Some of my favourite cycling photos from Oxford in the past five years.
Cyclists do help reduce congestion.
A good way to get to work. Donnington Bridge.
Patient cyclists.
Off to the exam. (More photos of cycling in subfusc)
High Street
At the lights. Sandwiched between van and bus.
Everyone cycles in Oxford.
Turning right
Bradley Wiggins must be enjoying riding in the sun of California, resplendent in his yellow jersey. Much more preferable to slipping all over wet Italian roads. 12 months ago, it was painful to watch Wiggins nervously descend Italian roads like he was on an old fashioned club run. But, 12 months on, it was good to see him putting out the power in the time trial and up the long mountain in sunny California. By contrast the Giro riders are having to deal with extraordinarily difficult conditions, which is leading to crashes all over the place. A times it appears more like a badly planned circus than a cycle race.
Here in the UK, we grumble about the rutted state of British roads. True the gravel and heavy roads slow you down, but at least you don’t have the ice-skating ring of Italian roads which seem to be doused with olive oil. There are so many crashes in the Giro this year, that you would think that if it was monkeys riding the Giro, it would get shut down for cruelty to animals.
I can understand why light riders go quicker uphills. Less weight, increases your power to weight ratio. But, one thing I’m not quite sure is why is it much easier to put out more watts cycling uphill. In a recent hilly time trial, I was struggling to do 300 watts on the flat. If I made a big effort, I could do 310, 320. But, when the road went uphill, I could hold 360-370 watts. The last five minutes of the race I averaged just shy of 370 watts, because it was a 10% climb. If it was a flat five minutes I would have averaged 290, if I was lucky. The steeper the hill, the easier it is to put out more power.
Recently I did a one minute intervals, I went flat out for a minute. But, despite making maximum effort, the power depended on the gradient. At the start it was flattish and I was getting 450, but when it became steep, it went up to 600 watts.
I’ve heard that some riders are more suited to putting out power on a climb. I wonder why or perhaps everyone experiences that.
Some of the best reasons to take up cycling.
1. See the world
Cycling gives a sense of freedom that sitting in a car can never give. Descending a hill on a bike is exhilarating, something you never feel in a car. Cycling also gives greater freedom about where to go. Cycling will help you see many beautiful parts of the country, that otherwise you wouldn’t have seen. Even within my local city Oxford, a bike gives you vistas you would never get through driving.
2. Quicker Travelling
In many congested towns, a bike can offer the quickest method of transport. For example, in London average speeds on roads amounts to a paltry 9mph (this is a lower average than 100 years ago!) Even a moderately fit cyclist will have no trouble in beating cars, buses and the underground. Also with a bike, you don’t have to spend time driving around looking for parking. You can park usually exactly where you want to end up. Many towns are encouraging pedestrian only areas. With a bike you can go down narrow lanes, on canal paths and often cut corners that you cannot do in a car. As cities get more congested, cycling is a practical way to beat the queues and get to work more quickly.
3. Saves Money
A good bike costs £400; a reasonable car will cost £5,000. With oil prices and car parking charges rising, cycling can also save significantly on petrol costs. The majority of car journeys are for distances less than 5 miles. These distances are easily cycleable. These short journeys also have the relatively highest petrol costs because cars are most inefficient at low speeds. It is estimated that leaving the car in the garage for the average commuter could save an estimate £74.14 ($150) per week (source: Cycling Weekly June 19th 2013). (This is of course assuming your passion for cycling doesn’t take you down the route of buying something like Shinamo Dura Ace Di2 – definitely not necessary for the commute into town)
4. Lose Weight
Cycling is a low impact aerobic exercise and is an excellent way of losing weight. Cycling can also be combined with shopping and commuting, enabling very busy people to find time for exercise. It is also a lot cheaper than gaining membership to the gym. With obesity becoming an endemic problem in western society, cycling can play a key role in helping to keep the population in shape. You should have seen what a lump of lard I was before I took up cycling….
5. Health Benefits
Cycling is good for the heart and can help reduce incidence of heart disease, one of the biggest killers amongst developed countries. Sedentary lifestyles also contribute to other ‘silent killers’ such as diabetes and high blood pressure. According to the British Heart Foundation, around 10,000 fatal heart attacks could be avoided each year if people kept themselves fitter. Cycling just 20 miles a week reduces your risk of heart disease to less than half that of those who take no exercise, the heart foundation claims. If you worry about the dangers of cycling, this helps put it into perspective. – Cycling and health
According to the Department of Transport, The prevalence of cycling in England (at least once a month) reduced from 15.3% to 14.7% in the year to October 2013.
This decline in reported cycling rates is disappointing given cycling’s relatively high profile in the past couple of years. The fall in cycle rates could be attributed to several factors.
Cycling casualties per bn km cycled have been increasing since 2008
Oxford is the second most popular borough for cycling, despite having no co-ordinated cycling infrastructure.
Related
After Saturday’s ride through a mini gale, it was more ‘gluttony for punishment’ this morning at the Charlotteville CC 50 mile TT on the Bentley course. A big field of 110 riders, plus 47 women in a separate event were on the startsheet. But, given the forecast wind and rain, quite a few thought better of it and stayed at home. I could feel proud for riding through the conditions, but I had my own moment of weakness, frantically checking the Weather forecast on Sun morning trying to work out if 0.6mm of rain is enough excuse to give cycling on a dual carriageway a miss.
It was a pretty close call, but, buoyed by Saturday’s ride I thought I’d risk a drive down to Hampshire and have a go at my first ‘fast’ 50. (I’ve already done the Circuit of the Dales 50 earlier in April, but it’s not really a fast 50)
It was windy and chilly. But, not quite as crazily windy as Sat, and the forecast rain never materialised. In fact the sun, defied all predictions and came out to marginally warm up the May morning. I was off quite late at 10.50 but the A31 never seems to get too busy, whatever the time. The traffic felt quite light this morning.
The start is pretty hard. Uphill, into block headwind and some pretty ropey road surface as you get towards Chawton. The best way to start a 50 is nice and steady, but, following the logic of going harder when it’s hard – I started with a big effort, though at a depressingly low speed.
You’re never sure which is worse – battling through a headwind – or the rhythm breaking vibrations of the horizontal ‘trenches’ every 20 metres in the road. But, after negotiating the pits and rivets around the Chawton roundabout, it was time to enjoy the tailwind sailing back up to Farnham. After 12 miles, at least the road surface became smooth.
Just because you’ve written a blog post about the benefits of holding back with a strong tailwind behind, doesn’t mean you will actually listen to your own advice. Somehow after grovelling along at 22 mph – you get carried away when you start flying along smooth tarmac, it’s easy to forget you’re doing a 50 and think maybe you’ll just go really hard and enjoy the speed.
I’ve been riding time trials for several years, but it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m particularly good at pacing. Sometimes, I get it wrong, sometimes, by good luck I get it right. I’m trying to improve on this aspect quite a bit at the moment, and it’s quite fun to work out best way of measuring you’re effort.
A power meter may take a little romanticism out of the sport, but it is very useful for evaluating how you paced a race.
The one consistent thing I’ve noticed with looking at a power meter is that in races, I nearly always go off way too hard, and end up dying by the end. (and I would hazard a guess 90% of beginners do this too) Maybe it’s the hill climb masochistic thing coming to the fore. ‘start off really hard, hang on.’ – and maybe that does work for a climb like the Rake, but it’s not really the best for a 10 mile time trial, even if it does make an impressive soundbite.
Today, was a 10 mile TT with exceptional weather. Very windy – 20mph, with gusts of up to 30mph. Not quite as windy as Nat Hill climb 2013, but pretty close. Any windier and it would start to get pretty marginal over whether it was worth riding.
It was definitely a day to leave the Zipp 808 at home (10 races so far this year, still not been able to use the Zipp 808). But, I still used a disc and Zipp 404.
The course was the H10/17R on the A420. Not the fastest course, but local. The weather meant it was 5.5 miles to the turn (with strong tailwind) and 4.5 miles into roaring headwind.
My pacing strategy was to try keep at 300 watts on the way out, and then blast it at around 350 watts on the way back. It would feel like a sweat spot training session on the way out – and then treat it like a long hill climb on the way back. In the end, I was pretty close to my rough plan. I looked at my power meter a few times on the way out, and as a result backed off a little. On the way back, I never looked at power meter – I was concentrating on staying upright, and I have a pretty good idea how to ride a hard 10 minutes on feel.
Outleg
Return leg
Overall
The first 2 miles were at an average speed of 35mph for just 290 watts
Notes
I received a copy of Giro d’Italia by Herbie Skykes at the Buxton Mountain Time Trial. I’m not sure if it was a prize or given to every rider. It is published by Rouleur. Herbie Sykes is an Englishman who moved to Italy and became fascinated with the Giro and Italian cycling culture. The book tells the Giro through the experiences of top riders – (though not necessarily famous outside of Italy). One attraction of the book is that there are many new cycling stories. The famous Tour de France stories are all well known, but in the Giro there are many different epic cycling stories from lesser known Giro riders.
For example, Franco Balmamion the last Italian rider to win back to back Giro victories (I’d never heard of him). There are also some interesting accounts of riders who made it from the poorest social and economic circles.
With all the ups and downs of the long history of the Giro d’Italia, it also gives you an insight into Italian culture and political life as much as it does into cycling.
The one difficulty with the book was that sometimes it’s hard to keep track of all the unfamiliar Italian names. Alas, my knowledge of the Giro is quite limited apart from the famous Bartoli and Coppi. But, it is always good to read something new. It was a timely read, with the Giro starting in May this weekend too.
Photos from Giro
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Photo flickr goflo
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Photo flickr per0ni
The other problem is that, especially in the past few decades, it’s hard to read it without feeling considerable regret the Giro has been sabotaged by doping. Such a great history, but the history is tainted; the amount of pride you can get from the past seems to depend on your tolerance of doping infractions.
Pantani Bandanas
[Warning: begin rant] It’s a bit off topic, but I wanted to mention the Pantani phenomenon. Marco Pantani was a tragic life – someone who deserves considerable sympahty, but it is hard to think of a more unsuitable role model for professional cycling. I just can’t get my head around these Pantani limited edition bandanas and shirts, which are proliferating at the moment. In a way I find them more painful than a Livestrong yellow wrist band. It sums up the curious Italian approach to cycling and doping. They are cynical after years of doping, but they love to celebrate one of most prolific dopers and someone who led protests against the implementation of doping controls.
[/rant over]
The magic always remains
Photo Flickr rowena
The good thing is that whatever happens, the Giro always bounces back. Whatever it goes through, there is always interest in the epic three week tour; there is an instinctive capacity for renewal. In the past few years, the Giro seems to be undergoing another period of renewal. With the attraction of some of the big Tour de France podium riders and cycling names like Cadel Evans, Wiggins, Nibali and Quintana it seems the Giro is in a strong position.
Watching the Giro fly up to the Stormont Parliament in Northern Ireland was a magnificent sight. Who would have thought that it would be the Giro d’Italia to see the troubled province of Northern Ireland bedecked in a sea of pink and multicultural flags?
It was particularly sad to see Dan Martin crash out. Because he is a rider who really seems to be worthy of supporting and signs of a new era.
Related
There is a nice bit in some old cycling book, written by Greg Lemond. He advises cyclists not to bother with Shimano’s new 7 speed – it won’t catch on. He says 6 speed will be fine. It’s appears wonderfully outdated now. If only we had to worry about 7 speed!
Cycling is an annoyingly expensive hobby. I’m just ordering a new bike, and of course I want to get the best. That means Dura Ace Di2, which will have to be 11 speed. I would have been quite happy with 10 speed. I really doubt having 11 cogs rather than 10 will make any difference in time trials – even in hilly time trials where you use a full range of gears.
The pressure to upgrade
At the moment, I have a large collection of racing wheels. They all have 10 speed cassettes on. It is very convenient because I can easily switch wheels between road bike, training bike (actually 9 speed, but it works in emergency) and time trial bike. But, this move to 11 speed only increases the inconvenience and pressure to upgrade all the other bikes to 11 speed.
This is the problem with cycling, there is a great pressure to keep spending money. True, I could have stuck with a mechanical 10 speed. But, when you win and lose races by 2 seconds, there is always the pressure to look for marginal gains.
No 12 speed please!
I admit that it was worth making the upgrade from 6 speed to 7 speed. 7 speed gives you more choice, which is useful on hilly routes.
But, I really hope Shimano and Campagnolo don’t bring out 12 speed gears. There is no need for it. If they do bring it out, it won’t be so much for the performance benefits, it will be just to get cyclists to spend more cash in that 3-4 year cycle of upgrading.
Cycling is supposed to be cheap and simple, but something somewhere went wrong.
Now, does anybody want to buy some second hand 10 speed cassettes?
Another 100 climbs states that Great Dun Fell is the greatest climb in England’ “Our Mont Ventoux’ it has no peers, there is no comparison.” The only surprising thing is that I hadn’t heard of the climb until quite recently. But, since finding out there was a Pyrannean style climb in England, it was definitely on my list of things to do. Since I was up in Kendal for Shap Fell hill climb, I thought it would be good to combine the two.
I’ve spent many years scouring OS maps, looking for the most difficult climbs, but you could quickly scan over Great Dun Fell (on OS 91), assuming it is nothing more than a farmyard track or glorified footpath. Ironically it has a pretty good road surface all the way to the top. The top half is closed to cars, but open to bicycles. It is definitely worth a visit and is a real epic climb.
The statistics of Great Dun Fell only tell half the story:
Great Dun Fell from Long Marton
If you want to add an extra 100 metres on to the climb, you can start on the valley floor from Bolton and head towards Long Marton before going north to the village of Knock. This makes a 7 mile climb of 757 metres, which gives a category 1 rating. The rise from the valley is pretty steady, a nice leg loosener before the climb starts proper. The good thing about approaching from Bolton and Long Marton is that you can see the radar station looming on the horizon for quite a distance. At least you know where you are heading. The radar station dominates the skyline throughout this valley.
Knock
It would be easy to cycle past the turn up to Great Dun Fell. There are no 20% signs. Just a sign saying dead end, a sign for Knock Christian Centre, and a sign telling you to beware of red squirrels.
The song that came unconsciously into my mind as I was cycling through Knock was the old Guns and Roses classic ‘Knock, Knock, Knocking on heaven’s door‘. The village of Knock obviously. But, ‘heaven’s door?’ – well the Christian centre, and perhaps the fact you are about to head up to the heavens. (or through hell)
In comparison to Alpine climbs, Great Dun Fell is shorter, and at a maximum heigh of 835 metres, it is well below some of the Alpine giants which stretch to over 2,000m. But, what Great Dun Fell my lack in absolute height, it makes up for in unrelenting steepness. When you are already tired, you will have to get out of the saddle as you battle up slopes of 20%. There’s no way just to sit in the saddle and pedal a nice high cadence on Great Dun Fell.
Shap Fell is the first hill climb of the season. It’s seems a bit strange to be doing a hill climb, just as everyone else is gearing up for a quick blast down the fastest dual-carriegeways in the land. But, to be fair to Shap Fell, it’s not the most torturous hill climb. You don’t need to be reaching for your lowest sprocket; you can even do it on the Big Ring if you really wanted. But, it is long. 9 miles from Kendal to the top of Shap Fell averaging 3%. It needs good steady pacing, not dissimilar to a ten mile time trial.
Shap Fell from Kendal to shap
I was keen to enter the Kent Valley RC event – partly for the first opportunity to wear the National Hill Climb Jersey, but also hoping for a tailwind to have a go at the course record, which has stood for quite a while (Gethin Butler, I believe). The wind Gods prevailed and there was a nice tailwind up the exposed Lake District slopes. Unfortunately, the gods of long term traffic works were not so compliant and resurfacing work meant we couldn’t do the full climb, but got diverted near the top – ‘down a farm lane, where there might be some hens crossing the road’.
I had time to do a quick warm up and ride the modified course. I didn’t see any ducks crossing on the minor road, but there was a sheep wandering in a random direction as sheep are wont to do.
The modified course, would be just 7 miles, averaging 3%. It meant the hardest last section to the top of Shap Fell was missed out.
Amongst the competitors, there was a good mixture of road bikes vs time trial bikes some with full disc wheel. With a tailwind forecast, I left the bongo bongo (aero) equipment at home, and took the good old fashioned road bike. Even with tailwind, there is a good case for using time trial bike, disc wheel and aerohelmet. But, I seem to have been riding TT bike since the first of Jan, I wanted to remind myself what is what like to ride a road bike. Plus after the race, I was planning to head up Great Dun Fell – and there was no way I was going to do that on a TT bike.
It was a perfect day for racing up Shap Fell, warm, tailwind and even the odd outbreak of sunshine – on a May Bank Holiday Monday to boot. I didn’t set off too fast; I assumed the times for a 7 mile hill climb would be close to a fast 10. I haven’t done the climb for a few years, and I’d forgotten the sections of flat and downhill. I spent a bit of time in an Obree tuck, trying to keep aerodynamic. But, just as you are flying along at 23mph plus, you hit a steep ramp of 5-7% and you have to get back into hill climbing mode. I caught a couple of riders and made a last big effort after turning off the A6 onto the minor road. Fortunately, the hens were all well behaved and I had a clear run for the line.
Results
| Position | NAME | CLUB/RACING TEAM | CAT. | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tejvan Pettinger | (Sri Chinmoy Cycling team) | 17:45 | |
| 2 | Richard Bickley | (Border City Whs) | 18:49 | |
| 3 | Mark Haydock | (North Lancs RC) | 18:59 | |
| 4 | Paul Roby | (Coveryourcar.co.uk) | V40 | 19:03 |
| 5 | Peter Greenwood | (Team Swift) | V60 | 19:08 |
| 6 | Paul Fleming | (Preston Wheelers) | V45 | 19:57 |
| 7 | Thomas Gibson | (Kent Valley RC) | 20:04 | |
| 8 | David Wilkinson | (Kent Valley RC) | V55 | 20:20 |
| 9 | Peter Thomas | (Kent Valley RC) | 20:25 | |
| 10 | Paul Greenhalgh | (Manchester Wheelers) | V45 | 20:28 |
| 11 | Randle Shenton | (Team Swift) | V55 | 20:41 |
| 12 | David Trotter | (Lancaster CC) | 20:44 | |
| 13 | John Paterson | (Classic Racing Team – SCU) | 20:52 | |
| 14 | David Robinson | (VC Cumbria) | V50 | 20:53 |
| 15 | Dougi Hall | (Border City Whs) | V50 | 20:56 |
| 16 | Mark Brearton | (The Endurance Store – SCU) | V40 | 21:05 |
| 17 | David Murphy | (Liverpool Mercury Dolan CC) | JUN | 21:17 |
| 18 | Philip Bradshaw | (Wigan Wheelers CC) | V45 | 21:22 |
| 19 | William Belcher | (Clayton Velo) | V50 | 21:27 |
| 20 | Roy Flanagan | (Rossendale RC) | V55 | 21:45 |
| 21 | Derek Schofield | (Rossendale RC) | V60 | 21:46 |
| 22 | Simon Jones | (Beacon Wheelers) | 22:00 | |
| 23 | Stewart Mounsey | (Kent Valley RC) | V40 | 22:02 |
| 24 | Stephen Gardner | (Lancaster CC) | V40 | 22:21 |
| 25 | Elliot Dason-Barber | (Oxonian CC) | V40 | 22:33 |
| 26 | Stuart Timmins | (North Lancs RC) | V55 | 22:42 |
| 27 | David Pritchard | (Kennoway Road Club – SCU) | V55 | 22:50 |
| 28 | Tim Bennett | Kent Valley Road Club | V45 | 23:11 |
| 29 | Neil Wood | (Lancashire RC) | V45 | 23:38 |
| 30 | Earle Logan | (Lune RCC) | 23:57 | |
| 31 | Colin Reynolds | (Leigh Premier RC) | V40 | 27:14:00 |
| 32 | Mike Westmorland | (Border City Wheelers) | V65 | 29:50:00 |
| 33 | David Tinker | (Clayton Velo) | V55 | 30:33:00 |
If the revised course was 7 miles, that works out at an average speed of 23.7 mph (The Bristol South CC megahilly was an average speed of 21.9 mph)