New Metric Century Challenge

You get your name on the roll of honour on the website, and I think you may get a medal, if my very poor French translation skills are correct!

I have to send off my stamped up brevet card to Mr Pic in France, then I get my medal (I think), and hopefully the card back, although I have photograped it just in case.

It is a good day in the saddle, thoroughly recommended.

The weather is always the major unknown in it all, I had to endure insane wind that was actually blowing people off their bikes at the top. There was at one point, two guys blown off onto the ground by the summit, and hanging onto their bikes like brollies, as they waved out in front of them. I also saw one guy lying ontop of his bike to stop him and it blowing away!

It made each trip to the summit a fairly daunting experience, but I somehow got away with it...three times!

Last three metrics have been an unexpected pleasure.

Friday was from Bourg St Maurice to the Col D'Iseran and back plus a bit.

Saturday was from B-S-M up via the Cormet de Roselend and down to Beaufort, then back up via the Col de Pre and back over the Roselend.

Sunday was B-S-M over the Col de Petit St Bernard and down into Italy to Pre St Didier for lunch, then back over the Petit St Bernard and back to Bourg.

Back home tomorrow, but for now I'm enjoying the view out over the Alps!

Cheers Fringe - I have been training fairly well indoors for the last 3 or 4 weeks, averaging about 9 - 10 hours a week on the turbo, lots of that has been intervals and tempo work, so I have no real excuse!

The swine flu was actually fairly mild form of flu to be honest, if I had to have flu, that was about the best one to have...

I really need to make sure I improve on my last years fitness, as I have some fairly tough challenges planned for the year, but I'm pretty motivated at the mo' so I think it should be good.

Good luck with the weather tomorrow, hopefully it'll be a nice day for it...

STATO - that sounds like a tough day in the saddle, a cold, icy off-road metric is pretty epic.

Fringe - well done on getting it done!

Everyone seems to be making their life tough here, I do mine on road with a bike brimming with gears...

I have a metric planned in Feb for a circuit, maybe two, round the Isle of Arran...I think I may have to hollow out a bear to cycle in for warmth though, I'm a soft suvvener you know!

What a lovely day for a ride at last!

85 miles taking in Devils Elbow, Pen y Fan, Rhigos and the Bwlch, and enjoyed every mile.

The bacon roll at the top of Rhigos never fails to hit the spot. I'm pleased to see that 10 hours a week for the last couple of months on the turbo has actually translated into some vague semblance of performance on the road.

Blackhound, I rode past The Afan Lodge, and was fully prepared to shout "Blackhoud?" at every MTBer I passed, but that was the sum total of none so we may have been close but no cigar...

Give me a shout on here if you do decide to, I ride around there a lot, and have lots of nice routes.

Port Talbot is just down the road from where I stay, so could easily meet you from there. It would be good to catch up and go for a ride in the summer.

The bacon rolls at the top of Rhigos take some beating...

Blackhound - I think I've said this before, but it does bear repeating; I think I sound a lot better on paper than I am on the road!

It would be great to meet up; with your wife's family being from Duffryn Rhondda, and my in-laws from just down the road in Skewen, we should both be alright for excuses!

Today's ride was good, it being cold and me getting sleeted on didn't spoil my first 100 miler of the year. I even managed a negative split despite a fairly tough headwind for the last 20 miles. It was a straight out and back that got me as far as Calne before I turned round.

I was most tired by the new power bar type thing I was trying out, a Multi-Power Active bar. It worked well, and importantly didn't make me cough, but due to the cold it was a serious undertaking to chew it. I think I have identified a weak spot in my training!

Blackhound - that would be good, I've got lots of climbing training ahead of me too. I've actually signed up now for the Club des Cingles du Mont Ventoux in June, so no going back now! Give me a shout anytime a week or so prior and I can get down there, as the missus is always keen to see her parents.

Todays ride was 70 something miles of headwind, or at least that's how it felt! I stepped up the pace a bit today, plus threw in a lot more climbing. I'm feeling very impatient to get back to last summers level (and hopefully beyond), but I'm trying to actually be structured and progressive, so patience and consistency is the name of the game I suppose.

A quick mid-week metric saw me riding 63 miles into sleet, rain and wind, but for some reason I enjoyed every minute...

My usual flat-ish 63 mile out and back, doing a loop round Windsor Castle, was done in reasonable time. The bike needs a good clean up though, ready for a spin in the Valleys of S. Wales this weekend.

Well, I think todays ride should qualify as an epic. I rode a similar loop in the Valleys to the one I did a few weeks ago, with one major exception...the weather!

I rode 85 miles and 4 mountain passes, and each one was into a headwind of at least 30mph, with sleet that was genuinly hurting my face to the point that I had to pull my neck-warmer up over my cheeks just to soften the blow a bit.

At one point over the Beacons, I was riding into such a wind that despite going down a -7% slope, I had to drop to the 39x22 to keep above 10mph! This wind and hail stayed against me over the Rhigos and the Bwlch. The climb over the Bwlch was insane, and I was leaning at about 25' to stay upright. The descent was much like the last, and had me in the 39 tooth again just to keep going forward.

So 85 miles and 2500m of ascent, all into a hurricane and horizontal sleet...good training for the Club des Cingles I think.

I was still smiling when I got home, but only just!

Hi Fringe, here's a cut down one of the ride I did yesterday. I have removed the stuff that takes you to and from my house, so is about 75 miles now. I started this one from the roundabout just off J43 of the M4. If you take the junction then at the roundabout take the (3rd?) exit onto the A465 toward Neath. After a mile or so take the exit (signed Neath again I think) onto the A474 bearing left toward Neath Abbey. There is a short flyover that takes you straight to another roundabout with a big Tesco superstore as the first exit left. This is where the route starts, so you could take a chance and park in there, or take the second exit and park in any of the roads off left or right.

http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=104952

Cheers, Si.

Oh, and Fringe, could you download a copy of that route as a GPX or something, so that I can clear out my BRT routes folder as it is a bit on the overflowing side.

Let me know when you have a copy and I'll remove it...