1. HP - 89km
2. HY - 58km
3. Keith - 44km
4. Norm - still MIA somewhere in Egypt…
5. Tuong - still having mechanical issues…

1. HY - 562km
2. Keith - 512km
3. Norm - 290km
4. HP - 230km

I had big plans to take out YJOM for Dec. However, I was tempted by too much Starcraft. This affected my early mid-week rides. At least, I was able to discover that 500km/month is sufficient for me to maintain my current fitness level. I managed to top off the year with a decent crack at the 1in20, managing a PB of 18min58sec.

HY started off pretty slack, but some consistent daily riding saw him close the gap within the last 2 weeks, and eventuallly taking out both YJOM and YJOY 2008. Nice work!

Geek was off to Egypt mid-way through the month, so he retired at 290km. Which was still enough to hold off HP. But to his credit, HP probably has the highest proportion of off-road mileage.

YJOY 2008
1. HY - 3600km
2. Keith - 3575km
3. Norm
4. HP

1. HY - 1001.55km
2. Geek - 732km
3. Keith - 657km
4. HP - 382km

Last updated 12:00, 29/11/08 (GMT +10)

Well, that wraps it up for the first properly contested (non-retrospective) race for YJOM. It made for a very interesting month. HY was out of the blocks very early, determined to get a psychological break on the rest of us. Admittedly, this actually worked. He continued to pull away and has claimed YMOM for November, impressively breaking through the 1000km mark.

Norm came in at 2nd place. Good effort, considering how much of that riding would have been in pitch-black, 5 degree weather. It was neck and neck with myself for a good part of that month. But in the end, it was those 100km+ rides that enabled him to pull away to a convincing 2nd place.

Unfortunately for me, November was the month wife started back at work. That left me with only Wed and Fri to do mid-week riding. On top of that, it seemed to always rain on those precise days. My last ditch 78km on the Franga-Fang wasn’t even near enough to bridge the gap to even threaten Norm’s placing.

An honourable mention goes to HP, his first month of joining us on MCL. To his credit, he does do a lot of his riding off-road. A lot of this month was spent building bikes, rather than actually riding them. Hopefully, with a new roadie on the production line, we might see a bit of road mileage also, in the coming months.

After our recent YPR team meeting, the Board has decided to award monthly “Yellow Jersey of the Month”, for the team rider who has accumulated the most mileage for that month. The method of deciding the Green and Polka-Dot jerseys is still under heated deliberation.

I’m going to go ahead and award myself the YJotM for October, unless anyone thinks they can catch up on the 300km lead in the next 2 days. Here’s the retrospective YJotM awards and this month’s current standings:

July
1. HY (410km)
2. Geek (270km)
3. Keith (240km)

Aug
1. Keith (690km)
2. Geek (540km)
3. HY (370km)

Sept
1. HY (750km)
2. Keith (681km)
3. Geek (200km)

Oct
1. Keith (802km)
2. HY (517km)
3. Geek (511km)

After some determined negotiations, Team Recruitment has finally convinced HP into joining the ranks, and he will joining us as of November 1st. More to follow…

Phew… tired now. L2P photos up on my Facebook.

I’ll hopefully have some energy and time to write up more about it later.

Well, it’s been a while since I last rambled on about cycling, so here’s the catch up dose. Hard to believe that there’s only 2.5 weeks left before my 600km adventure to Par-ree. Yesterday Hay and I attended the final L2P organised training session in perfect sunny 25 degree conditions. The ride took us through Surrey and a few of the ‘Surrey Hills’. This was really the first time I’d climbed anything longer than 50m in London and (as sadistic as it may sound), I miss my climbs! We did about 3 climbs, the first two of which were very sheltered with literally no cars and probably a gradient of about 5%. Reminded me of the 1 in 20 except quieter and shorter (it was also on a very narrow, but smooth 2 lane road). The third climb was to a place called ‘Box Hill’ which had absolutely beautiful views over a typical English countryside (rolling hills, fields, etc). I was going to take a picture but the group started rolling again before I could get my phone out. There was also a nice café at the top which looked to be a regular cyclists hang out (at least on sunny days).

My only complaint about all the climbs was that they were all way too short, lasting at most 2km. Hay and I being the lightweights that we are, claimed all the KoMs without a contest. We weren’t meaning to be disrespectful or anything but everyone seems to be grinders over here and I just couldn’t stand pedalling at a slow cadence. It was just easier (less effort) for me to go faster than the bunch. On one of the climbs I did my usual creeping up the pack as I settled into my natural cadence and I heard someone latch onto my wheel. At first I thought ‘who the heck was that keeping up with me?’ only to realise a good 100m later that it was just Hay. Hay’s certainly put in a lot of hard work between our first L2P training ride (which I just realised I never finished writing up) and this last one. Definitely not getting dropped on the hills anymore….

The L2P ride is broken up into the 4 different groups. Group 1 - the racing group, down to Group 4 - the hoping to finish group. Hay and I contemplated group 3 but we thought we’d play it safe and stick with group 4 for the training ride (for fear of getting dropped and subsequently lost). We’ll probably attempt a group 3 ride at some stage on L2P itself, as you can change groups in the morning or at the lunch break. The ride is essentially broken up into 6 parts over the 3 days.

In case you’re wondering what differs between the groups, it’s the speed.

Group 1: 34-36 km/h
Group 2: 29-32 km/h
Group 3: 27-29 km/h
Group 4: 25-27 km/h

Each of the groups will also have a pace car (which you’re not allowed to pass) and a mechanic’s van who will follow you around and fix your punctures by swapping your wheel etc (so you can get that full ‘professional’ treatment). I think they even carry spare bikes just in case there’s that big big a problem. Of course all of that stuff is probably only really useful for group 1, who are actually going to be racing under the British Cycling umbrella (Cycling Australia equivalent). Caught a glimpse of Emma Davies (one of the British Olympians) who will be leading one of the teams in group 1 before we started our training ride. Also at the start of our ride was this rather large lady (who I hadn’t seen before) who I think had a bit of a misconception about the L2P. Nothing against ‘large’ people now, as I’ve seen some large (and old) men hammer it down for much longer than I can, but this lady couldn’t even keep up for 10 minutes! I think one of the organisers will be having a quiet chat to her about possibly deferring the ride to next year…. some people just have absolutely no idea on what they’re getting themselves in for.

Anyway, since recovering from my flu about 3 weeks ago, been pretty much doing back to back century rides every weekend with Hay. This weekend had been no exception, and in fact it was even tougher with the addition of the 200-300m high hills. I’m planning for one more big weekend this week (I may have a spot in the 80km London to Brighton ride happening this Sunday as a colleague’s friend pulled out), but after that I’ll just be tapering and trying to fatten up a bit for the ride. Not much more I can do now. In some regards, I’m looking forward to getting this ride over and done with as I’ve pretty much devoted a good part of the last 6 months of my life to training for it. I was secretly hoping to ride in group 3 but due to my illness I guess I’ll be happy to finish in 4. Now, if only the weatherman can do something about the weather for that last weekend in June…

So with the likely decision to enter into the L2P, I thought I’d try to get some more kays under my belt and set off riding with Hay this (Sat) morning. The destination was Hillingdon Cycle Circuit, a custom build road cycling course where there was a winter series being held.

The plan was to get there pretty much all along a bike path which ran by Grand Union Canal. It was actually interesting to see that these canals housed quite a few boats very similar to what you see in Amsterdam. Sorry, no photos as it was still rather cold in the morning and I didn’t want to stop. Having said that, I was forced to stop about 5km into the ride anyway because of a piece of glass that (ever too easily) wedged itself deep into my front tyre (another reason why I hate bike paths as well). Took my time changing the tyre as fingers were still numb, but seriously guys, I am getting better/quicker at changing tyres especially since this one is just so easy to rip off the rim!

Anyhow, Pocket Rocket gets another use (I think I want to buy a canister for the next one) and we’re on our way again. Being a shared bike/foot path, it was slow going as one would expect. About 15km into it, it started to look muddy so we left the canal/bike path and tried to find our way there via the roads. This is where we decided to take a 1.4km detour as by chance we were near Keith’s old place.

So we head towards Keith’s old ‘hood’, and Keith I hope that this is the right place:

I did notice while I was out front that there was a bike leaning against the fence and a Chinese character hanging on the front door, but it was only when I got home that I noticed that there’s a freakin huge Chinese flag hanging in the window. Maybe they have a guy in there who’s a doctor and likes to ride as well??? Spooky….

Detour over, another 10km or so more and we arrived at the circuit. We just got there before a race was starting so we managed to sneak in a few laps. Not a bad course. Has a few undulations, and a back straight that was quite windy. I think it’d be a challenge for 35mins plus 5. The Cat 4 (D grade equivalent) race soon starts and we pull over to the side to watch. This (old) lady starts chatting to us and it turns out that she was the nurse for the day as well being a coach for some of the riders. Supposedly she has about 80 riders that she coaches, with a few racing in the Cat 1/2 races yet to follow. She provided a lot of useful information, including how to get a license, where the rides/clubs were, etc. And to my surprise, she asked the organiser for me about whether my bike was ‘raceable’ to which it was a ‘yes’. Looks like I might be back next week (Although realistically I know I should prepare a bit more first as I know I’ll get dropped in 10mins in my current condition).

The ride home was relatively uneventful, except for the fact that once again I feel that I need to buy a mask as we took the main roads and every breath stank of pollution. Otherwise not a bad morning/afternoon for 60 kays!

Normally I wouldn’t do write ups on boring laps around Regent’s Park, but today’s ride warrants one because it was the first bunch ride I’ve done in 8 months!!

Myself and Hay, who is currently 5 shades darker than me from spending all that time under the South American sun, headed over to Regent’s Park this morning at the ridiculously early hour (for London) of 9:30am to do a few laps just to get back into the swing of things. Hay was running a little late so I rocked up first for a couple of uneventful laps and most of our ride remained that way with only the occasional cyclist being passed or passing us. We were doing a nice cruisy pace of around 25-26km/h until about our 4th lap when we had this bunch of about 5 zoom by. I happened to have been leading at this time so I flicked up a gear or two to see if Hay wanted to hang on as well. He did so thus I slotted myself nicely into the bunch with Hay wheelsucking behind, right in the middle. The pace wasn’t anything hot, but it was still around 30-31km/h which obviously felt a lot faster than what we had just been cruising at (but not really much more effort if you ask me). Anyway we kept up for about 2-3 laps after which Hay decided to call it quits which I was quite happy to do as well. As I was warming down I chatted to the guys briefly and three of them raced, with one in Cat 3 and two in Cat 2 (I assume C and B grade equivalent).

Anyway it’s sad that I’m writing about a 7 man bunch ride… bring back Beach Rd any day!

PS. Hay I hope your knee held up okay. You looked to be in pretty good form today.

Well, the TYP expansion plan is in place! I’m sure venture capitalists will be looking to invest in new uniforms for us very shortly…

Hay, Steve T (from high school for those of you who remember), and I headed out for a cruise today on a lovely London autumn day. It got off to a bad start when on the way down in the elevator a dude pointed out to me that I had a bit of a flat tyre. Hmmm… not good. Gave it a quick press and it wasn’t totally flat so pumped it up with the Pocket Rocket before rolling out. I was guessing a slow leak but I figure I could at least get to Hay’s place where I could use the floor pump to test it properly. I get to Hay’s, pumped up the tyre some more, and sure enough the hissing became louder. I found the leak was from where I had my last puncture. That section of the tyre had a pretty bad/deep cut hence I’m thinking that I’ll need to replace it ASAP.

Nonetheless, changed the tube (in under 5 mins!) then rolled out to Steve’s place around 20 mins behind schedule. Steve lives in SW London (we’re in the NW) so we had to go through the posher suburbs (i.e. Chelsea) to get there. I think I saw no less than 5 Ferraris.

We get to Steve’s and the sun was actually peeking through still (*shock*) so we rolled on through to Richmond Park. The original back up plan was to go to Hyde Park if Hay’s knee was playing up or if it started raining, but it was all good.

About another 20 mins later on the London roads, we arrived at Richmond Park. Although it was busy with traffic, I could see how early on a Sat/Sun morning it could be a popular course for cyclists. There were still quite a few roadies doing laps on this ~10km course and there were even these things called ‘hills’ that really made me huff and puff (I’m going to struggle with Beach Rd when I get back…). Anyway, Steve managed to pull away on the hills every time on the Wilier but on the flats I was still sucking strong like a Hoover.

Was definitely the best ride I’ve been on to date. Will have to go back next week (weather pending).

^Picture of Richmond Park: Yes, be sure to be out by 8pm as they have to cull DEERS. I did see a few little ones on the side of the road which I thought was pretty cool. Poor bambi…

Wow… new WP 2.0 editor. Cool.

After forking out more pounds for some Shimano M520 SPD pedals and Specialized BG Sport MTB shoes (I have now almost officially spent more money on gear than the bike itself), Hay, Pete and I were going to meet up Sat morning to go for a bit of a cruise. Pete didn’t end up coming down to Hay’s place (the meeting point) in the morning and because he had the pedal wrench, we rode to his house instead which was about 3-4km away. Pete had to change his pedals as well as he’d just recently purchased clipless too. When we got to Pete’s, I gave it a shot at changing the pedals but given that me and pedal wrenches never seem to get along (I can never figure out which way to turn them), we ended up riding to a local bike store to get it changed. This actually ended up being a good thing as until now I have only been shopping at the big chain stores and it was a welcoming change to see a (cheaper) mum and dad type store stocking a half decent range. Anyway, they lent us their pedal wrench (I’ve gotta say the Park Tools are just so much better and easier to use) and after telling me which way to turn, it was a piece of cake. We changed Pete’s pedals there as well but given that he hasn’t used clipless before, he continued riding with his sneakers. It felt so good to be clipped in again and not bouncing around… (felt so much safer too).

Anyway, our next destination was a street market as I had to do a bit of grocery shopping. The fruit and veggies were not only cheaper than the supermarkets as expected, but it was a lot fresher too. Special thanks to Tara and James for recommending this place to me (who else would know more about where to get the best and cheapest foods!). We also ended up having a kebab there. And it was a HUGE kebab too. Pete went to order and he asked for 3 kebabs but when the guy put 3 skewers of meat on one, Pete tried to correct the guy by telling him that he wanted 3 separate kebabs only to have the guy tell him ‘yes, I know, this is just one’.

After scoffing down lunch we went back to my place to dump the groceries, and Pete headed off home. Hay and I did a couple more lazy laps of Regent’s Park before we both headed home. I must admit I quite enjoy these cruises through the city… it’s an excellent way to see London without having to worry about where/when to catch the bus or tube. Gives you complete freedom to ride through those dodgy neighbourhoods if you want to..

Oh yer, getting better at my ‘track stands’ too, although I still can’t quite fully do it cos I haven’t mastered rolling backwards. I tend to creep forward bit by bit still.

Ride stats:
Dist - 29.03 km
Avg - 17 km/h