Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Audax => Topic started by: wilkyboy on 21 September, 2017, 12:36:50 am
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This is the second running of The Richard Ellis Memorial Rides — 100km and 200km events in memory of Richard Ellis, who was unfortunately hit and fatally injured by an out-of-control car (http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/15011435.Cyclist_killed_a_mile_from_finish_line/)on 3 April last year. Writing that doesn't make it any better ...
The 200 is a circular route (http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/17-388/), starting in Great Dunmow and visiting The Orchard Tea Rooms in Granchester, Cambridge, then Maglia Rosso in Hawstead, then Mistley Park Tea Rooms in Manningtree, before returning to arrivée. This route covers classic Essex and Cambridgeshire roads, with a bit of Suffolk thrown in for good measure, and is harder than it looks on paper due to the rolling nature of Essex at its best ;)
The 100 is a mostly there-and-back (http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/17-387/) from Great Dunmow to Maglia Rosso. This proved very popular last year :thumbsup:
Richard's family will once again be manning the controls at Maglia Rosso and Mistley Park — from what they told me, they really enjoyed the event last year and it really meant something to them to be involved in something Rich had committed so much time and energy to.
I'll be stamping cards at the first control at Grantchester once more. I'm riding the routecheck this Saturday and will update the GPS files (http://www.camaudax.uk/tom/richard-ellis-memorial-200-2017/) in due course with any changes.
These are among the first events of the 2018 season and so are perfect to get some early points on the board and to keep the RRTY alive. Tomsk is currently catching up on Flatlands paperwork and I understand he's off this weekend scouting some new route or other, hence me posting on his behalf.
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Rode this lovely route with great stops last year coming over from Dorset. Best of all this ride will restore faith in human nature. Sorry I can't do it again but it's great.
Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk
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Link to last year's thread on yacf — https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=97455.0 (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=97455.0).
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Will there be food pre-ordering for the Maglia Rosso stop? That worked well last year, and the food was delicious.
This'll be my 3rd year in a row doing the 200km route, albeit the second time the event has run as the Richard Ellis Memorial ride. It is a great route with some lovely controls to look forward to.
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I'm back on the 100 with an ECE. I have an evening at the Oktoberfest in Chelmsford to be back for so will be aiming to get it all done ASAP and bank my RRtY ride for the month in the process.
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Will there be food pre-ordering for the Maglia Rosso stop? That worked well last year, and the food was delicious.
I believe so; Tomsk will be able to confirm when he's next online.
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Will there be food pre-ordering for the Maglia Rosso stop? That worked well last year, and the food was delicious.
This'll be my 3rd year in a row doing the 200km route, albeit the second time the event has run as the Richard Ellis Memorial ride. It is a great route with some lovely controls to look forward to.
New cafe staff at the M.R. - I have a menu to go out to riders in due course, but at present no need to pre-order. The Orchard Tea Garden at Grantchester is under new management too - they needed a bit of re-assurance that you wouldn't all arrive at once or need anything other than the usual scones, cake, tea and coffee. They're catering for the Grantchester 3k & 10k run [the next day I think], so a steep learning curve for them!
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This is my favourite Essex 200 for some reason - varied terrain, beautiful Grantchester stop followed by the Balsham hill challenge then that lovely bit on quiet back roads before the Maglia Rosa and then the terrific descent of the valley into Manningtree... It's a very good ride and I recommend it. Also, early points for the year while you still feel fit before winter :thumbsup: The presence of Richard's family last year was fantastic, happy to see that they are coming out again.
This year intending to ECE the 100 for variety...
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This year intending to ECE the 100 for variety...
I updated the GPS files for the 100 (http://www.camaudax.uk/tom/richard-ellis-memorial-100-2017/) this evening, just for you Al ;)
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Okay, route check done. Tom's doing another one next week, he said, if he gets time — he might need to, because there were three road closures in place, although two should definitely be gone before the event and the third might/not be there, but it's walkable if it is.
Overall this is a lovely, varied route. The first stage to Grantchester starts with a climb and then it's a fast, ever-so-gentle downhill on a fast-running surface all the way and usually has a tailwind. The Orchard Tea Rooms are expecting you — I'll be stamping cards, outside if it's dry, so no need to ask for receipts, which is good because they didn't know how to issue one yesterday ...
The second stage includes the long climb up to Balsham, the climb of the day — it's not hard, it just goes on a bit; I really started to feel my lack of fitness from being off the bike, injured from LEL, here. There are some really long, lovely laney sections all the way to Hawstead. The Maglia Rosso are expecting you for lunch and it should be great, they're always good. They have saddle-hanging bike-parking, and there's an outside tap to fill your bidons from.
The third stage to Mistley Towers, Manningtree, starts to become more Essex-esque — short, hard ramps with no recovery on the other side. The scenery is lovely again, although more main-roady along this section. I have no experience of the café at Mistley park, as they're always closed when I get there. There's a garage another 2km further on if you need to stock up on sweeties, although you will still need to control at the café.
The final stage back to Great Dunmow is punchy — lots of short climbs and short descents, all packed close together — typical Essex. I felt it badly on this section, lack of energy and no longer fixed-wheel-fit. That hurt. But it was a great feeling to finally drop down into Dunmow and grab a receipt from The Angel and Harp :)
I ECE'ed the ride, and thought I might add in some bonus km to bring it up to 200 miles. In the end I had to work really hard (not that it shows in the averages), but managed to finish with 325km ridden in just under 16 hours elapsed — "that'll do, pig, that'll do."
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Good effort Nick! I never get as far as The 3 Elms when I 'ECE' Tom's starts... I just CBA with that last 10km home through Chelmsford and the beer is good LOL
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This year intending to ECE the 100 for variety...
I updated the GPS files for the 100 (http://www.camaudax.uk/tom/richard-ellis-memorial-100-2017/) this evening, just for you Al ;)
The long haul of preparing the 2018 events for the 1st October deadline is nearly over :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: I'll be emailing the revised route sheet and info to 200 and 100km riders later this week. And thank you for all your help Wilkyboy :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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This year intending to ECE the 100 for variety...
I updated the GPS files for the 100 (http://www.camaudax.uk/tom/richard-ellis-memorial-100-2017/) this evening, just for you Al ;)
Why thank you!
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I've just uploaded the final 2017 versions of the 200km GPS files here — http://www.camaudax.uk/tom/richard-ellis-memorial-200-2017/ (http://www.camaudax.uk/tom/richard-ellis-memorial-200-2017/) :thumbsup:
The route is the same as last year, just the exact positions of the beeps for the two info controls at Newport and Bures have changed from last year.
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We will be coming up from London not sure if anyone else is? Think we will get the train and ride over on Saturday.
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Hope the weather is as kind next Saturday as it was today.
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Drat missed the deadline, but hoping to ride if I can EoL.
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^ Special people who ask nicely can eol :D
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:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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Knees.... I am taking a month off the bike, like totally off, and doing some kneehab stretching etc so I won't be riding this weekend. Which means god knows when the Oct 200 for RRTY will work... doh.
Hope you all have a nice ride, disappointed to miss it.
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Knees.... I am taking a month off the bike, like totally off, and doing some kneehab stretching etc so I won't be riding this weekend. Which means god knows when the Oct 200 for RRTY will work... doh.
Hope you all have a nice ride, disappointed to miss it.
Sorry to hear that, I hope your remediation works well.
When I had a 6 week break last autumn, my first ride back was a 200km that caused knee issues which lasted a couple of months. So I would suggest you ease your way back up to 200km, although you've probably planned that already.
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Knees.... I am taking a month off the bike, like totally off, and doing some kneehab stretching etc so I won't be riding this weekend. Which means god knows when the Oct 200 for RRTY will work... doh.
Hope you all have a nice ride, disappointed to miss it.
Sorry to hear that, I hope your remediation works well.
When I had a 6 week break last autumn, my first ride back was a 200km that caused knee issues which lasted a couple of months. So I would suggest you ease your way back up to 200km, although you've probably planned that already.
Indeed! I think in retrospect I was quite lucky to get away with LEL, I had been aware of building postural issues fro a while but had *manfully* pushed them back.... now having to deal with the reailty of a body that has cycled for many years but not stretched or strengthened adequately. I will be short riding most of autumn and winter now I think. Need to be gracious with myself - did the thing I was really aiming for - and not get too worried about missing these fun rides :-)
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I`m sure you`ve made the right decision, sometimes you`ve got to be good to yourself. Enjoy your break and I hope you`re back cycling in the spring to cheer us all up.
I`ll be thinking of you as I grind along in the wind and rain tomorrow morning, wishing I was as sensible :facepalm:
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I`m sure you`ve made the right decision, sometimes you`ve got to be good to yourself. Enjoy your break and I hope you`re back cycling in the spring to cheer us all up.
I`ll be thinking of you as I grind along in the wind and rain tomorrow morning, wishing I was as sensible :facepalm:
Reset the clock, back to the first points for the year - must be quite a blow for you :-) I imagine I will be able to be doing winter ACME 100s without added ECE. You can't get shake me that easily...
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I`m sure you`ve made the right decision, sometimes you`ve got to be good to yourself. Enjoy your break and I hope you`re back cycling in the spring to cheer us all up.
I`ll be thinking of you as I grind along in the wind and rain tomorrow morning, wishing I was as sensible :facepalm:
Ah - happy talking from Captain Sensible.
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Well done to all finishers :thumbsup: Sorry about the autumnal flavour of the weather! It generally took about 10 minutes nursing a mug of hot coffee and grazing on cake, pizza, cake, peanuts, fruit and cake before colour returned...Lanterns Rouge made it with 8 minutes spare :thumbsup:
Thumbs down to those who packed and didn't let me know...
Thank you controllers: Wilkyboy at Grantchester, who then went on to ride a DIY 200, calling in at the arrivee en-route for home; The Ellis Family at the Maglia Rosso [and thank you for the wonderful homemade cakes at the end] - Mary, Tasha, Liam, Nikke, Lisa and not forgetting Ryan, wearing his grandad's PBP gilet; Brian Mann at the finish, resting his poorly knee and running the 'office' instead of up and down the stairs with the teapot. And Soupy and Jake for their help too, and Mrs Tomsk for clearing up at St Mary's Centre until 11:00pm. Early October 2018 for a repeat performance, tbc.
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Thank you Tom - and all of the helpers. Really beautiful riding for hour after hour until the rain started.
Having returned to Great Dunmow I failed to notice (I know) and continued to follow the purple line on my Garmin until it joined up with the blue line at one of the Eastons. I belatedly twigged that I had ridden three k unnecessarily. I've had a variety of problems with Garmin over the years but this was a new one for me - good to know that they can always surprise you.
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Big thank you to Tom for organising this ride, and for the marvellous support from Soupy, Jake, Nick, Ellis family and Mrs Tomsk. The TLC adds to the pleasure of the ride.
The weather stayed dry for longer than I was expecting, and the wind dropped during the leg back from Manningtree, so there were some positives on that front even though the rain was rather drenching.
The station buffet was a perfect venue for the Manningtree control stop, so hopefully this will be a free control in future years :thumbsup:
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As I was stamping cards at Grantchester, and I live just in Girton, Cambridge, I set off to ride to the control just after 9. Unfortunately, a few minutes tardiness getting away and an unexpectedly strong headwind, and I was pushing all the way there to arrive before the riders. I arrived at one minute to opening and a group of five riders had already been in, got receipts and were preparing to ride on! No-no-no-no-no! If the control's not open and you get PoP, you'll be DQ'ed at the end, guys! Pah, impatient lot ... anyway, I stamped them away at 10 and I heard from the Ellises that they arrived at Maglia Rosso before the control officially opened there, too :facepalm:
Most of the riders got to the first control within 20 minutes of it opening — the benefit of a strong cross-tailwind all the way up. A late starter meant I had to stay until ten minutes before the control closed anyway and I was there right through to closing time.
The next stage I rode the official REM route up Balsham hill and cross-country to Maglia Rosso in Hawstead. I thought this section had a strong tailwind and my pace certainly indicated meteorological assistance, but some of the riders I passed disagreed, eh? ??? The lanes from West Wickham all the way to Hawstead are some of my favourite riding in these parts :thumbsup:
I made up so much time on the run over that the Maglia Rosso was still heaving when I got there. They had REM 100 + 200 plus two club rides and had only just coped at the peak. They did apologise for this — unfortunately the tailwind kept the REM riders grouped together delivering them all at once, so it was an all-but impossible task to have served everyone immediately.
After I had eaten, I chatted with the Ellises — Mary and her three daughters, two grandsons, and boyfriend-in-law, until the last rider came through and they could close the control. As they drove away, I joked that I would race them to Great Dunmow.
My DIY route now followed the REM route to Monks Eleigh, where I went straight on as everyone else headed left, and aimed cross-country to rejoin the route at Bures, missing out Manningtree. I do a lot of solo riding, so this was normal, but I plotted a route that took in lots of new lanery for me. It was another lovely bit of countryside, only marred by the turn back into the wind — at first my tempo was pretty good, but as I came around into the wind then my speed dropped markedly — verging on embarrassing :facepalm:
After the Bures reunion, on the series of climbs that followed, I kept expecting to be caught — climbing into that wind on fixed-gear, I felt exposed. Instead, I caught a group of three as they stopped just before Halstead to put on rainproofs, although they passed me back fairly quickly and I couldn't hang on. I did pass a couple later who'd stopped at a shop. But the rain on this section put the dampeners on proceedings — at first it wasn't wet enough to really need 'proofs, but later I was too cold to risk stopping, as I suffer within a few seconds in those conditions, so I kept the pedals turning.
Eventually I rode into Great Dunmow and arrivée alone just after 6pm with 155km ridden to find the room full of thousand-yard stares, and as riders came in having spent even longer in the rain, the stares seemed to get longer still! At least Tomsk's pizzas and Mary's cakes took the edge off it and everyone eventually thawed out. It was good to see Brian on the desk — last time I saw him was at St Ives control on LEL. Tasha was helping him with the brevets. Mary was helping Tomsk and Soupy with the hospitality. The Ellises said they enjoyed the day out, as they did last year :thumbsup:
At this stage I still had 51km to ride home, but the rain seemed to be getting heavier, so I chose to wait it out. The clock was ticking — a 200km DIY gives 14 hours and I had already stopped for nearly three hours at the two controls. On the plus side, I had so far managed to ride every leg WITHOUT putting my foot down :)
After a couple of hours I decided to brave it, and, although it felt very cold, the skies had cleared and I had a moonlit ride all the way back to Cambridge along the B184 via Thaxted and Saffron Walden, getting home in just over two hours. I got held at traffic lights in Cambridge and did have to dab a couple of times, which was disappointing. Longest dab-free stage was MR to Dunmow — 77km :thumbsup:
All in all a really nice day out on the bike. It's always great fun stamping cards at a control and meeting everyone who's riding the event — you get to hear some of the little stories, mishaps and anecdotes, as well as meet old friends and make new ones. It can be a bit hectic at the first control, as everyone's still closely bunched, but riding over to the Maglia Rosso and it was much more relaxed and so I got to chat to a few over lunch :thumbsup:
It was really nice to catch with Mary, Lisa, Nikke and Tash and Ryan — Richard's PBP gilet nearly fits him now! — as well as meet two newcomers to the Ellis family from last year: Nikke's 10-week-old son Austin Richard, and Tash's boyfriend Liam.
The Orchard Tea Gardens said they are looking forward to seeing us again next year :thumbsup: in such contrast to Mistley Towers, who, from what I gathered, were a little less enthusiastic. Maglia Rosso were also very pleased to see everyone and are looking forward to the next one, too; just apologetic for any delays in getting food out during the crush.
As for the DIY — 207km in 13h26m, so allowing for minimum distance of 202, that's still a minute or two within 15kph time, even though DIYs are 14.3kph — I'll take that; still not a lot of time-in-hand at the end. Stopped time was a rather profligate 5h15m! But riding time a decent-enough 8h11m on fixed-gear, which I'm happy with (Strava (https://www.strava.com/activities/1220375273)). I do feel like I just rode a quick 400, though — I need to get my hydration and salts sorted, I just don't drink enough on the bike ...
Of course, thank you to Tomsk for organising, the Ellises, Mrs Tomsk, junior Tomsks for all their help, and cake, and to all the riders for turning up and riding :)
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Sadly this was my 2nd DNS and failure in Audax ever(in 20 years, 16 being an AUKer), all other rides I've entered, I've completed in time. Started Ok in that I got up and left the house at a plausable time to reach the start in time. It went wrong 1.5 miles from home when I hit some road rubbish on the only descent I do in Cambridge. It damaged the tyre in 3 places but I only spotted the first one. Fixed it which lasted as far as Saffron Walden. Fixed it again and this had to be a patch and was still on schedule to make the 100 start from which I could have made time up. Might have held up Wilkiboy at the first by the sounds of it though. Repeated twice before Thaxted where I found the last problem. Back on the road at 9:15 and not through Thaxted yet so I had to abandon getting to the start. I also didnt know how long the tyre was goin to last. That turned out to be the last problem and made it home by the non main road route. Got a light sprinkling of rain approaching Balsham and a bit chilly and windy but no fog which is typical of early starts this time of year.
Congrats to the ride completers, hope you all dried out Ok. I am envious because I've just worked out I prefer a torrid time getting to the finish and home to giving up, at least rectrospectively. I was looking forward to the controls on this one as well.
The other failure (in 2014) was the first West Highland 1000 because I had been smashed up in France a few weeks before and had broken bones so didn't make it out ofthe house for that one.
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Now that we're back home up North I'd just like to says a really big thanks to Tomsk and his band of helpers plus all the ACME for a great and really sociable event which gave me the chance to ride some old roads and some new with regular cake sampling venues along the way. The bonus of a free shower and bike wash a couple of hours before the finish was the only downside and even that was warm and wet so a grand day out and even pizza at the finish. Here's to many more next year. Many thanks everyone. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: