This Saturday coming I will turn 43. Not a special milestone birthday by any means and in the current world we are experiencing its likely to be a low key affair that matches the status of being 43. 42 did not turn out to be the meaning of life, the universe and everything as I’m sure many who passed through this particular age bracket found out, so the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy has gone down somewhat in my estimation.
However, reflecting on the year gone by, I find that it has been quite a year with a lot of highlights and many reasons to remember it with fondness (especially the 2019 part of it). From a cycling perspective I enjoyed trips to Sweden and the World Championships in Harrogate, I got ridiculously excited watching Mike Teunissen take the yellow jersey in Brussels on stage 1 of Le Tour and I completed Ride London for the second time (this time without falling off/getting knocked off)
Rounding the corner onto The Mall at Ride London 2019
It is Harrogate that will stick in my mind for a long time though. I got to meet a lot of excellent people from the cycling corner of Twitter, I got to meet a lot of excellent new friends at the Alpecin cycling ride out, I went and said hello to Mike a couple of times at the Old Swan and I was on the finish line to watch Annemiek van Vleuten raise her arms as world champion after one of (if not) the most dominant rides in cycling history. It was made all the better to see her, some hours later, ride back into the hotel with the rainbow bands on, medal round her neck taking the applause from the spectators and the Dutch team.
A downside that stayed with me on the long train journey home was how unfit I was and how disappointed I’d been with myself in the company of some very good cyclists on the Alpecin ride. Yes, there were national hill climb champions and very experienced riders in the group but I was annoyed with myself for letting myself get into the state I had, so I resolved to do something about it.
Podgy bloke acts as wind break for the bunch
Fast forward 8 months and I am in a completely different place. I’m stronger, I’m happier and most importantly I am over 2 stone lighter. At the last weigh in I have lost 30lbs (13.7kg) and now weigh 11 stone 3lbs (157lb, 71.4kg). My wallet has taken a battering from all the new kit I have had to buy, at one point I bought some jerseys in the sales before Christmas but I never got to wear them when the weather came good because I’d lost more weight!
I did a comparison in January to the Alpecin weekend some 4 months previous, I’d already lost 20lbs by then…..
Looking slightly less like a badly packed sausage on the right!
…..so, as I was trying on some new kit, I thought it was time for another before and after comparison. For reference, the photo on the left was taken in Sweden last July.
Honestly not wearing a fat suit in the pic on the left!
I’m not done quite yet, I want to get down to between 68-70kg, but I have no shame in saying I’m incredibly proud of myself right now. All of the early morning SST workouts, the weekend rides and the will power around food have paid dividends. I’ve not had to use the inhaler and my cycling has become more enjoyable, I can see continuous improvement in my performance on regular segments and I am starting to relish taking on new challenges rather than shying away from them.
A continuous improvement in times has coincided with the weight loss and consistent training
Although the Etape looks as though it won’t happen this year I will be ready when it does come calling, I’m determined not to go back to where I was a year ago.
Last Friday I set off for Stockholm with my friends Ben and Cameron to see another one of our friends, Rob, who has lived out there for over 10 years. We’d planned this as a cycling holiday, using Rob’s house as a base, but I’d never travelled with a bike box before so I was a little apprehensive and intrigued as to how this would work out!
We hired 3 Bike Box Alan bike boxes from a local company, GoBikeGo, for a very reasonable price of £6 per day with a deposit of £100 to cover any damages. I’d never packed a bike box before but found it relatively straightforward after watching a couple of videos on YouTube, particularly this GCN one.
The airport procedure was a lot smoother than I expected too. After checking in at the automated machines we were ushered down to the oversize baggage belt where a helpful gentleman took both our luggage and the bike boxes for us (top tip – if traveling with a bike box use a back pack or a bag with straps as they’ll take those through oversize baggage too!). All safely arrived intact at the other end (albeit in completely different areas of the baggage reclaim) so we made our way to Rob’s to put the bikes back together.
Rob had planned three rides for us on varying routes around the area south of Stockholm. Day 3 was to be reserved for a slightly lighter ride, with some island hopping and ferry travel mixed in
Day 1 – 80km
The first route took us south out of the suburbs into the Swedish countryside. It became apparent fairly early on that the terrain was going to be much like that of Northern France, rolling roads with very little freewheeling or totally flat roads. The going was fairly tough due to a combination of a stiff breeze, a warm sun and several alcoholic beverages the day before. I don’t drink a lot these days so it seemed to affect me more than the others, plus I was wishing I hadn’t bothered with a base layer by 10 miles in! We headed, stopping only to answer the call of nature, through a town called Västerhaninge down to the coast at Årsta havsbad where we stopped for lunch at a hot dog stall by the ferry port, it did a mean Bratwurst!
After a nice lunch break we made our way back into Stockholm itself and rewarded ourselves with a beer at a place called the Thai Boat
The lady at the Thai Boat wasn’t particularly accommodating of our cyclist ways, denying us a table where we could keep watch over the bikes, but we stayed for one before heading back to Rob’s.
Day 2 – 111km
On day 2 I felt a bit better! I’d managed my alcohol intake the previous evening, ditched the base layer and slept a lot better overall. We headed out along the same route as day 1 but instead of continuing south to the cost at Västerhaninge, we headed South West and stopped at what Rob told us was a castle called Häringe Slott. It looked more like a manor house to me…..
We continued on to a small place called Spångbro, 60km in, where the Co-Op provided lunchtime provisions, consumed in the shade of a large tree on the grounds of a beautiful white Lutheran church at Sorunda
Rob had promised us two things on the way back: a) a 3km stretch of ‘gravel’ road that was a little bit ‘bumpy’ and b) a beer by one of the many lakes in Sweden. Ignoring the first bit in favour of the second bit, we saddled up and got on our way. The ‘gravel sector’, as it had become known, was a bit of a challenge as there were quite a few dips in the road that looked like asteroids had crashed into it. Amazingly, we all came out of it unscathed! The other side of that section wasn’t so bad, more like loose road chippings
From there, we continued up to a lake at Sundby Gård where we stopped for a well earned refreshment or two. I could post a lot of pictures of lakes around Stockholm as there’s lots to choose from, but they all look the same so here’s one!
The lakes were clear and a mecca for the locals on a warm weekend such as the one we experienced. We eschewed the chance of a dip in favour of a couple of beers in the cafe overlooking this beautiful spot
From here it was only an 18km roll home so we took it easy and made our way back to Rob’s. It was in this part, not the awful gravelly bit, where the only puncture of the weekend occurred and obviously it was going to be me! After a year and a bit of rolling on tubeless tyres I hadn’t changed a puncture in ages so it took a little longer than expected! That done we finished the final 5km.
Day 3 – 75km
Day 3 was going to be my favourite day. Since planning the trip I’d wanted to go and see at least one of the many islands that makes up the archipelago around the coast to the east of Stockholm and it didn’t disappoint.
We headed south again to a small coastal town called Dalarö
We parked up, bought some refreshments in the local shop and found ourselves a spot to sit while we waited for the ferry to take us to Ornö, one of the largest islands in the area
Nothing quite like a Fanta Lemon and some wine gums to replenish the sugar reserves.
Ornö was a beautiful island. Good roads, hardly any traffic at all and a gentle breeze that refreshed you as you pedalled on. We cycled from one side of the island to the other, about 10km all in all, then took a breather on the dock of the bay
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We’d planned to take a different ferry back to the mainland, one that docked a bit closer to home to reduce the ride at the other end, so we had some time to kill. We decided to visit the remains of a fort at Sundby Ornö
It was there where the weather decided to make a non forecasted intervention. As we left the fort to head to the ferry port it absolutely tipped it down with rain, we arrived drenched and bedraggled. Fortunately, the kind cafe at the port provided blankets and beer so we passed a couple of hours drying out and drinking. It was about an hour in when we considered we should eat too.
We’d just about dried out when the ferry came. I’m not going to describe it, I’m going to let the pictures do the talking as it was a stunning ride back to the mainland (with more beer)
I’ve never been drunk in charge of a bicycle before but those last 20km back after we disembarked were the hardest (and funniest) km’s that I have ever ridden.
We packed up the boxes and returned home the next day. A brilliant trip, I can heartily recommend taking in the Swedish countryside in summer as it is a beautiful place. All in all we managed about 265km over the course of the three days which was very achievable given the terrain. We flew from Gatwick to Arlanda with Norwegian Air who were great, cost was about £250pp for a return flight with a 20kg checked bag and a bike box.
The Bike Box Alan Was Sturdy And Arrived Safe & Sound
I would definitely go back to Sweden with a bike again. I would like to stay in one of the more rural holiday homes that we saw and explore the archipelago a bit more as that was stunning. Now it’s back to training for the Ride London, under a month to go!
The above picture, from my personal Instagram account, was posted 5 years ago today. I had just placed an order for my first bike since I was a teenager, a 2013 Specialized Sirrus Hybrid bike, and it frightened me to death.
Rewind to the previous June (2013) and my son, Zac, had just been born. Having a child is a momentous occasion in the life of any adult and I was no different. I had the same hopes and fears as every new parent; I hoped he would be happy, I hoped he would be healthy but, more than anything, I questioned whether I would be good enough to be his Dad. Moments like that can often be lightbulb moments of clarity, where new ideas form and a new resolve to change for the better is found. It took slightly longer for me, October to be precise, but what happened changed me for good.
I had smoked for years. Not just casual smoking either, 20 a day since I was a teenager in senior school, nearly 20 years all in all. Looking at Zac I realised how unfit I had become, I had played football and cricket well into my late 20s but as my 30s hit and my knees gave out I played less and less sport and gained less and less exercise overall. I wanted to be able to do all of the things a Dad should do with his son; run around, play football in the garden, ride bikes without becoming a wheezing mess, gasping for air. For that reason I resolved to give up smoking by doing Stoptober so I got myself the worst tasting e-cigarette I could find and an app to tell how many days I’d gone and how much money I’d saved. It went surprisingly well but, in order for it to continue, I knew I had to have something to throw myself into, a goal to focus on and something to achieve so I signed up for the British Heart Foundation London To Brighton bike ride and placed the order for the bike. The rest is history I won’t recap.
I’d always enjoyed watching the Tour de France on TV and actually had a chance live encounter with the race in 1990 as a 13 year old on a school trip to Mont Saint-Michel, but I never really considered what the purchase of that bike and that goal of giving up smoking may lead to. We completed our epic cycle from London to Paris and raised a lot of money for the Rainbow Trust and I completed the Ride 100 amongst many other sportives. This year we’ll be in the Arenberg Trench to see the pros thunder by in Paris Roubaix and I’ll be off overseas to cycle through some of Sweden’s amazing landscape. I have completed things that I would never have thought possible 10 years ago and I have a deeper understanding of a truly wonderful sport, as well as meeting some brilliant people along the way.
Yesterday, 19th July 2018, marked one year to the day since Adam and I set off for Paris on what turned out to be an amazing journey for both of us, both physically and mentally. That may sound mightily over the top but I learnt a lot about myself in those 4 days that the previous 40 years on this planet have never taught me. The long miles in the wind and rain taught me a new level of perseverance, the battle with aching limbs gave me a new mental toughness, the selfless people that I met gave me a new determination to be an all round better human being and the sight of the Eiffel Tower after four long days made me fall in love with my bike all over again. I still regard that trip as one of the most pivotal moments in my life, a change in direction and mindset that has (so far) bought a new balance to my life and made me happier as a result. Plus, obviously, we raised a lot of money for The Rainbow Trust!
Fast forward a year and I’m starting to feel the same excitement as I did before we left for Paris. A lot has happened in that year – my son, Xavier, was born in August, I watched a lot of cycling, England gave the country something to feel proud about at the World Cup and I’ve been training to complete the Prudential Ride London 100 mile sportive. Training in the last few weeks has been especially hard due to the hot weather we’ve been having, it’s been oppressive to say the least and makes solo cycling incredibly hard work. Everything has turned brown rather than green, like the whole countryside has turned to straw!
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I saw these signs go up on Parliament Street during the week and that reminded me how close I am to taking on the UK’s most iconic sportive
It is probably extremely fitting, a year on, that yesterday was the day that I hit my £1,500 sponsorship target for the Ride London. We are living in difficult, uncertain times at the moment so the fact that so many people were able to sponsor me is amazing and The Rainbow Trust will use that money to do an unbelievable amount of good work.
Lastly, a major thing happened this year. I got a decent sportive photo! I actually looked pretty good in the Wiggle Sussex Gran Fondo, check it out!
Let me tell you I didn’t look that happy towards the end…..
5 days ago I, randomly, spotted a post from Evans Cycles in my news feed on Facebook, it told me that there were 100 days until the Prudential Ride 100.
The shock of that information led me to sharing it on Instagram. 100 days? That’s not enough surely, I haven’t even finished watching the spring classics yet (which have been excellent and entertaining in equal measure by the way)! I started to panic a little bit, racking my brain to work out what I had actually achieved so far, but then I started to calm down a little bit because I think I’ve done quite a bit.
Tuesday was a big day for me, I went to the gym as usual and plonked myself on the scales. They levelled out at 77.6kg (12st 3lbs) which means that, since the turn of the year, I have lost 8.6kg (1st 4lb) and I was very pleased with that! With that information I have revised my original target to 70.4kg (11st 1lbs), if I get there I will have lost 2 stone 7lbs and be the lightest I’ve been since my teens….just 7.2kg to go!
I have changed my approach to the gym slightly, focussing on more cardio workouts than the weight room. I have surprised myself with improvements in my stamina and ability, the last two Tuesdays (my running days) have seen me complete 10km runs which would have been impossible for me last year. That stamina is noticeable for me in the saddle, if it’s good enough for Valverde it’s good enough for me!
I also have a packed schedule to fit in before the big ride. Tomorrow I head over to Box Hill with some friends from work to really get a sense of where I am fitness wise, I’m hoping to smash my previous best on the Zigzag Road which stands at 9 mins 50 seconds! I then have the Pearson Cycles London To Brighton and Back on the 13th May, 140k including the mighty Ditchling Beacon, before the Wiggle Sussex Gran Fondo at the start of June which is a full 100mile route.
Outside of my own personal cycling goals I’ve also had a bit of a ‘proud dad’ moment as Zac, my eldest, has been learning to ride his bike without stabilisers. I’m gobsmacked at his progress, especially when you consider he is only 4, the below shows his first and second attempts without any assistance at all….
His seems to have a natural balance that will see him beating me round the aerodrome in no time at all and he really enjoys it, he’s loving learning to do ‘what daddy does’. It’s also good for me, now I have my new bike it gives me an excuse to do more research on new bikes, just for Zac not me!
A few weeks back I wrote a post about now being the best time to buy a new bike because there are a lot of discounts about on 2017 models. This week, I finally took my own advice!
I had been looking at the Cannondale SuperSix Evo Ultegra Disc but, as I’m old and inflexible, I decided against it as many of the reviews had said that it had a more race orientated geometry. I continued my search, wanting something that was a significant upgrade but also something that would last a good while. I looked at a lot of bikes, a LOT, until I came across a Specialized Tarmac Expert Disc at half the price of the standard list price…. I didn’t need any further encouragement.
It arrived yesterday and when the delivery turned up, to quote Adam, I was shaking like a shitting cat. I was like a kid at Christmas, I love new bike day! I hope you’ll agree that it is a thing of beauty, usual Spesh lines and a colour that means I’ll be seen for miles!
The extra outlay means that I’ve taken a massive leap forward over my old Felt Z75 Disc, though that bike got me to Paris so I’m extremely fond of it! The major difference is that I’ve moved from aluminium to carbon and from 105 to Ultegra.
I may well replace the cassette with an 11-32t spread so that I’ve got a few extra for the big hills around me and I’ll replace the offset seatpost with an inline version because my seat is too far back otherwise, but that’s all I’m going to change.
I’m looking forward to getting out and putting a few miles into it tomorrow morning. My friend Ben has devised a route with a couple of challenging climbs so I’ll certainly be able to tell how much of a difference it makes!
I’d been itching to get back out on my bike since we got back from holiday so I braved the cold weather on Saturday morning and went for a short, 20 mile ride. It was an absolutely stunning morning, the neck tube/winter cap/toe covers kept the biting cold at bay and even a road closed sign couldn’t dampen my enjoyment at being back out on the bike.
First outing this year for the Oakley’s! Needed!
I went out on my usual route and I’m glad that I did because it looks as though the ‘Beast From The East’ may scupper rides for the near future. Snow arrived today and more is forecast so I better get that Zwift setup right again!
I received an email today confirming my charity place on the Prudential Ride London 100 so it is now official! No going back! No wimping out!
I’d better start increasing the mileage and getting serious about completing this mammoth challenge.
……in the meantime, while it snows, I’ll sit and look at new bikes on the internet!
I’ve always been very fortunate to have decent holidays and this February half term is no different. 10 of us, my family and my in laws, have jetted off to Jolly Beach in Antigua for some much needed sunshine. You may think that may be a good excuse to let up a bit but I’m not going to let that happen, as the pic below shows I made use of the hotel’s gym facilities this morning!
Following that I thought about going for a walk to warm down a bit, so I headed down the beach towards the marina.
It was a lovely walk, Antigua had some amazing scenery with small to large boats coming from everywhere to enjoy the overwhelming beauty of the island. What I hadn’t really expected was a real yearning for my bike, but I found some roads that rose out of the sea like monsters. Paths heading to the top of steep hills where large houses were built to enjoy every last ounce of the wondrous view of the Caribbean sea and it’s brilliant blue waters. I would’ve loved to have a bike with me to have a crack at the below but instead I had to walk up it. The breeze across the island would’ve prevented it from being a sweat fest but I’m sure I’d have got close to using all available gears!
As with everything, what goes up must come down and the descent would’ve been equally thrilling, the harbour hurtling towards you promising a refreshing dip in the sea at the end
I think I’ll check out Strava when I get home to have a look at the gradients involved but these were certainly punchy climbs that would’ve required a sizeable effort. Maybe one day I’ll return with a bike!
Worn through your tyres on the turbo trainer over winter? Convinced yourself that it is the bike rather than the extra pounds acquired over Christmas that are making the hills more difficult? Looking for that extra motivation to complete a 100, the Étape or just your first Sportive? Well, the great news is that this seems to be the perfect time to buy a new bicycle!
Manufacturers tempt all cyclists out of the Winter hibernation by showing them pictures of shiny new bikes, drawing lustful looks and an inadvertent collection of appreciative noises. Pictures are passed around and drooled over at cake stops, finances are recalculated and specs are pored over and compared.
Its that last point that brings me to my title, it really is the best time to buy a bike. For all of the glossy marketing and new paint jobs, the manufacturers need somewhere for these bikes to go and that means the retailers clearing out the previous year’s models. For those of you with more money than you know what to do with, stop reading now. For those who like a bit of extra bang for their buck, keep reading. Usually there is very little difference between models year on year, sometimes a newer version of a groupset and/or a new paint job is all that separates them, but the prices are wildly different.
The below shows the differences between the Cannondale Supersix Evo Ultegra Disc road bike, with 2017 on the left and 2018 on the right
I apologise for the small print within the image but, in essence, the only real differences between them are the paintwork, the updated R8020 disc brakes and the inclusion of the new, updated Ultegra R8000 groupset. The R8000 benefits from the ideas and design behind Dura Ace and can accommodate a 34 tooth sprocket but the 6800 is still an excellent option that will suit most casual cyclists, certainly those upgrading from Shimano’s 105 range. The real difference is in the price, the new model carries a RRP of £2,699 but after shopping around I have found examples of the 2017 model for £1,649, some £1,050 cheaper! For the differences in play I know which model I would go for.
So there it is, go and buy a new bike but shop around and don’t be afraid of last year’s model! Remember, as the old saying goes…..
The correct number of bikes to own is n+1, where n is the number of bikes currently owned
ORIGINAL FLÂNEURS 