Liverpool - chester - liverpool charity ride etc

Well after a little training me and a friend entered the 54 mile liv-
chester-liv ride on our MTBs (with near-slicks). We figured we'd be
average-to-good but not up there with the top guys. Felt rather
intimidated by people at the start with multiple £ks worth of carbon
fibre bike but since we were only out to enjoy the ride, not really
race, we decided we'd just stick at a comfy pace. Well we managed it
in ~3hrs 15 including a half-hour stop for refreshments and nibblies,
which averages out at ~18.2ish mph overall - a persona best over that
sort of distance. Strangely brought out a long-hidden competitive
streak in us, theres something satisfying about overtaking someone
with a bike thats worth more then your car when you're on a 10 year
old 26" with galvanised spokes and DH rims lol, even if they arent
trying!

Anyway, we arrived in the first ~75 at the halfway stage, no idea
about the full-length results as the short routes doubled back on the
main route and everyone got intermingled but we were only overtaken a
couple of times and we overtook a fair few. Anyway, just really
pleased with the fact that we did a lot better than we thought we
would and wanted to tell people who'd know what I meant!

Two rather negative things though:

1) Why is it that the "pro" type riders with all the gear seem to
think its acceptable to eat their energy bars on the move and discard
the litter onto the road?
2) What is it that people have with blowing snot out of their nose
onto the road. A) its really really grim and B) twice i was hit with
snot while overtaking. It took everything in me not to knock the
f*ckers off and have a go at them. Its just plain disgusting.

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 03:28:19 -0700, CoyoteBoy
wrote:

Anyway, just really
pleased with the fact that we did a lot better than we thought we
would and wanted to tell people who'd know what I meant!

Well done. Perhaps you were one of the ones who I saw go past the top
of my road........ although as I thought it was just Liverpool to
Chester, I was a bt worried that everyone was going the wrong way!

Judith

That's a brilliant average. I can only manage an 18 average for 20 miles,
never mind all those miles. Well done.

As for the litter. That's really, really crap.

As for the snot. I do that, but I'm an antisocial cyclist, so I'm never in
any danger of hitting anyone, as I always ride on my own. It is pretty
horrible, but it is also a lot better than carrying a back pocket full of
tissues.

At least snot is biodegradeable, unlike the energy bar wrappers...

On 16 Jul, 19:57, Judith wrote:
On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 03:28:19 -0700, CoyoteBoy
wrote:

Anyway, just really
pleased with the fact that we did a lot better than we thought we
would and wanted to tell people who'd know what I meant!

Well done. Perhaps you were one of the ones who I saw go past the top
of my road........ although as I thought it was just Liverpool to
Chester, I was a bt worried that everyone was going the wrong way!

Judith

Cheers! It started at ~8.00 and there were a couple of shorter
loops so maybe you saw the returning bunch from any one of them

On 16 Jul, 20:55, "jim" wrote:
That's a brilliant average. I can only manage an 18 average for 20 miles,
never mind all those miles. Well done.

Thanks! Its hard to judge whats a decent speed, everyone seems to
quote averages from 15 to 35 and our ~18 seemed pretty poor but we
were passing most people out here so we were very confused!

As for the litter. That's really, really crap.

Yup

As for the snot. I do that, but I'm an antisocial cyclist, so I'm never in
any danger of hitting anyone, as I always ride on my own. It is pretty
horrible, but it is also a lot better than carrying a back pocket full of
tissues.

Lol I had this argument with some others and I think we concluded that
providing it wasnt used as a projectile at other riders it is ok. I
personally never /need/ to blow my nose while riding, maybe I'm odd!

At least snot is biodegradeable, unlike the energy bar wrappers...

True

CoyoteBoy wrote:

On 16 Jul, 20:55, "jim" wrote:
That's a brilliant average. I can only manage an 18 average for 20 miles,
never mind all those miles. Well done.

Thanks! Its hard to judge whats a decent speed, everyone seems to
quote averages from 15 to 35 and our ~18 seemed pretty poor but we
were passing most people out here so we were very confused!


Anyone who can ride at an average of 35 mph has a future as a racing
professional.

Or club runs can vary from about 15 to 19 mph depending upon the route
being flat - similar to the Liverpool to Chester - or a hilly ride into
North Wales. This is on ride time with the bike computer stopping the
timing when we stop. Obviously we have to ride at the speed of the
slowest in the group, so speed varies with the turnout. 18 average is
fairly brisk however and would leave quite a few of our lot puffing and
panting, if not left behind.


--
Andy Templeman http://www.templeman.org.uk/

On Jul 17, 12:23 pm, (Andrew Templeman) wrote:

Thanks! Its hard to judge whats a decent speed, everyone seems to
quote averages from 15 to 35 and our ~18 seemed pretty poor but we
were passing most people out here so we were very confused!

Anyone who can ride at an average of 35 mph has a future as a racing
professional.

The Tour prologue time trial was run over 7.9 km. Cancellara's winning
time was 08:50 which works out at about 33.3 mph. No-one averages 35
mph on charity rides.

--
Dave...

In oups.com,
dkahn400 tweaked the Babbage-Engine to tell us:
On Jul 17, 12:23 pm, (Andrew Templeman) wrote:

Thanks! Its hard to judge whats a decent speed, everyone seems to
quote averages from 15 to 35 and our ~18 seemed pretty poor but we
were passing most people out here so we were very confused!

Anyone who can ride at an average of 35 mph has a future as a racing
professional.

The Tour prologue time trial was run over 7.9 km. Cancellara's winning
time was 08:50 which works out at about 33.3 mph. No-one averages 35
mph on charity rides.

Pish tosh! I'm sure Alan Holmes could do it :-)

--
Dave Larrington
http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk
Do not top-post like a Cretinous Foul-Yob fit only for Stoning.

On 17 Jul, 12:23, (Andrew Templeman) wrote:
CoyoteBoy wrote:
On 16 Jul, 20:55, "jim" wrote:
That's a brilliant average. I can only manage an 18 average for 20 miles,
never mind all those miles. Well done.

Thanks! Its hard to judge whats a decent speed, everyone seems to
quote averages from 15 to 35 and our ~18 seemed pretty poor but we
were passing most people out here so we were very confused!

Anyone who can ride at an average of 35 mph has a future as a racing
professional.

Or club runs can vary from about 15 to 19 mph depending upon the route
being flat - similar to the Liverpool to Chester - or a hilly ride into
North Wales. This is on ride time with the bike computer stopping the
timing when we stop. Obviously we have to ride at the speed of the
slowest in the group, so speed varies with the turnout. 18 average is
fairly brisk however and would leave quite a few of our lot puffing and
panting, if not left behind.

--
Andy Templeman http://www.templeman.org.uk/

I might be tempted to turn up at some point then, i like not being
last! Get the feeling MTBs with slicks are somewhat frowned upon?

On 17 Jul, 12:23, (Andrew Templeman) wrote:
CoyoteBoy wrote:
On 16 Jul, 20:55, "jim" wrote:
That's a brilliant average. I can only manage an 18 average for 20 miles,
never mind all those miles. Well done.

Thanks! Its hard to judge whats a decent speed, everyone seems to
quote averages from 15 to 35 and our ~18 seemed pretty poor but we
were passing most people out here so we were very confused!

Anyone who can ride at an average of 35 mph has a future as a racing
professional.

I suppose it depends on the conditions too though, i mean with a 15mph
tail wind we can average 30 over 5 miles no problem, ask us to do it
in still air or with a hill, or for more than 5 miles and we'd keel
over and collapse!