Isle of Wight

[citoyen]

Oops, just realised I made a massive mistake - you'll want to ride anti-clockwise to take advantage of the wind...

Sorry! 

d.

[Gaston Lagaffe]

That's OK thanks, I must admit I always have to concentrate as to whether the wind is coming from or heading towards the direction mentioned, and am easily confused.  I should have paid more attention in Geography

[citoyen]

I often get clockwise and anti-clockwise mixed up. I blame digital watches.

The On-Offshore 200 takes you anti-clockwise round the island and having the wind behind you along the southern coast definitely makes a difference - possibly more so than the hills, tbh. The leg from the Needles to Bembridge is always fast, despite the lumpy bits.

d.

[LEE]

That's helpful information of the prevailing wind direction.

I think I need to persuade the others that clockwise is best.  It has been suggested we use Military road all along the coast rather than follow the route inland as the views are better.  At the end of the ride with a headwind and the lumpiest bit to finish on I am thinking anti clockwise might be a mistake.

You should ride as close to the coast as possible or you may as well just ride around mainland Hampshire.

The one and only issue with the On/Off Shore is that it cuts inland for a big part of the ride and thus resembles the scenery I have outside my front door.  That's no bad thing, it's lovely countryside, but I'd prefer to see more sea on my "day off".

Beware some of the seaside towns, make sure your brakes are adjusted before descending.  I forget which town is which but I certainly remember a few steep drops (and climbs back out obviously)

[Pancho]

Good point about the downhill bits.

I had Mrs P on the back of the tandem once. It was her first time (and mine, actually) on a tandem and you get up to a measurable percentage of lightspeed coming down those IOW hills on a tandem. As this was her first time without brakes or steering, she was seriously, seriously and vocally unhappy. As indeed was I when a mega descent ended with a tight radius roundabout.

[keeks]

Don't do what my grate frend Keith did. Rock up at Portsmouth Harbour, looking for ferry to the IOW. See likely looking ferry,leap aboard, complete with tandem and wife. Pay what seems a very reasonable amount. Be pleasantly surprised by the quick crossing.  Be somewhat less than impressed by ending up in Gosport.

NO WAY!!!,thats one for my achives ;-) 

Depends on what your plans are after booking in on first eve but by staying at Shanklin you may want to know its not exactly by the Sea where as going further on to say Ventor and you in a fine place and with fresh legs to climb out of the place.

[Gaston Lagaffe]

We have sorted the route and preference is to head anticlockwise as this gives us better opportunities for stops later in the ride.  It also gets the lumpiest bit out of the way early on. 

We may reverse the route on the day if the weather is particularly windy though.

Only 2 weeks to go, and with the awful weather I've done nowhere near as much cycling as I'd of liked.  The only consolation is I don't think my friends have either from speaking to them.

[Lady Cavendish]

I'd definitely also agree with sticking on the Military Road, definitely offers the best views. And as for which way round you go, I like saving that bit till last coz its my favourite bit (the hills are really not bad at all, and you don't really notice them as the views are so nice)

It's a nice ride round the Island, I do it regularly as my inlaws live in Cowes. I've also run round it on the day of the boat race in the opposite direction- that was great to watch whilst running 70 miles or so!

[Gaston Lagaffe]

So it's this weekend, the weather looks like it will be kind to us , light wind from SW so we'll go clockwise I guess, to increase our options for cake and beer stops


This

(the hills are really not bad at all, and you don't really notice them as the views are so nice)

filled me with confidence, until I read this

whilst running 70 miles or so!

 

[Hummers]

Just focus on the cake and beer.


H

[Gaston Lagaffe]

The weather was overcast with the promise of some sunshine.  We headed out of Shanklin around 9:30, clockwise as the wind was light we had a rather steep climb out, which was a bit of a shock.

The first 10 miles were quite hilly and were a bit start stop as we regrouped after each climb.  Once we hit the military Road it was much easier to stay together at a steady pace.  We had decided not to visit the needles so headed up to Yarmouth using the roads rather than the official route.  We stopped at The Gossips Cafe in Yarmouth for coffee and cake and sat outside in sunshine for a short rest.

Reaching Cowes we crossed on the chain ferry having missed it by less than a minute.  We decided to go a bit further before stopping for some lunch, and headed out following the official route plotted on my Garmon 500.  Up until then it had worked OK, but just as we were weaving out of Cowes the screen decided to go blank, never to return.  Thgis proved a bit inconvenient as we had no map!  We picked up te signs for the official route, but quickly lost them again, so just rode from memory.

We took a wrong turn and ended up in Brading, which had little open, at that point we decided rather than head out to Bembridge as planned we would head directly to Sandown where we stoped on the seafront for a sandwich, and a well earned beer.

The weather by now was overcast and chilly so we were quite pleased to be nearly home, we rode along the seafront to Shanklin where had an extemely steep climb up a footpath to Shanklin.

Overall, a nice day ride.  The official route didn't seem particularly well signed, and as others have said, misses out a lot of the best places.  I think we would have been better to follow the coast to Ryde.  The condition of the roads was very poor in places.
   

[Pancho]

"Overcast and chilly"? Is this a delayed report or has the IOW been moved to Scotland without me noticing? I'm sitting looking out over the Solent and we've been baking our tits off for the past couple of weeks. I'd give my right arm for a bit more "chilly" and a bit less factor-50.

Glad you had a good ride and thanks for the report (I love ride reports of normal, non-audax, non-superhero rides).

[Gaston Lagaffe]

It was last Saturday, I was the only one in short sleeves!!!!  That was only for half the ride as I put my armwarmers back on at Cowes.  I did manage to get a little pink on one calf muscle when the sun briefly made an appearance, and Sunday morning was decidedly wet.

If that's "baking your tits off" in the IoW, I won't be going back