Cycling uphill

Chain Lubrication

April 7, 2015 by tejvan

I currently have five different chain lubes on my shelf at the moment. I’m not sure why I have accumulated so many. But, it gives me something to review.

GT-85

You will find GT-85 in many bike shops and is one of the most popular thin water-displacers. It is excellent as a water displacer and thin lubricant. It is easy to spray on and will prevent rust. After a wet ride, I will give a good spray and spin the chain, allowing water to come off. GT-85 is quite economical, a large 400ml can last quite a long time. However, because it is quite thin, it doesn’t give too much ‘lube’ to chains and as a result, if you rely on it to lube your chain, you can wear through chains quite quick.

It is best not to use this as a lube, but it is good to have around for other purposes.

GT-85 is one of the best sprays for brakes and cables – It helps resist rust, keeps things moving and won’t attract too much dirt. It doesn’t leave much of a residue.

Also, GT-85 makes an excellent way to clean and polish your frame, spray some on, and give a quick polish. You will be pleasantly surprised at how clean it may get. Also, if you do spray on the bike and components, it makes it easier to clean next time.

Great for cleaning, water displacing and using on components, but don’t rely on for overall lubrication.

GT-85 £3.49 (wiggle.co.uk)

TF2 Lubricant

I bought this from Reg Taylor when they recommended as a better chain lube than GT-85 (which I was using at the time). It is a bit denser and stays on the chain well, making it better for long-distance cycling. The added ingredient of Teflon helps to prevent the accumulation of dirt. You can also get this lubricant in non spray form. It is a good all-rounder, if you wanted to get just one chain lube TF2 would fit many of your needs.

I was using this over a wet winter in England, and to be honest, it required quite frequent reapplications. The chain on my commuting bike would often get dry and rusty – despite using chain. On training bike, the chain also ended up quite dry and a little noisy. I’ve seen people claim one lube can last 400 miles, I couldn’t verify this over winter. I would have been better off with a heavier ‘wet ride’ chainlube. On the positive side the chain remains clean and easy to handle.

It will be fine for commuting bike except during very wet winter months.

Tour of Flanders 2015 and Team Sky Tactics

April 6, 2015 by tejvan

With an enforced lay off from cycling, I was looking forward to the 2015 edition of the Tour of Flanders quite a lot. It’s a great classic Belgian cobbled race – made even more interesting by the superb form of Geraint Thomas this year. His victory in the E3 Herelbecke was a really great race to watch. It’s great to see a loyal team-worker come of age in the big races. With confidence high – perhaps it was time for Team Sky to finally claim a ‘monument’.

In the end it didn’t work out – emphasising how tough it is to win a monument. Thomas lacked the last 5% he needed to stay with the late breaks and there was a predictability in the tactics of Team Sky.

The good thing about watching cycling on TV is that it is very easy to become an armchair critic – offering advice without even getting your heart rate over 60bpm.

The 2011 World Championship victory where 9 GB riders dominated the peleton for the entire race to set up Mark Cavendish was completely unprecedented and one of the most remarkable team victories of the modern era. But, that kind of tactics is going to work very rarely – especially in hilly cobbled races.

On the plus side, riding at the front keeps you out of trouble – you are less likely to have an accident (though Wiggins still managed to came a cropper, giving something to talk about in the long build up). But, when the weather is very good like yesterday, there seems to be a lot less accidents than usual. In the main peleton (as long as you were protected from service vehicles at the back) the Tour of Flanders seemed remarkably crash free by recent standards.

Everyone else was very happy for Team Sky to burn up their matches before the really crucial last 40-30km. Alex Rowe did an outstanding ride and managed to hang on up to the last part. But, I would have liked to see Team Sky try something different, like let other teams ride on the front – try to send the odd riders up ahead (if Andre Greipel can attack at the base of a Belgian cobbled Hellingen, I’m sure Team Sky have a rider who could too. One of the crucial things about classics seems to be having riders left at the really critical part of the race. You can guarantee a team like Etiix will have 2-3 in the mix, giving more options. The problem is that by Sky always riding on the front, Thomas became the most marked man – and everyone was looking to Thomas and Sky to close down the gaps. True Thomas is in good form, but he was never an outstanding favourite like a Cancellara.

The family car with a difference

April 2, 2015 by tejvan

Family transport. A neat way to carry family around.

Comes with free air conditioning and portable sun-roof.

Buxton

April 2, 2015 by tejvan

It can be hard to motivate yourself to train five times a week through a British winter. But, the spring is the time for early season hilly time trials and these early season races are a big motivation to train hard over winter.

Before a summer diet of flat and fast dual carriageways, the early season offers the chance to do some great sporting courses. With a good winter, I thought that Buxton MTT would make an excellent early season target. If all the planets aligned, it might even be an opportunity to sneak a win in a national time trial series. But despite tapering this week, I’ve picked up a cold at the wrong time, so will miss tomorrows event. It’s a shame because it would have been good to know how I would get on. I will then be away for a couple of weeks, so the next race feels quite a long way off.

Still on the positive side:

It’s never too early to start doing your income tax returns. There’s always something you can be doing on Good Friday.
When I return to racing in late April, the weather will be just as windy and wet, but hopefully one or two degrees warmer.
I’ve had a pretty good run of uninterrupted training. I can’t remember the last time I was ill.
I have a friend who swears by tumeric. He claims it solves everything from the common cold to bad memory. So if I drink copious quantities of tumeric maybe I will be fit for tomorrow and will also be able to become a millionaire selling a cure for the common cold.
Tomorrow there will be a strong headwind on the long climb from Longnor. I really wanted a tailwind up there.

Clarkson lends his support to 20mph speed limits

April 1, 2015April 1, 2015 by tejvan

The disgraced former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has become the latest celebrity to support the Guardian’s campaign for fossil fuel divestment.
Following what he described as a “dark night of the soul”, Clarkson said he hoped to “regain the trust of the British public” by dedicating his time and financial resources to sustainable energy, road safety and forging mutual understanding and tolerance between people of different cultures and religions.

I believed this article – right up to the point where it said Clarkson supported speed limits of 45mph on dual carriageways.

It just shows early in the morning, I’m prone to gullibility….

Hemel Hempstead CC Open Hilly

March 29, 2015March 29, 2015 by tejvan

Today was ‘The Sid Latchford Memorial’ 22 mile hilly promoted by the Hemel Hempstead CC. (course F11/22)

It is run on roads around Bagnall, Ivinghoe, Bison Hill and Dunstable Downs. There are two main climbs of Bison Hill and Invinghoe hill. It is good course, with a fair balance between flattish roads, and testing hills.

On a good day, I can cycle from Oxford to Ivinghoe (about 40 miles), so I have done these climbs on a couple of occasions, but some roads were still new.

The weather forecast correctly predicted rain and strong wind; I was surprised at the lack of DNS for the race. It would have been easy to look at the forecast and stay in bed, rather than put the clocks forward an hour and go and get a good soaking.

When it’s raining, I don’t bother with a ‘warm up’ because I just get very cold. I got there late and sat in the car until 5 minutes to go. I was going to try a No Pinz wallet, but I didn’t have time and my skinsuit had got wet getting it out of the car. My warm-up consisted of riding 200m to the start and reluctantly taking off waterproof. Once I got racing, it was a bit better, but it was a tough day on the bike – pools of standing water, roughish road surface and gusting winds.

Core strength cycling

January 7, 2017March 28, 2015 by tejvan

Over the years I’ve gleaned a few bits from Cycling Weekly’s training advice. One thing they always seem to go on about is ‘core strength’ i.e. making the lower and middle body stronger to hold a good position when cycling. I’ve never paid too much attention to this aspect of cycling. I’ve always leaned to the more ‘Obree’ approach of relying on just riding the bike. However, after having spent quite a few hours on the bike in the past few weeks, I’ve felt ‘core strength’ really is important. Last week, I did two big rides – one very hilly on a road bike, and another four hour ride on my time trial bike. On both rides, the most difficult thing was the pain in lower back and neck.

In Cycling Weekly this week, they said the most common reason for abandoning the ‘Race Across America RAAM)’ was discomfort in the back and neck, and if riders had a second chance, they would have done more core strength training to improve their chances of staying on the bike.

Another thing which I noticed last week, was watching a recent time trial in the Criterium Dauphine. Contador looked all over the place – wiggling from one side to the other. (Contador would probably benefit from using a Kask Bambino – his aero helmet always seemed to be pointing to the stars creating a lot of drag) A smooth position, where riders can hold their body constant is generally considered more efficient.

Carlton Bank

March 27, 2015 by tejvan

Carlton Bank is located in the Cleveland hills, north east England. It is on the north west edge of the North York Moors. From the top of Carlton Bank you get great views over the surrounding countryside.

Carlton_Bank_summit — View from Carlton Bank

It is used as a venue for a hill climb by Cleveland Wheelers and also the National hill climb championship in 1996.

It is relatively steady as you climb out of Teesdale, but once across the cattle grid in the middle of the climb, it becomes very steep – like most North York Moor climbs. It is a good 25% in places before you finally crest the climb on to Cringle Moor. There is a sheer drop down one side – which makes it a popular spot with hang-gliders.

Photo CWCC

Training load

March 28, 2015March 26, 2015 by tejvan

So far this season has had a bigger training load than previous years. This wasn’t really a conscious decision, it just kind of happened. Quite often in previous seasons, I’ve taken 1 or 2 months off due to injury / accident / other reasons. There’s no major harm in taking 4-5 weeks off – you just take longer to get to your peak form. But, this year, I’ve been able to have more time to train and no major breaks off the bike. I think two weeks in hilly Croatia helped quite a bit.

Chinnor Hill in winter. This is the mini-hairpin and will make a good point to watch the race. — Chinnor Hill good for training.

I’ve quite enjoyed this winter’s training. The higher load and mileage gives a good sense of fitness. When you get used to a higher training load, you feel recovery can be quicker. I don’t think I could have managed this kind of training load, when I started cycling – it can take several years to keep building up a base aerobic fitness and basic muscle strength. But, very unscientifically – progressively higher training loads, do seem to help make you go faster. Perhaps there is a bit of good luck in getting the right kind of training load too.

At this time of the season, I’m conscious of not getting carried away too early. There is still a long time to go to the last weekend in October. But, I can get easily ‘bored’ of just doing steady rides. By February I was itching to get back into going up hills fast. I enjoy hilly rides in the Chilterns more than anything. Going along the Chiltern ridge going up whichever hill you fancy (and hasn’t got traffic works). There are plenty of good hills to choose from – Whiteleaf, Kop Hill, Aston Hill (A40) Kingston Blount, Chinnor, Britwell Hill and more.

Still, the hilly interval rides have a different feel to September / October. I’m not training to exhaustion or really pushing it. There is often a thought in the mind, to hold back a little. Allow room for greater intensity later in the year. But, I’m looking forward to Buxton Mountain time trial in a couple of weeks, so this week has been a bit heavier than usual.

Sweet Spot

Another type of training which is good for time trials is to ride in the ‘sweet spot’ (I often call it the sweat spot – more from lack of ability to spell properly than offering a redefinition of training terminology) One definition of the sweet spot is moderately hard – perhaps 10-15% less than what you could maintain in a 25 mile TT. 85% of your FTP (Functional threshold Power). Perhaps there are different definitions, but for me it requires quite a bit of concentration to keep a weighted power output around 240-250 watts (compared to a current FTP of roughly 305)

Rowsley Bar

July 17, 2020March 26, 2015 by tejvan

I’m slowly working through the 100 greatest climbs. Today is Rowsley Bar a few miles south east of Bakewell in the Peak District. I have only ridden the top half of the climb because when I visited the road was closed! It is a great view from the top, but it is at the bottom where the climb is tough. There are many other climbs nearby, such as Beeley Moor.

Bakewell, Peak District
Distance: 0.6 miles
Average gradient: 13%
Maximum gradient: 20%
Height gain. 443ft / 135m
100 climbs: #34
Rowsley Bar, Strava – 100 Climbs version
Rosley Bar, Strava – longer version
Everesting? – 66 * 1.2 miles = 79.2 miles

Jim Henderson gives a description of full course

“The new course started quite steadily, then went into some woods and around a couple of vicious hairpin bends, rumoured to be 1:4 at the apex. The half-way point marked the end of the hardest section and was followed by a long section of false flat, before a tricky sting in the tail where the road kicked up again for the final 400 metres or so. All was on a minor road which was closed to traffic.”

Jim Henderson’s Page