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L2P Photos

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

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

2.5 weeks remaining

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…