Three Coasts 600 / East & West Coast 600 - 17/06/2017

[madcow]

Being a "ginger" implies you have hair. Sadly I have none, hence the cycling cap...

I wish!  I was wearing a cotton cycling cap all weekend. I have had sunstroke whilst cycling  and it ain't funny.
I saw the signs of impending sunstroke in one or two riders on Saturday.
I managed to avoid the worst by drinking the contents of  two water bottles   between each control.

[JohnR]

Being a "ginger" implies you have hair. Sadly I have none, hence the cycling cap...

I wish!  I was wearing a cotton cycling cap all weekend. I have had sunstroke whilst cycling  and it ain't funny.
I saw the signs of impending sunstroke in one or two riders on Saturday.
I managed to avoid the worst by drinking the contents of  two water bottles   between each control.

I did the Lunesdale 160K on Sunday and I now think I was suffering from heat stroke most of the way round, I've no hair just my helmet, no suncream applied.
Just before Borbon village I started with cramps in my legs, I normally get these and had put a tablet in my first bottle of water which was drunk before Slaidburn before and my last bottle of water was about half full. (should have looked to fill up at the church we had to stop at for our info control). Plodded on and found myself walking up some steep hills with no water, 2 of the gang on the audax came up behind me and each donated about half a bottle of water to me which was magnificent as we only had about 10K to lunch at Dent.
Here a nice lady cyclist of our group donated a nuun tablet for me to add to my re-fill which I drank almost straight away. any how this wasn't to be the last, on I went when I had to do about 40Km both legs cramping and my shoulder and feet also joining in from time to time, I hadn't realised that I'd actually stopped sweating by this time. I stopped at a small church in the middle of nowhere for water, but it must have been the only one without a standpipe. On I went every small hill was the same, legs cramping just about turning the pedals over thinking at least it's quicker than walking. These last few k's seemed like a lifetime with the sun persistently in my face. I finished but was literaly knackered and feeling sick all the way home, just had a cool bath and went to bed with a sick bucket and a glass of water.

I often thought how you guys were making out and reading these accounts, much the same I guess.
Well done to all who finished!

[tally51]

It's not very often a week in Mallorca turns out to be good acclimatisation for conditions on a northern 600, but it certainly helped this weekend.  I entered this one to get used to some hills at the back end of an event in preparation for LEL, and it definitely did that, with the heat as an additional test, so very pleased to get through to the finish OK.
As has been said before it was a nice tailwind spin to Brid.  I decided I'd head out of the cafe on my own towards Malton which was soon regretted as the wind and lack of shelter soon took their toll.  Clement and another rider caught me and I happily rode with them for a couple of miles before a big club group came past.  We all jumped on their wheels, but the increase in pace was a bit too much for me so it was back to a solo ride to Malton and Thirsk.  The roads are familiar down to Tadcaster and I was soon at Castleford where there was a good bunch of riders enjoying the traditional audax delights of the garage forecourt so chatted with Dr Mekon before setting off with a few others together into the night.  Punctures and the Dewsbury Alps split us up so it was just before 11.30 I arrived back solo at HQ for some excellent hospitality - thanks to everyone helping out, they did a great job.
Sunday morning was a lovely ride to start off but the temperatures soon rose.  For some reason I'd still got long sleeve shirt, leg warmers etc in my saddle bag which were completely unnecessary.  I should have ditched those and taken the stepladder and hedge clippers for the first info  .
I took a lovely picture at Blackpool pier of bikes, sun and sea which turned out when I got home to be solely of the pavement.  Glasson dock was the culinary highpoint of the weekend with a massive lasagne setting me up for the hills.  These were the nicest roads of the event but slow going in the heat and a Lemon Drizzle loaf was needed at Whalley before the grind through Burnley.  The final climb up Blackstone Edge was slow but steady, then a final wrist jarring descent to HQ (the roads must have been the roughest I've ridden, there didn't seem to be a smooth patch over the whole 600K). Again lots of TLC at the finish, a great effort by Chris and his team.

[cgg]

Lovely ride, thanks Chris and the team for making this happens.

It was my second 600 after the BCM in May and it did feel harder! Possibly something to do with that relentless heat. I'm glad I was able to ride in good company for the better part of it.

After a very nice but uneventful run up to Bridlington, I rode from there to Castleford with Ian (nice yellow Roberts). We were doing good work of the head winds, but as the club run mentioned before passed by, it was too good an occasion to skip - even though the riders at the back were behaving quite erratically. Short stop in Malton, just for water and a ice cream consumed too quickly (felt a bit heavy for the next kms  ). As many others we were planning to stop for proper food at Thirsk, instead we stopped at Sowerby at the Land & Sea fish'n chips. Massive and excellent portions of chips, with lots of salt please, and a slush drink, all consumed on a bench in a quiet park. Perfect, thoroughly recommend.

Then off we go again and soon enough we turn South, which greatly alleviate the head winds, at last! The ride to Castleford is nice and quiet, and easier, almost too much in a way as km don't go by as fast as I'd like them to do. Eventually, we reach the service station for another break. I opt for milk and crisp in a bewildering array of flavours. And of course one of the many ice creams consumed over that weekend. It's important to keep a varied diet!



We teamed up with DrMekon for the last leg back to HQ. He was having a good rhythm for someone thinking about packing! Then, puncture on the rear 33 km from HQ. Turns out the non-traversing scratch on the sidewall of the tyre (that had been there for the last 1000 km) made the casing unravel slightly on the inside, which in turn punctured the tube. Ah well. Tyre boot, new tube and off we go. A bigger group forms as we catch Adam, his dad and a few other. Then 18 km from HQ, second puncture on the rear. Arrgh! And this time as I was lagging at the back of the group, I find myself on my own (the last rider turned back to see what was happening, but as he was running tubeless he was unable to provide assistance). So I walk a bit to someone's drive and say a few various french expletives as I start taking the wheel apart for a closer inspection. As it turns out, the ParkTool tyre boot, who's only a tad smaller than a credit card (so, huge), has a thin layer of transparent plastic stuck on top of the boot proper. As the boot was too big, it curved along with the tyre, and this thin layer formed a few "ripples", which then damaged the tube. 

Of course I only had on spare tube so it's now time to faff around with patches and glue. Always fun, even more so at 11pm on the side of a busy road. At least the temperature is mild. I also take off the offending layer off the boot and tear the boot in half. After half an hour or so of tinkering, I'm back on the road... gingerly as the rear is somewhat floaty! After 1km I realize that I left the patch kit on the road side... U-turn and here we go again. I count down the km until HQ, where I finally arrive around 00:20, where DrMekon is about to set off again into the night. Thanks Chris and the team for the amazing support there A bit of food and lots of water as I consider my options. The patch on the 2nd tube seemed to be holding alright. So I decided to repair the original one, borrow another spare from Chris and set off relatively early for the 2nd leg in order to give myself some headroom for more trouble.

As expected the second bout of sleep went much better than the first one! I wake up around 4:45 and I'm out of the door by 5:30. Nice start of the day, with sun and fresh temperatures. Nice riding with Jack until the service control in Fulwood (or was it Preston). I then let him and Robert go away as I was starting to tire a bit. I found company again shortly before the closed road before Blackpool and I rode with Adam and his dad until Glasson Dock. There we meet up with Jack, Adam go on his mission, and I let his dad and Jack go as I lay down in the fantastic grass next to the café for twenty minutes. After that it's only a 100 or so km to get back to HQ, but the heat and the hills made it hard work! Anyway, liberal application of water and low gears saw me through it and I was finally back at 18:30 for more TLC, some beers and sleep. Phew!


(thanks Jack for the photo at the secret information control )

[Halloween]

Was good to ride with you cgg and I also enjoyed the fish and chips on the park bench. I knew you had punctured but didn't realise that you had further difficulties.

[Flatlander]

I hope those GPX tracks were useful. I forgot to put them onto my Garmin. Instead I used an elastic band to hold the route sheet to the Garmin. Good job I had a puncture after 75km or so and found an elastic band in my tool tube

They were brilliant and having them in bit size chunks meant that even my Garmin 820 could cope. There were a few gitches close to the HQ where tarmac roads were not a prime concern for cycling but it was easy to spot the road route.

Having the controls marked was also valuable.

Took a chance with that closed road, and it worked, had to lift the bike over barriers. There was workman like person watching from a car inside the barriers and also a van with yellow flashing lights but that drove off as I approached and no one said anything, and I was careful to leave the barriers as I found them. 

Decending down the 17%er against the flow of the struggling end of the sportif on Saturday was a bit nerve wracking.

Highlight at north peer in Blackpool. Woman 1, Excuse me, do you have an allan key? Yes I have, depending what size you need. Woman 2 see I told you he would have one, he's a proper cyclist. To give them credit they had a hire bike with a rediculously low saddle that needed raising, so I guess that makes them proper cyclists as well.

Final climb for the decent was fun. The temperature range was a challenge. The minimum recorded was 6.5 degrees on Sunday morning and the maximum was about 30 on Sunday afternoon.