Author Topic: Wander Wye  (Read 12685 times)

Wycombewheeler

  • PBP-2019 LEL-2022
Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #25 on: 16 June, 2018, 08:44:39 pm »
Impressive turnout it Seems, saw (and passed) large numbers going from Marlow to freith while I was on the club run. And a few more full value riders as I was passing through Darlington in the opposite direction later on.

Hope the weather stays good for every one.

Eddington  127miles, 170km

Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #26 on: 16 June, 2018, 09:26:34 pm »
62 on the road. First into Chepstow at 9pm. 370 km in 15 hours. Apparently a little breezy out there. Ride safe all.

Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #27 on: 18 June, 2018, 08:18:26 am »
A great ride - huge thanks to everyone involved in organising and helping. Great route, excellent controls well-spaced and a BBQ at the end too. I particularly appreciated a great second breakfast at The Applecart Cafe in Pewsey.  Even the weather was as close to perfect as it gets for a 600.

My slowest ever 600 by some way though, with Day Two taking me an hour longer than my 2016 BCM Day Two time (after adjusting for distance). Was Day Two deceptively difficult, or am I just getting old and slow?
Eddington Number = 132

whosatthewheel

Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #28 on: 18 June, 2018, 08:29:25 am »
A great ride - huge thanks to everyone involved in organising and helping. Great route, excellent controls well-spaced and a BBQ at the end too. I particularly appreciated a great second breakfast at The Applecart Cafe in Pewsey.  Even the weather was as close to perfect as it gets for a 600.

My slowest ever 600 by some way though, with Day Two taking me an hour longer than my 2016 BCM Day Two time (after adjusting for distance). Was Day Two deceptively difficult, or am I just getting old and slow?

I looked at the route, which broadly speaking is an enlarged version of LWL... it goes a bit further west and a bit further south. Either way, I found the return leg of LWL very hard, so I am not surprised this is hard too, seeing as you pass through the Downs

Manotea

  • Where there is doubt...
Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #29 on: 18 June, 2018, 08:49:28 am »
It occurs to me that the Wheelers routes are organised by a group of very strong riders... not that I'm saying you aren't... :)

iddu

  • Are we there yet?
Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #30 on: 18 June, 2018, 01:52:46 pm »
Gutted - after so much effort and timed faffage can't believe I didn't get Lanterne Rouge! ;D
I'd offer you some moral support - but I have questionable morals.

Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #31 on: 18 June, 2018, 02:23:45 pm »
We're getting one or two comments that this may have been a tough ride, the best so far: "It was definitely the toughest I’ve done, prior to this it was the Porker 400 and that’s saying something".  I'll take that as a compliment to be passed onto the route master, but not sure I agree with it myself.

We had an 89% finishing rate - only 7 DNFs out of 62 starters. I'll be making enquiries but I know at least two of them were not related to the toughness of the course.  We already have some ideas for route improvements for next year, and we're open to suggestions.

cheers
LBR

Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #32 on: 18 June, 2018, 03:10:37 pm »
Great ride, great route. Many thanks to Rich and his team for the excellent support.

Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #33 on: 18 June, 2018, 04:11:43 pm »
Thanks so much to all the team for this. Only my second 600km and I found it tough - but I seem to remember after bcm last year I said never again so I can’t really comment on how tough it actually was! The route sheets were great - we only missed a couple of turns and that was our stupidity!  If you could have turned off the blooming wind it would have been easier I am sure!

How many females made it around ? I only saw one other on my way round so not sure there were many of us!

And I will never complain about my husbands snoring again - there were some great efforts in the scout hut at Chepstow on Saturday night! 😉

Rich XAB

  • Dulwich on the outside, Peckham on the inside!
Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #34 on: 18 June, 2018, 05:35:06 pm »
Many thanks to LBR and the KW crew for their wonderful efforts. I found it tough but an interesting route, nevertheless. Gutted that I couldn't mange something from the BBQ at the end. Had a lovely cuppa made for me instead.

Rich

αdαmsκι

  • Instagram @ucfaaay Strava @ucfaaay
  • Look haggard. It sells.
Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #35 on: 18 June, 2018, 07:09:55 pm »
How many females made it around ? I only saw one other on my way round so not sure there were many of us!

I know Thing2 was riding and would have been easy to spot as she was on a tandem.
What on earth am I doing here on this beautiful day?! This is the only life I've got!!

https://tyredandhungry.wordpress.com/

Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #36 on: 18 June, 2018, 07:22:10 pm »
And the Maidenhead lady who got in at about 7pm.

Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #37 on: 18 June, 2018, 07:26:50 pm »
And the Maidenhead lady who got in at about 7pm.

That the same one as above.

Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #38 on: 18 June, 2018, 07:50:26 pm »
Gutted - after so much effort and timed faffage can't believe I didn't get Lanterne Rouge! ;D

After so much effort and minimum faffage I can't believe I did get Lanterne Rouge!  :)

Thanks to all the Kingston Wheelers Team for a great event and wonderful support.

I was happy with my speed to Worcester, despite the wind, but from then on it became quite a slog. Chepstow was a welcome oasis and I had about two and half hours in a sleeping bag (but a lot less sleep). The first few miles from Chepstow felt ok but then the legs started feeling lacking in energy and the hills kept on coming. I had to have an hour's break at Pewsey to recover but was having trouble with feeding.

I left Pewsey about forty minutes after the cut-off but thought I would have no trouble making that up by Hindhead. The hills made that difficult and I got there with ten minutes to spare. Luckily I was then on familiar territory and so could ride the rest of the way without reference to the routesheet or Garmin.

The BBQ was still going when I reached arrivee with less than ten minutes to spare.

That's my first SR series done - all with KW rides.

Rowlands RAAAmble next.

Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #39 on: 18 June, 2018, 08:26:40 pm »
Thanks to Rich and all the others from KW for another superb event, the support at Chepstow and the end was most welcome, I loved the stew and BBQ!

I was riding slowly on the Chepstow to Pewsey section, the gradient perfectly aligned to where I'm always slow against other Audax riders, however there was no issue finishing in the time window, despite a snooze before driving I think I was asleep at home when the final control closed.

I saw at least 4 ladies on the ride, although Thing2 only at start / finish (they were ahead of me all the time) and the other two passed me for the last time soon after Stow-on-the-Wold, all far to quick for me.

As it is my first 600 I've no strong opinion on whether it is easier / harder than others, certainly it would have been much more pleasant without the strong Saturday headwinds  ::-) I guess I need to ride it next year to help me decide. Certainly the pre-warning about hills on the way into Chepstow was welcome.

Lesson learnt: Those glitches in the gradient data on ridewithgps were actually real - having an x-axis of 600km means steep hills show up as a single pixel, in the future I will carefully examine the gradients by zooming in on 300+km routes.



Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #40 on: 18 June, 2018, 09:46:04 pm »
And the Maidenhead lady who got in at about 7pm.
That was me! And I saw the lady on the tandem. So about 4 of us - less than 10%. I think that means I am totally mad!

marcusjb

  • Full of bon courage.
Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #41 on: 18 June, 2018, 10:27:50 pm »
(I am still alive! (In case anyone was wondering))

Massive thanks to all the KW Krew for a fantastic event; superb organisation and TLC with a great route that joined up a few familiar bits of the world for me.

Riding more than 50% of my total 2018 mileage so far in a weekend was always going to be a bit tough, but this audaxing lark is all in the head and, well, I’m bloody minded enough to overcome my lack of fitness. Did hurt a bit though. Good motivation to actually try and ride my bikes over winter this year and get back in shape for the French ride.

Rather blowy and a few bits of drizzly rain (got heavier at Hindshead), but overall quite pleasant. A good mix of fast sections with some harder sections (the run to Pewsey felt very spikey and quite hard work, and the less said about the last hill before Chepstow the better - I was battered and dozey and certainly that was my dark patch of the event. I had to take the bike for a little walk as my motivation dwindled temporarily).

Thanks again to everyone involved. See you all on the road hopefully rather sooner than my rather long absence from the game.
Right! What's next?

Ooooh. That sounds like a daft idea.  I am in!

Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #42 on: 19 June, 2018, 06:46:19 am »
And the Maidenhead lady who got in at about 7pm.
That was me! And I saw the lady on the tandem. So about 4 of us - less than 10%. I think that means I am totally mad!
While I am pretty certain I am mad, you could always choose to be differently normal instead.  :)
There are a lot more women riding 200's now compared to when I started a decade ago, which is great to see. Over time, the proportion of them to riding the longer distances will hopefully increase too.
California Dreaming

Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #43 on: 19 June, 2018, 11:20:13 am »
Many thanks to all the KW crew for organising a great and challenging ride.

The headwinds on Saturday afternoon were a drag (but at least they were expected).  I was surprised how often we also seemed to face the wind on Sunday, but it was coming from the south and a look at the map reminds me we were going south as much as east.  Apart from the wind, the weather was just about right with only light rain on Sunday morning and being cooler than some recent days.  Having two near 90km hilly sections back to back on Sunday was really tough going and, in retrospect, it would have been better if we had broken that down into smaller sections somehow.  Indeed I took out of the ride the thoughts that it would have been easier with a bit more preparation both in terms of more winter riding and more investigating the route beforehand. 

Some pics here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/52974990@N08/albums/72157697585751694

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #44 on: 19 June, 2018, 12:25:53 pm »
We already have some ideas for route improvements for next year, and we're open to suggestions.

Don't know about that but this ride is definitely on my radar for next year. Have a feeling I'll need to get my entry in early, with it being a PBP year.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #45 on: 19 June, 2018, 01:05:50 pm »
(I am still alive! (In case anyone was wondering))

Funnily enough, I was wondering only the other day what had become of you - prompted by something I read in Arrivée.

Quote
Riding more than 50% of my total 2018 mileage so far in a weekend was always going to be a bit tough, but this audaxing lark is all in the head and, well, I’m bloody minded enough to overcome my lack of fitness.

I can relate to this, having done a total of less than 800km this year before taking on the West Highlands 1000 a few weeks ago. Training is overrated.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

whosatthewheel

Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #46 on: 19 June, 2018, 01:26:01 pm »
Training is overrated.

Luckily I enjoy riding my bike, otherwise you are right... the improvement per mile of so called "training" is pathetic and not worth bothering

thing1

  • aka Joth
    • TandemThings
Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #47 on: 19 June, 2018, 01:28:03 pm »
Why, what a wonderful wander! Great way to pass a weekend :)

It could always be a gamble doing a long ride like this on its first running, but overall I thought it a fantastic route. The FAST escape out of London was very appreciated. Lovely riding over the cotswolds as always. We saw a lot of rain "over on the next hill" both days but never got a soaking, just the odd brief shower blown in on us (and plenty of road water in places). The continuous lumpiness through Worcester right to Hay were bit of a surprise (my fault for not reviewing the profile before hand... I rarely do) but this did mean the worst of the headwind I was bracing for never fully materialized for us due to hill shelter.
The ride from Hay to Raglan was perhaps my favourite part. Fantastic taster of riding the welsh roads in quiet dusky landscapes, whetting the appetite and leaving me wanting more Cymru. And then the brutal 10mile into Chepstow making me never want to go to those lands again ;-)
Booking a travelodge bed "just in case" was one of my better ideas, really happy to have got a few good hours shut eye before the ordeal of the second day.
The lumpy start to day 2 certainly made for a tough opener but I actually found the long second stage culminating in that never ending drag into Hindhead was probably a low point for me... probably didn't eat enough through that stage (and was done digesting a wonderful and fast breakfast from Pewsey). Fantastic to see the punch bowl from above .. never done that before, although the descent was not as "tandem exhilarating" as the profile suggests due to being on a shared pathway. By the time we got to Combe Lane I was really relishing the climb, as it's a known-entity and last big goal of the ride... with that out the way it's plain sailing back to HQ.

Great BBQ to finish it all off. Would have stayed around to see more faces, but Thing2 was in a hurry to get home and showered so we could pop out for a cheeky pint, which we managed. A guy in the pub was astonished to hear we walked 35mins to the pub, so I didn't dare mention what else we'd been up to just before that....!

Congrats on a great Kingston Wheelers SR series. So fortunate to have this right on our doorstep.



Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #48 on: 21 June, 2018, 04:43:41 pm »
I was one of the DNF's making it as far as Chepstow before throwing in the towel and catching a train home from Bristol.

The route was tough, however I was fine pretty much up to the halfway point. Unfortunately I'd had one hell of a week at work on night shifts so suffered from an incorrect body clock and no real sleep the day/night before the event.

Dropped into Abergaveny and tried to eat some food at the Esso and just felt low/rough and couldn't eat much. The leg into Chepstow (including THAT hill) just wiped me out and pedalling just burned my stomach. I didn't feel too well at Chepstow and convinced myself I didn't have the energy to get back. After some sleep and attempting to eat, I threw in the towel and struggled into Bristol and jumped on the train.

Gutted I didn't complete, but no complaints about the route or being looked after by Rich. I've completed two 600's and LEL and this was tougher by far. Lesson learned about sleep preparation!

Re: Wander Wye
« Reply #49 on: 22 June, 2018, 11:43:15 am »
Already replied by email to Rich, but will add here as well.

I was one of the other DNFs. I had completed my first 400 a month before on Dawntsey Dawdle and this was going to be my first 600.

Firstly, I think Rich and team are excellent organisers. The start/finish and Chepstow controls were welcoming, stocked up with everything you could want and the volunteers have made me feel looked after when I get off the bike in zombie mode.
The route was really nice. Leaving London seemed quick and easy rather than the usual drag out to the countryside. Passing so many AONB's in one ride is also very enjoyable and a visual distractions from the difficulty.

The strong headwinds that day probably made the route feel harder than it actually is. At some point I did wonder how so much climbing didn't qualify for AAA points though. The tough sections were well spread out over the route so it felt you could recover from each one.

Being my first 600 my pacing was probably too fast at the beginning, got caught up matching club riders through the hills after Marlow and lots of sections in TT mode by myself. After Haye on Wye I slowed down a little and joined a small group to get over the Beacons and THAT hill before Chepstow.

It was here that my knee decided to give up. Ended up having to get off bike and walk up all the remaining gradients. Thought a good 4hours sleep at Chepstow could sort it out for the morning, but alas, going over the Severn Bridge I realised that even with 16hours available it was going to be a permanent injury if I carried on. Like  @Lee Velo I ended up struggling my way to Bristol for train back to London.

Lessons were learnt. But the route and organisers are excellent and I can't wait to give it another go.