Author Topic: 200km for £1, Jan 4th  (Read 3953 times)

200km for £1, Jan 4th
« on: 30 November, 2019, 11:17:05 am »
Spend a day at the sales, whilst out on your bike. Route specificly chosen for potential winter conditions. Hot & cold food/drink available at all controls, just in case the day is a bit on the chilly side.

The first stage heads north from Tewkesbury along Worcestershire lanes for a breakfast stop at Rowberry's Nursery. Then quiet rural roads through 'Shakespear's County' and lunch at M40 services (Warwick South). The rest of the ride is spent in the Cotswolds with an afternoon stop at The Old Mill Cafe in Chipping Norton. after a few more undulations the final part of enjoying The Cotswolds is descending Soudley hill to Winchcombe - The ancient capital of Mercia. The final dozen kilometers are a gentle 'warm-down as you traverse  The Upper Severn Vale back to The Royal Hop Pole in Tewkesbury, where Mr. Pickwick drank too much ale.

All controls are well experienced in catering for audax riders.

Instant validation available for this event, so no need for brevet return SAE, if you use GPS - route/track files supplied. Routesheet also supplied electronicly (MS Xls) - so no need for route-return SAE. Or go completely electronic and use paypal. I don't know how so much cycling entertainment can be crammed-into one ride for only a pound.
where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #1 on: 30 November, 2019, 07:23:44 pm »
 ::-) Yup, I'm in
I dunno why anybody's doing this!

Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #2 on: 07 December, 2019, 05:26:20 pm »
I'm in, although I'll be DNS if it is icy, I well remember 2018, when the lanes on the first section were lethal, I went down in the dark and walked for a bit and another poor soul was walking in front of me when he fell over!

Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #3 on: 09 December, 2019, 11:07:02 am »
That may have been me.... Landed on bike hard enough to bend a drop and write off front wheel, never knew my ribs were that robust  :facepalm:

Wobbled my painful way slowly via main roads back to home after that!

Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #4 on: 09 December, 2019, 11:34:38 am »
I'm in and hopefully third time lucky.

2018 I was ill and DNS.
2019 punctures and and evil headwind on the last stage made me finish outside the time limit (excessive consumption of mince pies during December may also have been a factor  :-[ )


Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #5 on: 10 December, 2019, 08:02:46 pm »
Please note that I will be giving riders a miserable reception when they arrive at the Chaddesley Corbett control.  I will also be holding up riders unnecessarily whilst I faff around attempting to find a stamp, then find my reading glasses, pretend that I cannot read the registration list to tick the name off and then complain to the participant that they are clearly inexperienced audaxers.  It's called audax tradition.
Organiser of Droitwich Cycling Club audaxes.  https://www.droitwichcyclingclub.co.uk/audax/

Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #6 on: 10 December, 2019, 08:20:42 pm »
I'd be in, but I'm a chicken when it comes to descending Sudeley Hill in the dark.

Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
  • Overseaing the building of the death star
Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #7 on: 10 December, 2019, 08:27:51 pm »
Please note that I will be giving riders a miserable reception when they arrive at the Chaddesley Corbett control.  I will also be holding up riders unnecessarily whilst I faff around attempting to find a stamp, then find my reading glasses, pretend that I cannot read the registration list to tick the name off and then complain to the participant that they are clearly inexperienced audaxers.  It's called audax tradition.

I miss Chaddesley Corbett

Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #8 on: 10 December, 2019, 09:44:41 pm »
I'd be in, but I'm a chicken when it comes to descending Sudeley Hill in the dark.
Try descending it covered in snow, sitting on your top tube 😩
Bikes are for riding, not cleaning!

Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #9 on: 11 December, 2019, 08:26:11 am »
I'd be in, but I'm a chicken when it comes to descending Sudeley Hill in the dark.
Try descending it covered in snow, sitting on your top tube 😩
I wouldn't put myself in danger doing a silly thing like that?   O:-)

Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #10 on: 11 December, 2019, 02:02:29 pm »
I'm in, although I'll be DNS if it is icy, I well remember 2018, when the lanes on the first section were lethal, I went down in the dark and walked for a bit and another poor soul was walking in front of me when he fell over!

I rode this that year. Did not find it too bad.

Now two years before descending Sudeley Hill in thick fog ...............

Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #11 on: 31 December, 2019, 12:34:31 pm »
I descended Sudeley Hill yesterday behind a tractor and trailer so I had plenty of time to observe the state of the broken road on the left, it extends to up to four feet or so in places on the steepest section through the woods. The other side of the road also has sections of broken road on the way up. As a result, you need to be careful in the dark on Saturday because not only will you have to avoid getting too close to the left to avoid the broken road but vehicles coming up the hill are likely to be in the centre of the road as they try to avoid the broken road on their side. So my recommendation is to take it very steady and be prepared to stop if necessary.

Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #12 on: 05 January, 2020, 12:44:55 pm »
I was pleased to get round on my first 200 km ride since July and finish in a respectable (for me) time, I arrived at Mark's table at 7.15 pm. In the past I have arrived at 9.00 pm (out of time of course) and within 5-10 minutes of the cut off. The conditions were benign for January, so that was a bonus compared to torrential rain and ice on past editions. I didn't notice any wind until a fellow rider commented on the headwind as our paths crossed on the bridle way under the A46. After that I found headwinds all over the place! I chatted to Ben from the Winchcombe CC at the Old Mill Cafe and he mentioned that he didn't like the section from Lower Swell. That didn't ring any bells with me but of course he meant the section between Stow on the Wold and the right turn for The Quarry, that is a fast busy road with some steep hills and a rough surface and some cars don't bother to dip their headlights so I was glad to see the Quarry sign and get off it.

I managed to get down Sudeley Hill nice and slowly in the dark, I had been worried about oncoming vehicles but there weren't any so that problem did not arise. However the constant flow of water over the road surface (from springs I assume) is not doing it any good and if we have a hard frost that will finish off the job and make the road unusable.

All in all a good day and thanks of course to Mark for organising and to my fellow riders for their company.

Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #13 on: 05 January, 2020, 12:59:44 pm »
We had a good ride.  Neither of us particularly fit, but the weather was benign.  The Black Hallett (my new bike) coped very well with potholes and the like, with its 38mm tyres (not that I didn't ride round them where possible). 
Thanks to Mark.

S2L

Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #14 on: 05 January, 2020, 02:20:04 pm »
but of course he meant the section between Stow on the Wold and the right turn for The Quarry, that is a fast busy road with some steep hills and a rough surface and some cars don't bother to dip their headlights so I was glad to see the Quarry sign and get off it.


Not sure why Mark recommends the busy B road when there is a very usable and scenic lane from Lower Swell down to Guiting Power... it's used in other Brevets too, like LWL for example. Might be a case of gritting, but certainly not an issue yesterday

Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #15 on: 05 January, 2020, 06:32:20 pm »
but of course he meant the section between Stow on the Wold and the right turn for The Quarry, that is a fast busy road with some steep hills and a rough surface and some cars don't bother to dip their headlights so I was glad to see the Quarry sign and get off it.


Not sure why Mark recommends the busy B road when there is a very usable and scenic lane from Lower Swell down to Guiting Power... it's used in other Brevets too, like LWL for example. Might be a case of gritting, but certainly not an issue yesterday

Routes aren't decided 'on the day'.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #16 on: 06 January, 2020, 04:02:24 pm »
but of course he meant the section between Stow on the Wold and the right turn for The Quarry, that is a fast busy road with some steep hills and a rough surface and some cars don't bother to dip their headlights so I was glad to see the Quarry sign and get off it.
Not sure why Mark recommends the busy B road when there is a very usable and scenic lane from Lower Swell down to Guiting Power... it's used in other Brevets too, like LWL for example. Might be a case of gritting, but certainly not an issue yesterday
Routes aren't decided 'on the day'.

And it's reasonable to expect cold weather around that date. Fair risk management IMHO.

S2L

Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #17 on: 06 January, 2020, 05:18:30 pm »
Regardless of which route you choose after Stow, you are bound to hit  non gritted lanes afterwards, on the way back to the arrivee

Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #18 on: 24 February, 2020, 11:28:42 am »
Some good news about Sudeley Hill, I cycled down it yesterday and lo and behold it has been resurfaced after many years of deterioration so that cyclists were forced to ride almost in the centre of the road. So you can now whizz down if you wish, in my case I will creep down as usual but on the left hand side of the road rather than towards the middle.

Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #19 on: 24 February, 2020, 04:11:25 pm »
Some good news about Sudeley Hill, I cycled down it yesterday and lo and behold it has been resurfaced after many years of deterioration
Is it resurfaced all over, or just one side? Recently I ridden up its adjacent hill (Corndean Lane).

Re: 200km for £1, Jan 4th
« Reply #20 on: 27 February, 2020, 07:16:38 am »
Sudeley Hill has been fully resurfaced across the full width of the road from the start of the wooded section down to beyond the farm. I know Corndean Lane pretty well and it is somewhat battered but it is not as bad as Sudeley Hill was before the repair work.