful with what you eat!

Anyway, back to the point of this article. What difference will those 5 extra kg make to heaving my bike up hills? I really had intended to do the sums myself but found this website: http://www.analyticcycling.com/ForcesLessWeight_Page.html

Putting in data for a 600m 5% hill nearby at Warmington gives a 7.4 second time saving for those 5 kg. That doesn’t seem very much, perhaps the power estimate I used (200W) was out? As the power output goes down, the time difference goes up, but even with a paltry 100W, the time saving is only 15 seconds. My experience on Wednesday would suggest that is way out. I rode up in 2.41, a month ago I did it in 1.43 on the track bike. that’s a huge difference!

Let’s look at hill I have ridden many times, my fastest times from Strava are 3.07 on the tourer and 2.29 on the fixed. The computer model gives a similar saving (6.9 sec) but in real terms the saving was 38 sec. This hill probably gives a better comparison than Warmington because I have ridden it many times and tend to give it some welly to measure my improving fitness so the best times on both bike are probably both set under similar conditions, both mental and physical.

Another hill I ride a lot is at Southwick, again the model gives a 7 second saving for 5 kg, but again real world numbers are different, in this case 46 seconds (1:50 v 2:36).

As a percentage we have Southwick Hill 42% slower, Brigstock to Fermyn Hall (longer but less steep) 25% slower.

What does all this tell us? That lighter bikes ARE faster uphill, doh! However, there must be other factors here as well, as no way should a 5% weight increase affect the times so much. Almost certainly the wheels and tyres will have a large effect, maybe a more significant effect than the weight difference if the numbers are to be believed…a flat road comparison is needed!