Next Year's (now This Year's) Classic Rides

[Old Ned]

135ks! All in one go!!

I think I'll be waving goodbye to your back wheel on Sunday. 53 miles should be a doddle for you now, hilly or not.

Weather forecast on Ceefax doesn't look to promising for Sunday. It says rain! If so, as a dedicated fair weather cyclist these days, I may well stay in bed :roll:

 

[bobbinogs]

Weather forecast on Ceefax doesn't look to promising for Sunday. It says rain! If so, as a dedicated fair weather cyclist these days, I may well stay in bed :roll:

Cheer up you grumpy git, weather looks to be fine now.

My main problem on Sunday will be having to creep around the house at 04:30 making porridge on Easter Sunday without waking the rest of the family, who will be expecting a long lie-in followed by copious quantities of chocolate. Ah, they don't know what they will be missing.

 

[Old Ned]

Something else to consider -

http://www.timetriallingforum.co.uk/ind ... ntry951269

http://cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/Default ... &tabid=361

I expect to enter. I did enter last year but a very nasty flu-bug got hold of me and knocked me out on the day. Hopefully get my revenge this year!

 

[Goldie]

Pendle Witches Vinage Velo

Well, that was cracking! I could have eaten my own bodyweight in pie and peas at the end. I saw Kerplunk's somehow still imaculate 653 framed Peugeot getting carefully loaded up on the bike rack just as I arrived back at the pub, but who else came? And what were you riding? I got passed by an immaculate Ellis Briggs which I thought might have been yours, Old Ned...

I'll defintely be back next year - it's worth it just for that middle section though Bowland, which was beautiful and very flattering to ride.

 

[bobbinogs]

Hey up Goldie. I made it there and managed to say "hello" to old Ned and another chap (sorry, didn't catch his name). Kerplunk's Peugot really was lovely (surprised to see the same 653 as a Mercian Strada I have as there is not a lot of it about). I turned up on an Alan Competition from '89 and was wearing a Peugot top (yes, I know, but haven't seen a decent Alan top yet).

I thought the ride was great although I had to be a bit rude by nipping off fairly sharpish at the end to get home in time to take my wife and kids out tonight.

I loved that Nick O'Pendle climb, just realised it is in the '100 Hills' book (gets a 6/10) although the visibility up top wasn't too good.

The one 'nearly' feature was when 3 of us left the food stop and then soon turned a corner only to be faced by a car coming towards us on our side, overtaking cyclists...and he/she just didn't stop. Me and another chap skidded into each other and the chap behind ended up diving onto the verge to avoid a collision. Poor chap ended up with a nasty stinging nettle burn on his face and the driver...didn't even stop. Ho hum, everyone else was very courteous. Surprised just how many cyclists were out, either on the ride or not. Marvellous stuff.

 

[Old Ned]

I've just crawled out of bed from a recovery nap :roll:

You need them at my age.

By 'eck, it wuz 'ard. Nick O'P and Waddington were bad - but that York Rd out of Whalley!!! It just went on and on and on and........

I was on the Celeste coloured Favori, Daccordi Mark on his White Daccordi (obviously) and I recognised Bobbinogs (who disappeared up the road never to be seen again in the first couple of miles!) in his Peugeot top.

Was that you, Kerplunk, who rode a lot of the way - and sat in the pub - near to Mark and me? Blue jersey?

What were you on Goldie?

 

[Kerplunk]

Yeah, that was me. Sorry didn't twig who was who at the time. Think my bike still looked pretty clean at the end thanks to the free wash it got for the last hour. Pretty pleased to have done it in approx 4 hours. Don't know the exact time cos I had to stop on that nice middle section to retrieve the fork sensor for my computer after the cable tie gave up. That last 15 miles was a bit of a slog with the weather not helping. Glad that last steep one was only a short one was beginning to think I should've taken the middle section a little easier.

Sorry to hear about your incident bobbinogs, I'd been impressed by how patient and courteous car drivers had been. Did you you finish first?

 

[Goldie]

I think I missed you and Mark Ned. Keen eyed Retrobikers setting off in the first wave might have noticed me a hundred yards up the road from the pub, scowling because I'd just realised i'd put the fron wheel on my bike the wrong way round - so I ended up starting with the modern stuff. I think I saw your Alan though bobbinogs - red tubes with yellow lettering on? - when I was heading down to sign on.

I was on my Viscount:

So I was well chuffed to find

at Dunsop Bridge.

I've just been trying to tell the missus about how brilliant it was coming over the brow of the first descent, going for the small ring on the back, tucking in and going "Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!" all the way down into Padiham and, shortly afterwards, comeing over the top of the climb out of Padiham and seeing Nick o'Pendle like a wiggly grey line ona green wall. Loved it.

 

[bobbinogs]

Hi there Kerplunk, my bike is annodisd blue (I was the ginger haired chap parked directly behind you, btw, ).

I didn't finish first as the chap I had a lovely cycle with for nearly the whole of the section from the feedstop, jumped some red lights ( :roll: ) about 5 miles out and then kept his head down and the tempo up. I couldn't bridge the gap in the next few miles...and then the elastic snapped when I tried to power over the very last hill in the big ring and nearly stalled near the top (one of the features of downtube shifters is the need for a bit of nouse when climbing, eh!). Still, finished at almost exactly 12:00 (just a minute or two down from the other chap, who was the stronger cyclist) so I was pleased with that.

I was 'interviewed' by a lady from Cycle Active at the end. She asked me my name and I said "Robert Millar". "Heh", she said, "just like that famous cyclist, but I guess you get that all the time..." "Err no", I replied, "I just made it up". She looked crest fallen and I felt a bit guilty at sabotaging her scoop

Oh, nice one, Goldie. That is my usual trick of getting the front wheel wrong...always seems to take a few miles before one twigs that the avg speed seems a tad low

 

[Kerplunk]

Still, finished at almost exactly 12:00 (just a minute or two down from the other chap, who was the stronger cyclist) so I was pleased with that.

:shock: Nobody likes a show off. They were saying at the foodstop that there was someone 'flying' on an Alan. Was first home on a classic or modern? Anyone know who the photographer was Nick o' Pendle and last long climb and whether his photos will be online anywhere. Want to see if I managed to pull off 'casual nonchalance" as I wobbled by.