RTTC 12 Hour TT Championships

Well, I had a great day. I didn’t really hit any of my targets although I did pb.  Like last year, there was a strong southwesterly wind which made the leg to Farnham super fast and the other direction, super slow. Within the first hour I know that 255 was not on, but by halfway I was still on for 250 miles. I was really conservative during this period and my power meter was extremely useful when going into wind, to ensure that I was not going too hard.

At about half way, I missed two feeds which meant I went over an hour with no food and this saw my speed drop quite a bit as I simply ran out of energy. When I eventually got to my support I was able to neck a few hundred calories but it took another half an hour before I could feel the calories being converted into energy. I had the usual low point at around 8 hours but once the finishing circuit opened, I was able to pick the speed back up again and my average power climbed. This was a combination of getting my head back into a happy place and not having to spend any more time on the ultra slow Chawton section of the course, which was just bloody horrible. So I ended up riding 245.5 miles. A 10 mile pb on a faster course but in much worse conditions than the ECCA event I rode in 2015 and after riding much more conservatively. I think 250 should now be well within reach.

12 hour time trial pacing; let’s get it right this time.

An up and down few weeks, trying and almost succeeding in keeping some consistency going. Three weeks ago I was taking part in the Hounslow 100m time trial. This was to be my last long ride before this Sunday’s 12 hour and as it was on the same course it was going to give me all the power and speed data I would need to pace the 12 hour. All was going well until an hour in, when I went past the Hen and Chicken pub only to see a car on its roof on the other side of the road. As a result the event was immediately abandoned, so that was that.

I was riding at 4:12 pace for 100 miles when it was stopped so that gives me something to work with. (I also did my first 100 in last,year's 12 in 4:18 when I blew, so I know not to got that hard again in a 12)  I’ve found a 12 hour pacing schedule that seems to be quite accurate, according to those that have used it before and this would seem to suggest a 255 mile finish, which would be frankly amazing. That said, after last year’s epic 12 hour fail, my first goal is to finish. The pacing works by calculating your middle 25 mile time for an average pace, then adding a minute for every 25 after that, and subtracting a minute for every 25 before.

Basic target: Finish. Don’t DNF. Make sure I get the pacing right in the first 6 hours, then all bets are off. My pb of 235 miles should be well within reach.
Dream Goal: 260 miles. Only likely to happen if I don’t drop off big time towards the end and the weather plays ball.
Stretch Goal: Frank’s old club record of 257 miles. Maybe.
Stellar day: 255 miles. According to the schedule, this should be on, barring mechanicals, long pit stops, massively getting my pacing wrong etc.
A great day: 250 miles. I would be delighted with this.

It boils down to this:

Taking it up a notch

Budwang!

In the week Immediately after LWL, I was wiped and did very little.  General fatigue, feeling run down and lots going on at work, but this week it was time to bounce back. A quick TrainerRoad ftp test, equalling my best result. Then just the issue at having to train at that higher value. Last time, I just didn’t manage it, so when I got on the turbo last night to do 'Budwang'; 4 x 9 minutes at 105%, I wasn’t really feeling the love.

I absolutely smashed it! I can only think that the long rides and audax stuff I’ve been doing has soaked in and given me the base I needed. It just felt a lot more comfortable than I was expecting; hard but doable instead of impossible.

TrainerRoad have also improved their website with a new ‘performance analytics’ platform, which pulls in all your rides, not just the turbo sessions.  So I’ve sold a kidney and bought myself some Powertap P1 pedals so that I can track my TSS, but more importantly, use power as a metric for racing and pacing. With the 12 hour only a few weeks away, power data will hopefully avoid my spectacularly badly paced ride from last year and maybe even get me over 250 miles, which would be nice. Anyway, selling the TT bike is on hold.

London-Wales-London Audax

Suited and booted

I was really looking forward to this ride. The thought of actually using my bike and being under my own steam to travel to another part of the UK, from the capital, seemed  to conjour up a sense of daring-do and gutsy ambition. Admittedly, the 'London' bit is actually Chalfont St Peter, on the very outward western fringes of London, and the Wales bit was only just about touching it before heading east again. But nonetheless, it was still going to be 400kms and a very long day in the saddle, in fact my longest ever continuous ride. I decided to go 'full audax' and bed down at the HQ the night before as it was an early start, so I headed off the the pub with a couple of other riders to have an anaesthetic pint, while the line-dancing class finished off. In the pub a few of the locals were rocking out to a pub band and a few of them were kind enough to wish us luck for the next day's shennanigans.

The start was typically low key. Coffee and toast, a few last minute fumbles with kit before Liam, the organiser, said a few words in the car park and on the dot of 6am, we were off. 119 of us setting out, north and west for Wales. As usual, a bit of a fast start before things settled and I found myself in a group of 3, cruising along some single lane at 17-18mph. My abiding memory of this section was just the haze and the gorgeous sunrise turning into full morning. I'd dressed in my leggings and long sleeves as it was cold and I was just right; comfortably cool. Before long we had turned into a group of five as two faster riders went past and we hooked onto the back, taking the odd turn on the front, but these two guys were doing a great job and didn't seem to mind us sucking their wheels.

Early days

  I had got chatting to a rider called Jacko and we spent an hour or so chin-wagging, before pulling into the first control at a social club in Woodstock to have a full fried breakfast. The club was a throwback to the mid 1980s, with brown swirly carpet, sticky dancefloor and pub furniture, but it was perfect. There were no energy gels, protein bars or shakes here; just a full english brekkie! I inhaled the sausage, eggs, beans and bacon. Brevet card stamped, water bottles topped up and I got going again.

Leg 2 was going to be another 70kms to Tewksbury and as I left the control I hit the first junction with a chap called Nick. We had a few brief words as we'd missed the obvious road to the route and then I spent a few silent minutes with Nick sitting on my wheel, so a few more words to say hi and from that point we rode the next 15 hours or so together. The sun was starting to get up and it was going to be a very hot day, but I was still in a long sleeve top and cosy warm, rather than hot. Nick and I chatted for the next few hours, talking all things endurance sports, work, kids. Although this was his first audax, he'd done plenty of other long endurance ultra-marathons so I could tell he had that calm, even temperament that I think you need to keep going when things are hurting and maybe not going to plan. After a while we caught up with Jacko who had left Woodstock 10 minutes or so before me and we rode the last hour into Tewksbury, where we had to get a receipt as proof of passage. It was properly hot now, so it was time to strip off, eat one of Gregg's finest steak bakes, top up bottles and get going towards Tutshill. The sun was shining, my legs felt great, Wales was 3 or 4 hours away and all was right with the world.

The countryside continued to unroll under my wheels; never ending fields and carpets of bluebells. The route was really wonderful and quiet, which made the cycling such a joy. While we had a good tempo going I wanted to take the time to smell the metaphorical roses, and I tried to take as much of the scenery in as I could. It made me realise how much of my own country I have yet to explore and what a great way that a bicycle is to do it.

Nick and I were working together well and we were keeping the speed up as we glided through Gloucestershire and into Herefordshire. The terrain was less than lumpy, but more than rolling, so at times we could really get the speed up, while some of the rollers sapped all the speed from my heavier than usual Van Nic. We had an infomation control at a war memorial, where I lent another rider who was on his third puncture, a tube, before we headed towards the big climb of Yat Rock. By this time we had hooked up with a female rider in full LEL kit and the three of us headed to the base of the climb. I started it ok but as we got to a steeper ramp near the top I got out the saddle and all of a sudden I just knew that I couldn't keep the bike moving forward, as Nick and LEL lady weaved up the road to the summit, I got off and discovered that I had not tightened the QR skewer tight enough and when I was pushing really hard to keep the bike moving forward, the wheel had moved (as happened at the Bec HC a couple of years ago). Frustrated, I sorted out the skewer before walking the rest of the way to the top, where Nick and LEL lady were waiting.

The Tutshill control was still a good hour or so away, and this was where I had my only really bad patch of the ride. I was frustrated and a bit angry at myself for not getting up Yat Rock (pure male ego) but I noticed that I was getting the tingles in my arms and starting to feel a little shaky. With the increase in heat I had been religiously taking in water but I had stopped eating for some time. I also realised that my worsening mood was an indicator that I didn't have enough energy in my system, so I got out two soreen bars and forced them down, hoping that they would be enough until we got to Tutshill. Nick and I had been sharing the work, but he was looking comfortable so I took the opportunity to sit in and take his wheel while I recovered. Nick's a big lad and made a large hole in the air so it made my life considerably easier to take a draft while I recovered.

We had arrived at Tutshill at 14:15 and not too many riders had gone through, so the control was quiet. The two fast lads I had been with early on were there with another two or three and I tucked into a big plate of pasta and a couple of bags of crisps for the extra salt. I could literally feel the energy pouring back into my muscles and as I slapped on more sun block and vaseline,  my mood lifted considerably and I started to look forward to getting back home.


 Within minutes we were over the Severn Bridge with clear views across the estuary and we headed for the climb up to the Somerset Monument at Hawkesbury. My front mech was playing up and had been for a while so I had a couple of mechanicals where I was overshifting. This would only be very mildly irratating on a standard club ride, but 240kms into a ride even a small issue becomes a major problem. It seemed sensible to just keep in the small ring which helped keep my legs relatively fresh. Again, plenty of green fields, bluebells, country mansions and  york stone villages. Audax riding really is a brilliant way to see the country. There were some sections where Nick and I were able to 2up along some faster roads, each of us taking a turn on the front for a few kilometres before swapping. I was thankful that I'd been able to stave off a full on bonk earlier, which would have been a bit of a disaster by this point in the ride. Nick was great at making us stop at a few other intermediate points to top up bottles and grab a flapjack or ice lolly. This was a big lesson for me to not just rely on the controls for food and while each stop cost us a few minutes it helped to keep energy levels up and take the pressure off our contact points, which I'm sure helped keep our average speed that little bit higher.

Fading light at Lambourne

We pulled into the last control at Lambourne and had soup and a roll, flap jack with fruit and a few cups of tea. It was about 7:30pm and it was warm but the heat was dropping fast, so I got my long sleeve top on, more vaseline and I was good to go. As I pulled out the control I suffered another mechanical and had a proper sense of humour failure. I'd just washed my hands and then within seconds they were covered in oil again. I told Nick to carry on and I would catch up, but it took me a couple of minutes to get the Van Nic back up and running. Nick had waited for me a kilometre or so further on (he'd taken the opportunity to stop and put on some arm and leg warmers). I was really grateful that he had waited; as the sun was going down, night riding after being in the saddle for over 12 hours was going to be a new challenge. It was also really quite lumpy. In my mind I thought that this section would be flat and easy; it wasn't. There were a couple of really quite tough climbs that had me bobbing and swaying out the saddle in the lowest gear I could get, the weight of my bike trying to drag me back down.  Things were starting to get quite tough.

Nick was doing more work at the front as his front lights were much better than mine. He was also doing a great job signing the many potholes, but after a while I asked him to stop. I think he was more likely to come off with only one hand on the bars and I would just run into the back of him, so I dropped back a bit and just hoped for the best. After Henley and avoiding the drunks, there was another climb out and by this time I just wanted to get it done. I tried to take turns on the front where the light was better, but Nick was able to read his GPS easier than me, so he was burdened with most of the hard work. I was behind him, clattering into potholes, swearing profusely and hoping to stay upright. With a few kilometres to go, I was just hoping not to get a puncture in the pitch black and it was testament to my mood that at that time a puncture would have seemed a disaster, but in reality it's nothing more than a minor inconvenience.  In the last 10kms, there were another couple of steep-ish hills and tons of gravel that I just couldn't see that had me slipping all over the road. It was pretty hard work and when we eventually got onto the A40 and the turn for Gerrards Cross I was a very happy bunny.

Best. Dahl. Ever.

Amazingly, we made it back before midnight, which meant that there were approximately 20 riders of the 119 or so who had made it back to the HQ before us; all in all, a pretty good day's riding! I fell on the food. Dahl, rice pudding, peaches, tea, biscuits; I had the lot and despite being achy and tired, all in all, I felt pretty good. Although not the toughest route in the audax calendar, it was still a hard test, with a varied diet of roads. I was extremely lucky to hook up with Nick. Working with another rider makes it much more bearable when things get tough and over those last 50 kms it would have been a lot more difficult, but his steadfastness and easy company really helped the miles go by. I've learnt so much about audax from this ride. I'll blog my main thoughts another time, but the main two things I've taken away is that a 400km audax is very much more than a 300km one and I really enjoy audax riding.

Fettling again

A bit of a transition week spent recovering from the 50 mile tt on Sunday and thinking ahead to LWL on Saturday. After the TT I found some issues with the Argon which needing sorting (a cable too tight; bars had slipped) so that was another hour tweaking.

Yesterday I went out and bought some bits for LWL, namely a new, small handlebar bag. The only problem was I found that a strap to attach it to the headset is too small, so it's going to flap about a lot. I think with the time I have left, I'm going to probably go without, which I'm sure will be fine. It will just mean carrying food in my seat pack which won't be as readily accessible. Other than that, just got to sort out my Garmin route for the very last leg, clean the Van Nic and then, hopefully, I'm good to go.

I'm pretty sure things will go wrong at some point but I'm also pretty sure I can sort most issues out. I'm looking forward to it, a lot, and even the weather seems to be set fair. Happy days.

The definition of madness.....

is making the same mistake twice.

I spent all day, and I mean literally all day, rebuilding my Argon TT bike. I had got it back from my local bike shop who had finally managed to get the spacers off that had been welded firmly to the steerer tube with my turbo sweat. So I set aside all of yesterday in order to get it ready for today's Charlotteville 50 mile TT.

I had barely serviced the bike over the last couple of years and if had finally failed on a few fronts and needed some tlc.

• New rear brake installed.
• New front chainring installed.
• Headset bearings stripped and re-greased.
• Selcof handlebars installed and the steerer tube trimmed to neaten up.
• All new gear and brake cables installed.
• New chain
• New bar tape (obviously!)

Thankfully, Mrs Wheezy and the cat decided that I was best left to it, that conversation would be useless while I wrestled with the intricacies of the Argon's engineering. This also involved a lot of swearing and a lot of cups of tea. By 6 o' clock in the evening I'd got it sorted and after two months, I had a working bike.

All good, but there was no time to road test the bike save for checking all the indexing. I would have to test the fit of the bike in the following day's time trial at the Charlotteville CC event.

Today's event was one that's been a bit of an early season opener for me for the last couple of years. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I struggled from the off. It was really cold this morning and I never got warm. Probably on it's own, this would have been fine but I had raised my saddle a few millimetres during the rebuild and this came back and literally bit me on the bum. I ended up riding 2:06:14, which is the slowest I've ridden over 50 miles in a few seasons. The bars were comfortable but they did slip which didn't help. I was some 2 minutes down on Simon, so not a disaster but I need to get my position properly sorted before thinking about the 12 hour in a few weeks time.

If Heineken did bike rides

Summer finally arrived this weekend, well, for a few days anyway. So Sunday was the club run, the weekly training ride that’s been around since cycling clubs began. Sometimes fast and frenetic; sometimes relaxed and steady. This one was definitely in the latter category but was all the better for it. I’ve had a couple of weeks off the turbo now and I’ve really enjoyed the break from it and the slight change of focus to thinking about audax events and a longer, slower easier pace has helped me to reset a bit, so the Sunday miles were perfect to just catch up with club mates and enjoy the simple pleasure of riding my bike. With one eye on the LWL, I bulked the ride out a little beforehand but again it was a steady flat lap out to a Sunbury before meeting the rest of the group. The sunshine brought 10 of us out; we haven’t seen double figures for a while and our ride leader, Gemma took us down some country lanes that I had not been along before. I think it was one of the best group rides we’ve had in a long time. Must do more!

The next big thing.

Last minute.com

Just before I started the Amesbury Amble, I managed to get a very, very last minute place on the London-Wales-London (LWL) audax, which takes place on the first May bank holiday weekend. It seems that spending an inordinate amount of time on twitter can have its uses! I had looked at entering this a while ago but it was full, then unexpectedly 2 places became available as  some people had dropped out. Bingo! It doesn’t actually start in London and it only just about scrapes into Wales, but it’s still a full 400km audax, which will mean me being on the bike for the best part of 24 hours.

I’m really looking forward to it, but it’s going to throw up a few more challenges for me.

Night Riding and navigation- While I’ve commuted home in the dark hundreds of times, actually cycling through the night and having to navigate at the same time could be pretty tricky. It seems that I’m going to have to find a way of lighting up my Garmin so I can read it whenever I want. I have a light that attaches to my helmet that might work, but I will have to test it and see how long the battery lasts. Riding while fatigued in the dark will be an interesting one. Looking back at the Amesbury Amble, I feel confident that I could do the extra 100km without needing a nap or extended rest. Best laid plans and all that, but I think that will be fine and it seems a lot of people just ride through, unless they are riding at the lower speed range for an audax.

Nutrition and hydration- I’m going to need to be more self sufficient during the night when shops are shut, which will mean carrying more food and water with me. I think it will be prudent to have two bottles on the bike and I’m going to get a small handlebar bag for food that I can reach quickly, if I need it. I can now comfortably ride 4 hours with very little food but I don’t want to bonk with no shops open, along hill to climb and a good few hours until breakfast.

Lighting- Not surprisingly, the cheap lights that I bought for the 300 were not particularly reliable, and as I will be riding through the night I am going to need a higher quality, and therefore expensive front light. So back to the drawing board with this.

Route planning- The organiser has provided a GPX file for the whole route but I need to learn how to divide it up between the controls, without me having to draw out the whole thing.  I could do that, but it’ll take me ages.

An existential crisis

Our first race back in 2013

Do I sell my TT bike?

I’ve been thinking about it for a while. Part of me knows that I will regret it, while another part knows that it will set me free from aiming to go faster, produce more power and get more aero. Of course, I would replace it with another bike; I’m not *that* stupid, but there is quite a large part of me that wants shot of the Argon, and for good.

It’s not the Argon’s fault. It’s been a brilliant first (only?) time trial bike. Comfortable, forgiving, adjustable, it’s been everything that I could wish for.

It’s more to do with what it stands for. Whenever I ride it I’m usually absolutely burying myself on some windswept dual carriageway, sucking down my own snot while attempting to get every last muscle fibre to produce power and I’m just a bit tired of doing that these days. On top of that, I can't keep up in the arms race that is time trialling. At best, I'm around the 50th percentile in any given field, so hardly pulling up trees. I've gone well under 1 hour for 25 miles and under 2 hours for 50. I feel that I have gone just about as far as I want to go with it.

So sell it, or keep it? I could keep it, put drops on it and turn it into an aero road machine, while the Van Nic becomes my tourer/Audax bike? Or, just keep it attached to the turbo while I sort out what I want to do.

 Answers on a postcard please.

Amesbury Amble 300km Audax 2018

Getting up at 4:30am is a tall order, but as I had been wide awake since 3am anyway, getting up and ready was a bit of a blessing.  I ate my usual breakfast of tea, porridge and banana before cycling the 10km to the event HQ in Raynes Park. Like time trialling, the HQ venues tend to be rather low key affairs and this was no exception. The difference was in the riders as it was a real mix of people. Mainly club riders from the Wheelers (who were putting on the event), Dunwich Dynamo, SWRC, but there was a spattering of Rapha hooligans, audaxers and privateers.  There was a simple but hearty breakfast provided but as I was yawning my head off and I had already eaten I elected to have just a coffee.


 I got chatting to a few other people, most notably a guy who had done LEL last year. The navigation and relying on my Garmin so much was obviously playing on my mind, as I quizzed him about using the route sheet. He simply said he'd never understood them and that the Garmin would be fine. I could just see myself stuck out in the wilds of Wiltshire, lost, with a broken bike, but like most times, the difference between reality and my fears was very wide.

There's no point in me describing the route in detail, except for the fact that as audax events go, it was not particularly hilly. The weather was kind, being very cool, almost cold at the start of the day before it warmed up later on, which meant that I went from being fully dressed to stripping off; a typical early spring day. Yes, I went out too fast and a large group quickly formed, with me in the middle of it. After the first control at Lasham if thinned out quite quickly and it was here that I learnt my first audax lesson. I was busting for a pee so went to the toilet and when I came back there was a long queue for food, which meant I now had to wait and would be quite late leaving the control. I noticed that LEL man had bought his food first, dumped it on the table and then went to the bogs. As a result, he ended up leaving a good 10 minutes before I did.

Just after the first control I ended up riding with Keith, who obviously seemed an experienced audax rider. We ended up pretty much riding the next 10 hours together. I was a little faster than him, particularly up hills but this was great for me as it meant I slowed a bit and stayed within myself. That said, Keith was great company and kept a steady pace going and I learnt a lot from chatting to him about different approaches to all this new type of cycling.

The long drags across the Wiltshire downs, which would have been very hard going if the wind had been up were a real pleasure and at times there was not a single sound except for the click of a Shimano freewheel and very empty roads. We went past the top secret Porton Down Government buildings and as we skirted Netheravon Airbase we saw the Red Devils freefall parachute display team practicing.

The Garmin worked brilliantly and breaking the route down into sections between controls helped to mentally break up the ride too. I topped up the Garmin at each control and this kept the battery life very high. I am sure that this would work really well for a 400km event too as I still had 60% battery life at the end. I can't see me using a route sheet again!

Over the last couple of hours, Keith was getting tired and I ended up rolling into Bracknell about 15 minutes ahead of him, soI was able to have a longer stop while waiting. He went to a local chippy instead so he had a quick stop to top up bottles before the last short leg back to Raynes Park. Much of this was roads that I know well from the KPRC rides to Windsor and Virginia Water so I could switch off a bit and just spin out gently.

When we got back the Wheelers had laid on a lovely stew, which I absolutely demolished, while the couple of other riders I finished with pushed their food around their bowls. I was ravenous. I then had to spin home ans thankfully this last little bit meant that I just crept over 200 miles for the day.

Amazingly, as I write this, I have no major aches or pains at all. I got a little sore in my right shoulder on the bike but this soon wore off. The bike was fine although I need a new front chainring, but no mechanicals or punctures which considering some of the rural roads I was on, is a bit of a miracle.

A great ride and a great day.

Final bits n' bobs

Always the way that I start to dismantle my bike to 'fix' something almost immediately before I need it for an important event. The creaking in my headset came back yesterday, so I bit the bullet and decided to strip it down. It was as dry as a snake's backside. I'm pretty sure that I will need a new cartridge bearing and forks but without the time to order them and get them installed a good clean and then packing out with fresh grease will have to do. Mrs Wheezy was thrilled about turning the dining room into a bicycle workshop.

I gave the Van Nic a thorough clean and put new brake blocks on; heck, I even cleaned the mudguards. So here she is in full audax trim. The front light that was an £8 Amazon purchase, although heavy is very powerful and as it's powered by AAA batteries I don't have to worry about recharging. I'm carrying spare batteries but unless I get hopelessly lost I shouldn't really need it except in the early evening. The Alpkit dry bag is carrying everything; I've even put my pump and spare tubes in there so I don't have to carry them in my jersey. It has a little bit of a wobble despite much swearing and strap tightening, but other than that it's pretty neat. I did a ride to Windsor yesterday to check the Garmin and whether it charged ok from the battery pack and that was all good.

Rear view shows how neat the Alpkit stores. I've added a few reflectors on the rear mudguard; two small rear back-up lights above the rear brake with my main rear light still to go on. Belts and braces.

Only thing left to so is to have a quick shake down ride this evening just to check for any last minute problems, and then I'm good to go tomorrow.

Audax Kit

I've started getting all the bits and bobs I'm going to take on the audax with me. To be honest, this is overkill as I regularly do 80-100 mile rides with little more than a couple of spare tubes, a bottle and a cash point card, but with longer events on the horizon it seems prudent to pack for a longer event and see how this works for me.

Gilet / lightweight top / lucky DW snood / base layer / 2 tubes (plus 1 in a back pocket) / tyre levers (plus one in back pocket) / multitool / spare link / puncture repair kit / ibuprofen / spare front light / charger and mini-usb lead / cable ties / cafe lock / waterproof case for my phone. Also not in the picture I have packed my waterproof jacket which packs fairly small.

Still a few bits needed - pack of AAA spare batteries / front light which can velcro to my helmet for when it gets dark to read my Garmin. This shouldn't be an issue for the Amesbury Amble, but will be for longer events. Also need to organise a way of carrying some spare chain lube / chamois cream / sun cream.

So I've bagged it all up as follows. All my clothes except my waterproof jacket is in the Wimbledon bag. The top tube bag contains the charger pack, lock, phone. There's not really any room for food but I will carry bars and sarnies in my back pockets, as I have always done. The blue bag contains all my spare tubes and levers. The green bag contains the multi-tool / spare links / ibuprofen / cable ties.

All that comfortably fits into the Alpkit bag and there's still room for me to put my mini pump and leggings in there. I'm going to sort out how best to attach it under the seat on Friday, but tomorrow I've got a long ride planned with Simon so I will check that the Garmin 800 charges ok from the charge pack.

Which way?

Gurning

I think riding this audax is going to be a baptism of fire, not so much in the miles that I'm going to cover but the navigation that will be required. I've taken some advice from a few facebook and forum groups and rather than trying to upload the whole ride as one file to my Garmin 800, I've broken it down into the 5 sections between controls which has taken me a few hours but hopefully will make it a lot less stressful on the road. This makes the file sizes smaller and should (hopefully) stop my Garmin having a meltdown. I've tried to get my head around the route while I've been copying them using Garmin Connect but it's a very long way with hundreds of junctions. The route card is gobbledygook. I've been told that once you're on the road it makes a lot more sense and I'm sure that it's just a skill that needs learning and practice. I am also hopeful of being able to follow a wheel or two through the hard bits (yes, cheating).

Answers on a postcard, please.

Yesterday was the KPRC Open 10. My TT bike is still un-serviceable (I ordered the wrong rear replacement brake and I'm waiting another week for a new one). So I ended up riding on the Van Nic in full commuter trim. It was also a dog of a day with a block headwind on the way out and added to that, my chain slipped off at the start and my pump fell out my pocket at halfway. By that time I well and truly gave up but I bulked it out to do a solid 80 miles after eating my own bodyweight in Cornish pasties all week on a family holiday. Time to get back on it.