Dr Foster's Winter Warmer; 26th Jan

[Hot Flatus]

It can also be icy on the bridge, after Newent and on Pen y lan

[Mad Jack]

This may be of help you you chaps- Long range forecast via BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/feeds/30944370

[caerau]

Looking better now, still cold but at least it's not forecast to rain the day before now.

[caerau]

Just been chatting on Facebook with Cyclofabrica about photos in Epney and it occurs to me that getting a stamp at Epney on the jack and grace might work well for a control instead of Slimbridge… not that we should dream of imbibing of their paid for beverages etc. of course

[plod]

first go at one from Cardiff gate, do I just park in Toby Carvery car park? Also seems new routesheet but no new gpx, presuming thats as route's the same but controls are different but as I do not know east of the bridge very well; are there any tricky navigations I need to worry about? (I struggled to follow the new routesheet, but i am very novice at all this)

[caerau]

Yes you can just park at the Toby Carvery, parking is free at the weekend unless that's been changed.


The route hasn't really changed has it?  Just the route sheet to accommodate the closed control - you're better off doing your own gpx anyway most of the time in my experience - that's no offence to the organisers, they tend to just upload the route of a test-rider and that often has a lot of waypoints and can meander off road due to satellite discrepancies with googlemaps (or whichever map is your poison).
You're welcome to use this http://ridewithgps.com/routes/3867080 which is the route I devised last year - it worked well.
I might do an alternative that avoids the potentially icy lanes before Slimbridge this year.  I'll post it up here if/when I do.

see you Saturday

[plod]

super thanks very much, see you Saturday, hopefully without this flu.

I'll be on the green holdsworth.

[caerau]

Holy cow - 75 riders mentioned in Tony's email - wow.  Never seen that many on this - I detect PBP at work…


I've done a (don't blame me if it's not) 'ice free' route according to Tony's advice i.e. A48 straight away in Cardiff and A38 up to Gloucester.
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/6841646


No avoiding the Severn Bridge though, the Bulwark area of Chepstow was the iciest bit two years ago.


Enigma Etap here

[Hot Flatus]

Ice! Jeez. The welsh side wasn't too bad, but the Lanes up to Berkeley..... Jeez. I stayed upright but there were a few prangs.

I don't know about everybody else but I find the bit through Gloucester and all the way to Monmouth utterly soul destroying.

Monmouth to finish is awesome though

[caerau]

Well my lack of recent riding showed yesterday - all seemed well until after the first control when my legs went.  But I'm experienced enough now to keep it going with reasonable eating and drinking. Made it round slow as predicted with about 45 minutes to the BRM time limit in hand - so good enough and enough knowledge there to know I need a lot of training if I'm to qualify for and ride PBP.


Sadly the ice before Berkley and the long cafe wait (though not as long as some ) put me out of time for getting the hat-trick on getting my photo taken for the Jack and Grace memorial at Epney but hey ho.  There was a lady with a camera still there when I went past - she gave me a very strange look as I flew past without stopping - guess they don't know about the DFWW 


Yeah I see what you mean about the Newent Road from Gloucester now - since we rode it together last year it reduced the impact - riding it alone was not a particularly awe-inspiring experience.


Recovery today isn't going too bad - onwards and upwards to the Malmesbury Mash then...

[Hot Flatus]

I think the ride could do with a bit of a refresh. I might see if I can plot an alternative and forward it to Tony for consideration. You can cut out Newent by going to Tibberton and through Glasshouse woods. Its beautiful but harder. I think it would be better to miss out Gloucester all together. Its a shithole. The early part of the Newent road is a pinch point. I always periodically pull into the side to allow accumulated traffic to pass as it isn't fair to make 30 cars crawl up the hill at 8mph, but I know there will be more bloody-minded audaxers who won't. If they meet a bloody minded driver it could cause problems.

Similarly, the short section on the dual carriageway into Monmouth is hazardous. There isn't any sort of siding so you have to ride in the lane. With cars tailgating each other at high speed any mishap would be most likely fatal. Riders in black are hard to see, and some drivers do not or can not (tailgaters) look ahead.

By the way, I shall never use that cafe in Berkeley again. The proprietor was bloody rude in pointing out that her 'regulars' would be served first regardless of where they were in the queue (whilst still be more than happy to take the money from the cyclists). My 45 minute wait for a fried egg was ridiculous.

[bikey-mikey]

I enjoyed the ride, even though I made a real mistaken decision after the Severn Bridge. Basically I know the lanes to Berkeley exceedingly well, having ridden them on over 100 DIYs, and as the temperature had increased by 5 degrees, I thought they would be OK. Ended up walking at snails pace on the ice for about half an hour, covering about 2 kms.... With the covers on my Speedplays I could hardly stay upright, yet some guys rode past me....what's that about???

I could have just not turned into the lanes and gone straight to the A38 and avoided all that, but I prefer the lanes. 

Learned lesson though..  After Monmouth garden centre I chose to ignore the turn up to Trellech, and instead went onto the A40, and stayed on it until I reached Newport, then revered outward route!!

The dual carriageway was very good, and the skies were blue and despite the fast traffic I felt OK... Of course you listen to every approaching vehicle expecting it to be your last, but I get that on all roads anyway!!

I drank nearly a whole bottle of Hi Five 4:1 (a lot for me) BUT didn't eat at all, neither at the controls nor even munch the food I had with me, so the fat burning metabolism is working just fine. A side effect of riding at fatburning tempo is that most riders go at typical club run pace, i.e. Balls out until they run out of glycogen and need to stop before they bonk... Enjoyed seeing the 'hares' as they shot past me, then I repassed them while they desperately refuelled... Several groups seemed to stop between controls as well. All is well as long as they enjoyed their rides!!

[Ian gaggiaport]

 A side effect of riding at fatburning tempo is that most riders go at typical club run pace, i.e. Balls out until they run out of glycogen and need to stop before they bonk... Enjoyed seeing the 'hares' as they shot past me, then I repassed them while they desperately refuelled

How can you know this? Was there a Dopage at Mitchel Troy?

[bikey-mikey]

Folks just seem to speed up when there's a chance at eating soon, it's a common enough phenomenon, I guess.

I was only stating the world as I see it, but I could expand my observations to admit that not all folks who stop actually need to......

There are plenty of highly trained high mileage folks out there who are adapted to fat burning yet still fast enough to keep up with glyco-burners whilst not burning their own glycogen. Maybe they are riding with friends and stop to chat, or indeed perhaps they are as addicted to coffee or chocky milk as I am??

(Edit) I'm not that fast, I hasten to add...