My second go at the Hell O' The North ride saw me cut an hour and a half off last year's time. Crap weather again, especially considering yesterday's sunshine. Riding the singlespeed was fine, apart from some of the more gradual decents where I just couldn't keep up with the geared road bikes. I see a geared road bike in the near(ish) future...
100 miles. 2500 feet of climbing. Three Counties. Two chocolate milkshakes. 8 hours 35 minutes. One gear.
Distance: 100 miles
Surface: Road
Time: 8 hours 35 minutes
Weather: Wet and windy, but warm
Bike: Solitude (34:18 singlespeed)
Update: My right knee has died
Update (03/09): My right knee's still bad. I swore a lot on my ride home from work. Otherwise, just a bit of a sore neck - my legs feel fine.
5 comments:
Nicely done, apart from the chocolate milkshakes (can't abide the things) — water and figrolls, it's the way forward.
Chocolate milkshakes contain the same ingredients as sports energy drinks. I read it on teh internets, so it must be true. I had a Spar own-brand, from the Spar in Hawes, and a Mars one, from the newsagents in Middleton-in-Teesdale. The one in Hawes was a mistake, as it was really chilled, and I was soaking wet.
Home-made chocolate brownies (one small piece per hour) got me from Darlo to Hawes. Haribo Tangfastics got me from Middleton to Darlington.
No Fig Rolls. They're Chris Boardman's favourite energy food, apparently.
Top effort for finishing the Hell of the North. We went round in a group of 6 (3 men, 3 ladies). The bikes were one tandem, 3 touring bikes and me on a mountain bike. Weather bloody awful across the moor to redmire but we got some payback after climbing the hill out of Brough.
My food - Cheese and pate sandwiches, Jaffa cakes, bananas, chocolate, lucozade and a few pints of water. (Sounds more like a picnic than a bike ride!). We set of at 8.45 and 4 of us finished at 6.15. Two of the ladies performed a slight detour and stopped off at The Green Dragon at Hardraw just outside of Hawes and got back about 7.00. If you fancy a very serious ride, have a crack at The Fred Whitton challenge - approx 112 miles and takes in all 6 passes of the Lake District. It is an annual ride and is scheduled for early May 2008.
http://www.fredwhittonchallenge.org.uk/
Once again, well done.
Thanks Richard. I saw the tandem at the start - I think you set off just ahead of me. I must have had a shorter lunch stop and overtaken you then, rather than on the road.
I'd love to do the Fred Whitton Challenge someday. It'll probably have to wait until I have a proper road bike since I don't fancy all six passes on a singlespeed...
I'm going to try to get some more long rides in early next year, instaed of relying on a five mile a day bike commute for fitness. I think I could put in a reasonable time with a bit more training. I also really fancy doing an off-road century, and maybe a 200km ride.
[...] at Hamsterley (55 miles) * September was my best month of the year with a new PB for the Hell O’ The North (100 miles) and a decent finish in the Great Milk Stout Ride (66 miles), despite being the [...]
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