Box Hill

I cycled 76 Miles to the spot the photograph above shows. Box Hill is 38 miles from my doorstep and is as good a climb as one is gonna get in Southern England. I chose to go there just to get a long ride in with a bit of climbing. My first goal as stated before is to shed some weight before July. The other goal is to get comfortable with the idea of sitting on a bike for 8 hours or so trying to do 120 miles. A couple of years ago I did the London to Canterbury Cyclosportive and I think the hardest part for me was the exhaustion of sitting on a bike for such a long time and distance. My arms, shoulders, back and feet ached more than my legs.

The ride to Box Hill from my house in Arnos Grove, North London is a bit of a slog. I left at 8.30 in the morning and had to pedal through rush hour traffic. My first destination was Richmond Park, which has a great inner circular road which is 6.7 miles long if you do a complete lap. Its always full of serious road cyclists and would be a favoured destination of mine if it was not so far away. Its a beautiful park to cycle through as its full of Deer and Elk roaming freely on the grounds. After that you hit a bit of traffic going through Kingston and then another park, Hampton Court, one of the homes of Henry VIII. The ride has another highlight in that you have to Cross the Thames River 3 times. Past Hampton Court and the last Thames crossing you are in Suburbia Lite and countryside. The real joy is when you get to the village of Mickleham and boom, you start your 500ft climb to the top of Box Hill. What awaits you is a beautiful view, a nice little cafe that does nice hot drinks and cakes, and a shop that sells souvenirs to tourists.

I know I am improving because the climb was a cinch after 35 miles, and not much of a climb after climbing a couple of serious mountains in California. 

 I stayed up at the top for an hour, reading the Guardian while having some lunch. It was freezing and windy but lots of cyclists were doing the hill. I cycled exactly the way I came in but was caught in a drizzle the last 15 miles.

Here is the ride on MotionBased website.

Its strange that in the San Joaquin Valley of California, the Tour of California and the circus following Lance Armstrong is making its way past my mom's house in Fresno. My friend Gary took this photo of his hero Lance at the start of the stage in Visalia.

You have to admit that whatever you think of Lance, he is good for the sport in that he gives it a huge visibility. And it creates a big debate about Doping that I think will ultimately be good for the sport. I have no idea any more if doping plays big part in the sport.

Assuming they are all dirty, then its probably a level playing field, which means, Armstrong, Basso, Landis, Contador and Pantani are great cyclists....they should have stayed clean and cycled a couple of minutes slower. But who knows. If Armstrong is a doper, than probably Mercxx was too.

If you read your history, its been part of the cycling culture for yonks and for most of that part, no one gave a shit. They probably are trying to clean the sport but it will take a whole generation to change, why? Because the old culture has to die out first and the new one has to take root.

I love cycling...I stop giving a shit if they use drugs....Because frankly I dont know what is really going on.

finally check out the video in the middle of this link on VeloNews. Whatever you think of Lance, he never loses his cool.

Climbing in London

Highgate West Hill Climb

 Muswell Hill Climb

East Heath Road Climb

So how does one train to do the Etape? Well one should not live in London where there is nothing resembling Ventoux, except for the occasional French tourist one might pass on the way to the bike shop. A Big Hill Climb is around 300 ft (91 Meters) which is 5% of what Ventoux is. I guess the solution is to go up the same hill 20 or so times, but the boredom will surely kill you long before your legs give out.  Still one must adapt and I have found 3 climbs in North London which I combine to get some climbing in.

The first and I think the toughest is Muswell Hill. Its near my home and on the way to Hampstead Heath. Its only half a mile but its steep. When I first started taking cycling seriously it was the hill I like to climb. I was real proud of zooming up the hill until I started going to Provence, France regularly and realizing it was really a pimple compared to the Alps and the terrain leading up to the Alps. I did not know what climbing was until I went to France. But my name is not Pierre and I am not lucky enough to live in a country that has the best quality of life, best public services, best wine, best food and frankly the best cycling in the world. Even the best Counter-Terrorism from what I gather...I have to imagine I am Miguel Indurain.

OK, he is Spanish, but you get the point.

 

The most talked about is Highgate West Hill. Its one of two good climbs around Hampstead Heath, a beautiful park in one of the wealthiest parts of London, which is why I dont know anyone there. Here is a link to what the Guardian Cycle Guide said about the hill...

On the other side of the park is East Heath Road, also a nice city climb. If you go around Hampstead Heath, its almost a 5 mile loop with 500 ft of climbing. Its as good as any place in North London to get a good workout. Below is a map of the Park

Anyway its still a pathetic way to prepare for the ETAPE. I am ging to have to start heading out of London and start doing Centuries over as hilly course as I can find. As I speak I am planning rides to Glastonbury, A trip to Wales and hopefully a couple of Cyclosportives with my Intellectual Cycling Coach, Fausto Norfolk. Sadly he broke his thumb is a bizarre cycling accident while naked and is unable to brake.

My last 3 rides... click on the date to see them on MotionBased website.

February 7th - 19.63 miles

February 8th - 24.32 miles

February 15th - 28 miles

Its Snowing...So I cant ride...

eIts snowing in the wilds of North London. Well it was on Monday and Tuesday and today I had to take Photos in Reading, Winner of the most boring town in England. Of course I can't ride in the snow, that is dangerous. So I have been forced on to my trainer which I love but find extremely boring to ride for an hour. I watch TV or listen to my Ipod but despite the good workout, its dull. Not like riding a bike in the open road. So I highly recommend it.  

So until the weather clears I shall stay off the roads. And dream of the Etape...in 6 months time

Hi I am back...sorry about that....

Flat Tires...I hate them.....

Well first let me say that the absence was not my fault. You see Blogger took it upon themselves to take this blog down for being SPAM.  They eventually believed me that I do not sell processed meat on the internet and blamed it on some robot. That was a week ago and when it finally came online I was very busy with work for the Observer/Guardian and the British Heart Foundation. So while I had time to ride during this busy time I did not have time to Blog until now.

So enough of that..Let's re-cap January.

229 Miles of riding.

47 Miles, 5 Hours on my Trainer.

18,548 ft. of climbing. (5653 Meters)

2 Pounds lost...Oh Dear.....

The highlight of January was the weekend I climbed 2 mountains I have always wanted to climb. Mt. Tamalpais and Mt. Diablo, the highest peaks in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I HAD a love/hate relationship with Tamalpais, which by the way I call Tamale. Last year I along with my brother in law Alyosha, tried to climb Mt. Tamale but we ran out of time before we reached the summit. By out of time, I mean our wives and mother in law kept calling us when we were coming home. So we gave up. On January 2, 2009 we tried again. 

But it was a rainy day and I broke one of my rules, which is never have a wet start to a ride. "It'll stop" said Alyosha but it didn't...it just kept on raining and after reaching 1592 ft we finally gave up the fight against the wet and turned around. We were so cold.

So on January 10th I climbed Mt. Diablo. It was such a wonderful climb with very little traffic. A very steady 6-7% grade most of the way with a few nasties along the way. It was a beautiful day and I made just one stop at the Junction Ranger  Station .

The only real surprise came at the end when the last bit suddenly turned into a 16% grade and after being exhausted from the climb it was a huge effort not to topple over before finally getting to the top.

The next day I set off with Alyosha and his friend Kurt Gartnet. Kurt is about 30 years younger than us. He is a natural athlete that excels in everything he does. The week before he had been skiing, snow shoe-ing, Cross Country skiing in the nude, running a half marathon and boxing Kangaroos. He is so strong that he showed up with the oldest road bike I have ever seen not behind museum glass. Its a misnomer to say he rode with us, What he really did was scout the road ahead for us. He would have reached the summit before us on a tricycle. The photos below are his..he had plenty of time for photography waiting for us.

Anyway It's a great ride to the top of Mt Tamale from San Francisco which begans with crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, which is always nice, give or take the tourist who can't see you coming even though you are whistling, waving your arms, shouting and finally nudging his big ass with your front tire. After that you go through Sausalito, home to a great bike shop called "A Bicycle Odyssey", supposedly where Robin Williams buys his bikes and the reason for his latest divorce. After Sausalito we started climbing . Its a tougher climb than Diablo but shorter.
Like Diablo, its a beautiful ride and as it was my third attempt I was really determined to enjoy it and reach the top. We stopped a few times, mostly it was Kurt waiting for Alyosha and me.The rise is great in that it gives stunning views of both the San Francisco bay and the Pacific Ocean. Like Diablo, it has a very short & steep ending which I seemed better prepared for. Tamale was a tougher climb in that I was still a little tired from Diablo and Kurt and Alyosha kept a much higher pace. Both climbs were about half of what Ventoux is and I was well aware that both rides had nowhere near the 100 miles I will do before climbing the Provence Beast.

On the descent down we said our goodbyes to Kurt. he took a nice snap of me and Alyosha before he headed back to San Francisco while we continued to to Point Reyes.

I think Alyosha is pointing at my ass but I am not sure...

San Gregorio Loop.

Change of plan. We didn't do Kings Mountain but San Gregorio Loop!

What a fantastic day. It was cold but it was a bright blue sky day with some of the most stunning scenery I have ever cycled in California. I rode with Gary and Alyosha who I mentioned in the previous post. First the good news. Gary is not imaginary but a real live human being. The bad news is that he is the Mozart of Cycling and I mostly saw his ass and watched him disappear into the horizon. He did do a very good deed today by pushing me for about 50 meters up a steep hill. We did manage to ride together in close proximity in some of the flat sections and he was full of great advice and good humour. Alyosha told old jokes and was always somewhere between us.



I was doing good after a long absence from long rides. The last one I took was in on October 25th, London to Brighton with my Photographic colleague, Simon Norfolk. (you will read more about him in future blogs) That was a 42 mile ride. Anyway the toughest part was an 800 ft/2 mile climb up to what is mile point 40 in the map above. It was 8-11% gradient. so it was a killer for me to climb 800ft after 38 miles. In 7 months I expect to do 100 miles before ascending 5000 ft. I have a steep mountain to climb in ability.

Highlights of the ride. Being chased by a white wolf. The wolf was 90 years old in dog years and it still almost caught me as I huffed and puffed. Gary and Alyosha watched after they managed to avoid being eaten by the wolf.

Next highlight was our first feed stop. We stopped at a Rural General Store where Mexicans like myself are rarely seen and men with guns wander aimlessly nearby. Gary ate 3 danish wrapped in Plastic, 3 Fig Newtons, a bag of potatoe chips, a Cliff Bar and a bottle of Yellow Gatorade.

Alyosha ate 2 bags of corn chips, a danish, fig newtons and a bottle of yellow Gatorade. I had 6, count them, 6 mini chocolate donuts, 2 bags of corn chips, fig newtons and a Red Gatorade.

We left with Gary still hungry and me with an upset stomach. 2o miles later we finished our ride in San Gregorio. We decided to eat some more, bought some sandwiches and listened to a band sing songs about dogs named Fred. I dont like songs about dogs.

No Riding Today....

But I hear Lance Armstrong is pregnant. Maybe his partner will give him hell for cycling so damn much like the rest of us get from our partners.

I am on my way to Berkeley tomorrow where I hope to get in some serious hill climbing. Sunday I am hopefully, weather permitting,  climbing Kings Mountain in San Mateo. I will be riding with my brother in law Alyosha, the Russian Architect, and his Imaginary Friend, Gary, who supposedly makes handbags if he actually existed. I owe a lot to Alyosha, he got me up Ventoux the first time I climbed it, in fact he did such a good job that I actually beat him to the summit. One hell of a motivator I think. I think Alyosha owes a lot to Gary, who he calls the Mozart of Cycling. I should benefit a lot from their wisdom and hopefully they will share it with me after waiting 46 minutes at the summit.

Check out this great site for all you ETAPE nuts wondering if you can get a refund after realizing what you have signed up for. Cyclefilm its called and its got lots of cool stuff to convince you you have made a mistake in participating. They have cool links to YouTube Videos about Ventoux stages of the Tour of France.

First Steps....

Well I am finally on my bike. I did a ride of 15.57 miles a couple of days ago. It was a flat ride, no hills but it felt really nice. Here is a link to my MotionBased site which has all my ride info. I will post the links to all my ride info after every ride. All my rides are public and can be analyzed and if someone wants to be my Chris Carmichael type coach and give me pointers, I would greatly appreciated.

Anyway, back to the ride. Flat. A country road ride past fields of Grapevine fields which will produce raisins leading to a small town called Sanger, east of Fresno California. I ride this road every winter when I visit my mother. It was uneventful except I was chased by two dogs who got my speed going to 24 miles an hour and they gave me a good chase. I havent been chased by dogs in years. I dont know why but in my own personal experience dogs don't chase you in Europe. They may piss on your bike while parked, but not try to eat a leg. They chase in Latin America too. I have always thought Europeans where a little more civilized and I guess that extends to the dogs as well....

Christmas Eve and today were spent on the trainer, 30 minute sessions. My brother in law Fernando, a cyclist and now Marathon Runner lent me his trainer the few days I am in town. I have a new one waiting for me, an Elite with a computer. I only used it once since my lovely wife bought it for me for my birthday way back in October when I was contemplating entering the Etape. My ass really hurt after the one hour session. Cant wait to use it again....

On Saturday I head for the hills of Berkeley. Tomorrow, another sesion on the Trainer.