Gruyère Cycle Tour

At long last it was the Swiss challenge. Up a mountain and down again PLUS the Go With Crow prizes to be drawn. When we left for Europe, the total was getting so close to the £1000 -please please let's get the target!

Anyway, down to Switzerland we go- this was not without its moments such as driving onto the ferry, the car's main engine warning light decides to come on. Oh S**t! Luckily, 400 miles and 2 pit stops later, the light went of its own accord (by this point I'd spoken to Toyota who said "oh, it might mean nothing- see how you get on"- very reassuring!) so we could relax (according to Toyota!!)
We had a bizarre stop off in Strasbourg- why the Tom Tom took us there I have no idea but after 8 hrs of driving we didn't really care.

Anyway, the following day and 2 hours driving got us into Bulle and to the hotel. Brilliant- we didn't have a room, we had an entire flat! Big enough for my bike to have its own room! Nice little town too- for a first visit to Switzerland, this Gruyère region looked like... well, it looked like Christmas!

Race nerves were hitting in (actually I think it was more about the language barrier- my French is awful but I kind of muddle through with a bit of O level French and arm waving/pointing) though when I checked my email, Go With Crow had made it to the £1000- BRILLIANT! Just in time for race day and the Ball when the tickets would be drawn!

Race day arrived with perfect weather and I set off to meet the Cervo Rosso guys- a great cross section- people from Canada, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Australia, UK (hope I didn't miss any countries out guys) and all ages, from 15 up to.... well, up to me!

I think someone said there were 1500 riders. Great atmosphere (when I could understand!) and great riding. Team Cervo Rosso were, e'hm, somewhat faster than me on the climbs and they'd left me standing within 10 miles. No problem- I was here to ride and it was brilliant. Col de Mittleburg was a beast of a climb. Gradients ranging from 5-10% and that was (from the time-point) about 11k to the top. I was timed at 52m55s... a steady plod and not the slowest. It really didn't matter- the views were stunning. At the top of the hill (well, mountain!) I took a rest at the feed station before the descent. Plenty to drink and Gruyère cheese to eat- smashing!

at the top of Col Du Mittelberg

I'd heard to be careful on the descent so took it steady to begin with. If I couldn't see 'round the corner, sit on the brakes just in case. It was great fun! Loads of hairpins, dodgy road surfaces and marshals.

So I completed the descent and got to the split point (2 distances and I was on the 85km 'green' route) and I was pretty much on my own. I plodded on until I eventually made it to the '25km to go' sign and I spotted some Brits! I knew they were Brits as one was wearing 'Kilo to Go' shorts. Turned out, Steve was living in Switzerland but his Yorkshire accent gave him away as being originally from Huddersfield! If you're reading this Steve, get in touch! So I took shelter with his group for a while to save some energy. This I did a few times- piggy backed from one group to another and it made this last stretch far more fun. It was about now the first of the longer distance peletons started coming through- and at a hell of a speed- bloody impressive to an old plodder like me!

balcony view of the race from our apartment

We were soon back in Bulle and riding up the street where our hotel was (above pic is shot from our balcony with the hotel shown clearly- told you it was nice!) and about 2k from the finish- minutes later, it was all over. I'd survived my first Swiss hill!

We regrouped for a beer and team photo before heading our separate ways- hope to ride with some of the guys again! Think I'll need to speed up a bit first!

Team Cervo Rosso

and some interesting facts about the race...

1732 participants, ages ranged from 15 -74

17 Nationalities

and now for the video...

An Interesting Week

In preparation of Switzerland I've increased my training over the last week or so. I'm sure I'm going to regret this one...A mountain FFS- and what hill climbing practice is there in lincolnshire!?...well quite a lot really but nothing that is going to  prepare me for a Swiss mountain. Oh well, I'm sure it'll be a laugh if nothing else. The other thing that needs prepping are the cameras. I'm taking a GoPro HD which I've decided to use on the rear mount on the seat post as this gives quite a nice shot. My other camera is my trusty old Sony TG3. In previous attempts (such as the New York ride) I've handheld- not easy and to be honest, dangerous- especially riding in a group. So, let's make a camera mount for the front handlebars. A little bit of research on t'internet and a rummage in the garage and the Mk1 is built.

Quite a neat design- Now to road test it. Oh dear- it's crap :( the plastic is too soft and vibration is unbelievably bad! Recorded a small bit of footage to playback and the picture was totally unwatchable. Back to the drawing board. After taking a bike lamp apart and adapting its mount (which is a/ closer to the handlebar and b/ far sturdier plastic) we seem to have something more like it.

Out for road test number 2.... massive improvement. Not perfect, but not bad. If anyone has any ideas to dampen vibration from my bike, please get in touch :) I'm sure a few of my engineering friends are up for this challenge (Nigel...Claire?) So the cameras are all set. This ride, I think I've said before is more for the experience than gaining a time. I'm hoping to try and enjoy it, the scenery and soak up the atmosphere. It's going to be a great day I'm sure.

Anyway, later on in the week Swiss brand Cervo Rosso invited me to join their test team. Not as amazing as it sounds (as in, I'm not that good a rider! lol) but a fantastic privilege and free kit. Thanks guys!

This was closely followed by an email from Team Garmin Cervélo offering me a place on their annual team ride out in the New Forest next month. Only 500 places, so again- Brill! and thanks!!

I'm a bit concerned with the fundraising- Ideally I'd love to hit the £1000 mark before the Gruyère Tour next Sunday as this is when the draw will take place at Lincoln Drill Hall's Bangers and Mash Ball. I've put out more emails, badgered people on Facebook- what more can I do? I've a few GWC T shirts if people want them BUT you'll have to sponsor me to get one!

Finally on this blog I'd like to thank Gavin for sending me some You Tube clips on climbing technique. Surprisingly, they have made a difference and saved me a fair old bit of energy. Whilst I'm at it, I'd better thank Andy too. A great chap and has been an inspiring riding buddy. I'm no where near his standard but he's been patient and a mine of information. Dale as well- thanks mate. Way back in January you got me out and back on the saddle- hope you're coming out for the Wiggle Rut next month. Will be 101 miles of fun I'm sure. God bless the British weather in September!!!!

passista: Andrea Pinarello

passista: Andrea Pinarello: "The first time I met Andrea, he introduced my wife and I to the Pinarello factory. For an hour he patiently showed us around while I made a ..."

Andrea Pinarello RIP

Shocking news today: Andrea Pinarello, the son of  the Pinarello bicycle manufacturer founder Giovanni, collapsed and died following the opening stage of an amateur cycling race, according to reports in Italy.

The 40-year-old suffered a heart attack following the first stage of the Giro del Friuli, an amateur Italian stage race. He is reported to have collapsed immediately after crossing the finish line in apparent good health.

Paramedics successfully revived him, but a second heart attack shortly afterwards was to prove fatal.

Andrea, who had a long association with the highly-regarded Italian bike manufacturing family, is survived by his wife and two children.

The Pinarello family has close links to sport, sponsoring major professional teams and riders of the calbire of Miguel Indurain for many years. The company currnetly supplies bikes to Team Sky and Movistar.

Andrea rode the Gran Fondo New York and was at the after race party. He was fitter and younger than me! This sort of news is hard to stomach. I rode with this guy! It only just reinforces exactly how lucky I am. God bless and condolences to your family x

Tour of Britain- East Anglia Stage

On the 24th July I arrived at the start line for a gentle 62 mile ride across a flat landscape. Myself and Andy were driven over to Diss for a 9am start. The weather was pretty good- some blue sky beginning to peep through BUT- head wind and with this not being a circular route, it was going to be a head wind for the full distance. First half of the ride went well. For the first hour, Andy and I led the way and eventually we were caught by a small group with which we tagged on to and took some shelter- slipstreaming at this point was very welcome as we were beginning to tire (or at least I was!) so some energy was save there. At the feed station half the group stopped and this is where my mistake was made. I should have stopped too. I didn't know it, but I was running low on fuel and should have topped up. Foolishly I carried on and by the 3 hr mark I was starting to tire....badly. Andy is a pretty good cyclist. No, actually he's an extremely good cyclist and he tolerates my pace. I could tell he was holding back (let's face it, he had from the starting line) so I said I was happy to go it alone and for him to go at his speed. Within a few miles I began to regret this - I was in the middle of no-where riding into the wind... no other riders in sight (which always makes me think I've manage to get lost!) and I was low on water and getting mardy because I knew I should have stopped earlier. Only got myself to blame, so I plodded on.

As you can see from this picture, I'd got my GoPro camera on my head- this was beginning to get heavy. You will also note it's angle and you'll see the results shortly...

By now, I was watching the miles on my cyclometer. 100kms...approx 62 miles...fantastic...only 2 more miles to Sandringham... or so I thought. When you're tired and getting, a'hem, 'fed up' the last thing you need is for the course to be longer than you thought. And it was. It turned out to be 68.5 miles and whilst I'm (now) happy with that achievement, at the time I was cursing every revolution of my pedals under my breath. I was absolutely wrecked. No water, no energy and no sign of the finish.

At last the turn into Sandringham appeared- a massive stately driveway which led to a fabulous finish line as used by the pro riders on the Tour of Britain AND with quite a large and an excitably noisy crowd to cheer all us riders to the finish line. Phew. It was all over.

I collected my medal and found Andy and his family- he'd finished about 25 mins earlier. I was pointed toward the pasta, drinks and...a chair! EXCELLENT- heaven does exist! So, with hindsight (always a good thing) a great day. A lot of lessons learned for me... keep hydrated, don't be a smart arse by not stopping at the feed station and, finally, try to keep within a group to save more energy. These are gonna be important for the ride in Switzerland. With some major climbing, I'm going to have to prepare and pace myself properly. As for the Go Pro, I should have checked its angle before setting off- a short bit of footage below. And I'll need to plan camera positions carefully for the Swiss ride to get the best out of what will be some stunning scenery.

And a final word on this ride below. My time and finish position. Better type it cos it's small in the picture... I came 38th out of 273 with a time of 4hrs 22mins. 

Quite pleased with that even with Andy getting 10th (well done mate)

St Ives 10k

And so I can proudly write up a small piece on the first extra team member to complete his event. Lincoln Drill Hall's one and only Simon Hollingworth put in a very respectable 59m27s for the St Ives 10k. Well done Simon and within the space of 24hrs an extra £100 raised with the promise of more to come!
Simon writes...

So the St Ives 10k was my third official race-type-run-thing, having done the Lincoln 10k in 2010 and 2011. I would never refer to myself as a runner, but I guess that gradually I’m coming to accept that it’s one of the things I do… so I’m kind of a runner. Sort of… ish.
I was running with my buddies Andy, Cliff & Pete (together we sing as a 4 part harmony comic cabaret group,  The Boxenburgs and are thinking about running the 2012 Lincoln 10k stopping every 2000m or so to serenade the crowds. What do you think?). Weather was kind (in a dark, gloomy, forbidding sort of way) and 2/3 of the race was across an airfield – we were told that if the sirens sounded we would HAVE to stop…. unfortunately they didn’t.
It was a ‘there and back’ style race so it was nice to be able to see the whole field stretching out in front and behind us (about 400 runners in total) but not so nice when the leaders started passing us on their way home, long before we were anywhere near the half way mark…
Anyway we managed to keep going (I swear the whole race was uphill) and I even dug deep for a last minute push to make sure I crossed the line under one hour.
A well-earned lunch and a sweet, sweet beer later and all that remained was one set of ultra stiff legs.

You will also note Simon is sporting the latest fashion... namely the 'Go With Crow' T shirt. There are a pair of his and hers available as a prize in the draw

...or if you can't wait, contact me!

Of course this now adds pressure onto GoWith Crow's other team member- 

Come on Gavin, let's get the sponsorship in- all for a great cause!

front & back of our Tshirt

Asics London 10k

What a race!

And I don't mean that in a particularly good way. Ok, let's examine the history to this one- I've run this 10k for the last 4 years. I run as part of the Scoliosis Campaign Fund team. I run this for my daughter, Scarlett, who has scoliosis and has, as many of you know, had two major operations to correct it. She's doing brilliantly and is a very active young lady. I can't wait for the day she will run this one with me! :)
Anyway, so I've done this a few times and it's always a bit crowded and you have to do a bit of weaving at the start to get into a pace and amongst similar strength runners...that's all fine. BUT this year the whole course was a really assault course. I was hoping to pull my time in under the hour- I'd done some good training times and was feeling strong for this one. Had a fabulous day with Helen in London the day before; met up with Aggi and Andy (congratulations btw) for dinner at Jamie's Italian and so all was well with the world. 0830 on race day, met up with the SCF Team and Nicola and Carrie-Ann- friends who were also running and headed off to the start line near Marble Arch. 0935 is when we were due to start but for some reason this was delayed by a good 20 mins, with us crossing the start line 40 mins later. Yes, it was that busy. And then for the dodgems. Now the roads down that London are pretty wide and still it was heaving- way more so than previous years. The pic below is at the 2k mark (thanks Helen and Dale for cheering me on) and it looks pretty relaxed on that. Don't you believe it! With runners of all strengths and sizes it was really hard work. I'm sure I read somewhere there were 26,000 runners and for once it felt like they were all slower and in front of me!

The other thing to dodge as well was the amount of water bottles scattered on the road- with 3 water stations (a bit OTT for a 10k) there were 1000's of bottles everywhere. Luckily there were no Gatorade bottles scattered this year. Usually at 5k you get some of this stuff and the floor gets that sticky, it's like running on velcro! I'm telling you, it takes quite a bit of concentration dodging all this stuff!

I felt good throughout the run and with Westminster and Big Ben in sight, I knew I was nearly home. As I chugged past Parliament Aggi and Andy were there to cheer and high 5 me- just what I needed- brilliant and at the last 500m and finally a stretch of road with room to manoeuvre, I sprinted for the finish line crossing at 1hour and 1 minute exactly. Pretty gutted at that time as I'm sure I could have come in 4 mins quicker. To be honest I think I might have run a 10.5k race with all the snaking between people!

Anyway, great day, great race, great friends and of for lunch and a good natter and debrief about the day's events at the Soho Pizzeria before catching the train home. It's become a tradition to come home first class (thank you Tesco for the clubcard tickets) with free wi-fi, tea and butties but more importantly, comfy chairs and room to spread with my aching ankles!

Carrie-Ann is trying to persuade me to do a marathon (in best cockney/essex accent "if you can do a 10k you can do an arf...if you can do an arf you can do a marafon!")- wise words indeed but I'm not convinced!