Author Topic: [HAMR] More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)  (Read 75079 times)

Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #50 on: 12 January, 2016, 08:43:22 am »
So this is a time-constrained rugby match? Forgive me, I hadn't noticed.


  ;D

Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #51 on: 12 January, 2016, 08:46:53 am »
I think this thread is failing to live up to its title. It should be "thoughts on locking rambling maybe circular threads which otherwise are what forums/fora are all about." A bit of a mouthful I admit.

TimC

  • Old blerk sometimes onabike.
Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #52 on: 12 January, 2016, 09:13:49 am »
I think this thread is failing to live up to its title. It should be "thoughts on locking rambling maybe circular threads which otherwise are what forums/fora are all about." A bit of a mouthful I admit.
But a great title, nonetheless! But point taken; I will desist.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #53 on: 12 January, 2016, 09:19:02 am »
So this is a time-constrained rugby match? Forgive me, I hadn't noticed.

well there didn't seem to be many thoughts on the thread title (I don't think we're allowed any more), so I was just rambling until something else came along
 ;D
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #54 on: 12 January, 2016, 09:43:29 am »
So this is a time-constrained rugby match? Forgive me, I hadn't noticed.

Indeed, let's get back to discussing whether Mods should or should not leave messages in threads that they've locked.

Or, how about anyone posting something novel or otherwise furthering the discussion about the current record attempt(s).
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #55 on: 12 January, 2016, 09:52:09 am »
Looking at the way Bruce is going about this is quite interesting.    Basically he has a long flat lead out towards the mountains where he is regularly over 20mph.  Then his speed and effort is very steady as he climbs long, steady gradients ....hes then exploding onto the descents and flat at the end.

That is vastly different from what Steve and Kurt are/were up to - Steve just doesn't have the terrain for that kind of thing.

Seems very sensible though.  I heard Bruce talking about getting light and being ready for climbing and that seemed a bit weird compared to what Kurt was doing successfully at the time.   Seems to me that if you are a great climber, and then you find a route with long, steady climbs that you can go up at half effort - then you get a massive pay off once you reach the top and get long, cheap 30-40mph sections in the latter half of your day.

The efforts he is putting in are likely to keep him sharp and fast too - I don't think he is going to suffer from the de-training that I fear Steve has suffered from.   I guess it will come down to how he can sustain these efforts over the course of a year - Kurt seemed to handle it well enough!

The choice of location for Bruce seemed odd on first reading of his elevation stats but when you look at the climbs he has picked it could be a bit of a master stroke.

His distances and speeds to start off with are pretty astonishing

TimC

  • Old blerk sometimes onabike.
Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #56 on: 12 January, 2016, 09:57:42 am »
Bruce is an ex-pro, I believe (Sigma Sport), and currently either an Elite or 1st Cat rider, and his riding reflects that pedigree. Obviously he's very comfortable with hard riding, and he'd probably regard 30kmh as a relatively low average speed, even though it's beyond most of us. Given the discussions in the old thread about how a pro would fare, I suggest Bruce will go a long way towards answering that.

Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #57 on: 12 January, 2016, 09:59:54 am »
Any discussion is essentially window dressing. The progress of the attempt is graphically displayed at the thread at the top of the page. Sports analogies have been made, but it's actually more like the sort of presentation you see on the financial pages.
Kurt and Alicia countered this by humanising their efforts in a series of wobbly videos with wind noise. Steve has no appetite for that, any such videos have come from Idai. Discussion has clustered around the stats, as if we were living in the era when a test match in Australia was reported by telex.

Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #58 on: 12 January, 2016, 10:00:52 am »
Bruce's plans will have to change as he's due to come over to the UK for the (Northern Hemisphere) summer months. If he bases himself in SW London again then there's no nice long steady mountain climbs at the end of a flat section.
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #59 on: 12 January, 2016, 10:02:46 am »
Bruce is an ex-pro, I believe (Sigma Sport), and currently either an Elite or 1st Cat rider, and his riding reflects that pedigree. Obviously he's very comfortable with hard riding, and he'd probably regard 30kmh as a relatively low average speed, even though it's beyond most of us. Given the discussions in the old thread about how a pro would fare, I suggest Bruce will go a long way towards answering that.

I think it is great that we have already seen such vastly different approaches to the record.   You have Steve with the low HR, plodders, self supported method .... then Kurt with the closed roads, group laps and the RV supported long wind assisted straights ... and even Miles with the train transfers was interesting.  Now Bruce who seems to be riding the kind of routes you would see during a professional winter training camp - cant wait to see what approach he takes when he comes back to Britain.

Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #60 on: 12 January, 2016, 10:07:04 am »
The monthly mini-targets are rather misleading since they end up giving Steve 77149.5 - I'll have a stab at pro-rating them down to give a total of 76076

Achieving 77149.5 (given that ~30000 has been achieved already) would require 2.1% more mileage from this point on than 76076.  So I've knocked 2.1% off Steve's schedule for a JIT beating of the record (and it would be Just In Time, since he'd be approaching the Searvogel line from below)  The modified monthly target mileages are

Jan - 200.7
Feb - 217.0
Mar - 220.8
Apr - 232.0
May - 227.2
Jun - 229.6
Jul - 221.9
Aug - 205.6

(ETA - probably not massively different from just knocking 4.7 mpd off the scheduled mileages)

Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #61 on: 12 January, 2016, 10:13:45 am »


That's how to start the wrong kind of discussion , my friend.

TimC

  • Old blerk sometimes onabike.
Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #62 on: 12 January, 2016, 10:15:06 am »
Bruce's Garmin, yesterday:



Bum, that didn't work - try this:

Clicky

Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #63 on: 12 January, 2016, 10:21:16 am »


Bum, that didn't work - try this:


Yes, it did  :thumbsup:
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Aunt Maud

  • Le Flâneur.
Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #64 on: 12 January, 2016, 10:32:57 am »
I wonder if Chris Hopkinson is going to make an attempt ?

TimC

  • Old blerk sometimes onabike.
Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #65 on: 12 January, 2016, 10:44:50 am »

Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #66 on: 12 January, 2016, 10:51:54 am »
Bruce's Garmin, yesterday:

<snip image>

Bum, that didn't work - try this:

Clicky

Good, that seems to suggest that the Strava Mileage is about correct (assuming thats at the end of the ride) 340km = 211.3 miles, and Strava is showing exactly that for the 11th.

I've just updated https://goo.gl/RBHtiS with details from the UMCA Official results page, which now runs to the 4th of Jan, meaning that Steve's original distance has now been verified as 63568.2 miles. Kurt is still missing a few verified days, and oddly there's no mention of Bruce yet.

Bruce's twitter suggests that he's found Katusha today

Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #67 on: 12 January, 2016, 10:53:06 am »
Bruce is an ex-pro, I believe (Sigma Sport), and currently either an Elite or 1st Cat rider, and his riding reflects that pedigree. Obviously he's very comfortable with hard riding, and he'd probably regard 30kmh as a relatively low average speed, even though it's beyond most of us. Given the discussions in the old thread about how a pro would fare, I suggest Bruce will go a long way towards answering that.

I tried to find some results for Bruce. He was 9th in a Surrey League race in 2003.
http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/UK/2003/sep03/sep14lesingman

That seems to be a Norwood Paragon promotion, Evans seemed to sponsor the series back then. They're more into sportives now.

Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #68 on: 12 January, 2016, 11:23:28 am »
Bruce is an ex-pro, I believe (Sigma Sport), and currently either an Elite or 1st Cat rider, and his riding reflects that pedigree. Obviously he's very comfortable with hard riding, and he'd probably regard 30kmh as a relatively low average speed, even though it's beyond most of us. Given the discussions in the old thread about how a pro would fare, I suggest Bruce will go a long way towards answering that.

I tried to find some results for Bruce. He was 9th in a Surrey League race in 2003.
http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/UK/2003/sep03/sep14lesingman

That seems to be a Norwood Paragon promotion, Evans seemed to sponsor the series back then. They're more into sportives now.

I know he is going to be blogging exclusively with Bikeradar which I suspect will mean he has some fairly professional coverage when back in Blighty and also some serious exposure.

I read quite a bit about him when he broke the month record last year...sounds an interesting story.   Also sounds like he had a promising pro career that got cut short ...that could mean he has much more mileage and desire left in the tank than your average ex pro

If everything goes to plan, Bruce Berkeley will soon hold the Guinness World Record for the greatest distance ever ridden in a month. He already holds the record for the most kilometres cycled in a week — 2,825km which he managed in the UK last year — and in the past three weeks, Berkeley has clocked up 6,615.3km (as of January 22, 2015).

So why exactly is Berkeley putting himself through the challenge of riding more than 300km a day? He simply wants to get the record.

“There’s not an official month record right now. When I applied for the record they [the Guinness Book of World Records] said to me I have to do at least 5,000km,” Berkeley said. “But if you look on Strava there are lots of people who have done that in a single month.”

“So I took it in my head that 10,000 would be a good figure. People don’t do 10,000km and you don’t see that come up on Strava. The most I’ve ever seen is seven [thousand kilometres] so I thought around about 10,000km was good.”

“That’ll be a big push in the last week.”

To really get a sense of why he’s doing this, you need to know Berkeley’s backstory.

Originally from New Zealand but having lived in the UK for 21 years, Berkeley once raced at a high level with Sigma-Sport, a UK Continental team. After his racing career he opened up a bike shop with two business partners whom he didn’t know as well as he thought.

“My two business partners got arrested for a case that was worth £350 million (AUD$655 million) if you can believe it”, Berkeley told CyclingTips. “It sounds like a story you’d hear in a movie. It wasn’t to do with the bike shop, it had to do with previous business dealings.”
And that’s when Berkeley’s life went into a downward spiral.

“I lost everything. My relationship, my business … then I began hitting the bottle and drinking far too much. It went on for a couple years and thought ‘I’m not going to live much longer like this’ so I just woke up one day and decided to change things and I was brought back to cycling.”

Disinterested in competitive racing, Berkeley looked to other challenges to motivate his riding. He began ticking off Strava challenges which gave him an outlet to keep his competitive side satisfied.

“I’m a bit too old now to think about racing now and have already raced at a decent level, so for me I know I’m not going to be good at that side of cycling at my age. This is something I enjoy and I can do on my own time…as much as you can enjoy 315km a day!”

And he has been enjoying it. The combination of Sportful knicks and a Selle Italia SLR saddle on a Canyon Ultimate CF SLX has been keeping him going.

“I’m feeling good now. You have good and bad days. Up until now I’ve been chasing the miles a bit and today I had a really nice ride and didn’t think about the miles and went on some good roads even though it might be a bit slower.”

“It lets you enjoy it more. With the Tour Down Under starting it sure has given me some energy.”
Berkeley spends an average of 11 hours a day on the bike but even then, he says, the pace he must maintain is much higher than most people would imagine.

“I’ve been averaging 18mph a day so far (29km/h). If I get a bit tired I have a stop, toss in some food and then get back going agin. I’m not keeping track of the calories I’m burning every day. I’m just eating every time I’m hungry.”

“With this type of slow burn stuff I’m doing it’s better just to stop and eat properly rather than use all them nutrition products. I always have some stuff in my back pocket so that if I’m hungry I can just snack away in-between.”

So what’s the next challenge for Berkeley? He says he’d like to tick off an “Everesting” in Chang Mai in a few weeks while on his way back to England. Then he’ll return home to continue working on his small business called Cycle Doctor; a mobile repair centre which focuses on high-end bikes.

“It allows me the freedom to ride my bike and have the lifestyle I want and I’m not chasing the dollars”

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #69 on: 12 January, 2016, 11:29:37 am »
Kurt and Tommy Godwin will probably have beaten 10000k in a month, and Steve as well, I would guess, as incidentals in their quest for the year record. I reckon Kurt's 15/11/2015-15/12/2015 would be well up there. He was over a Godwin for every day that month.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #70 on: 12 January, 2016, 11:34:23 am »
In another article about Bruce it mentions Tommy doing more than 13,000km in one month.

Like the UMCA, Guinness don't recognise any past records as they've got no idea whether they were done to the same level of proof required for the new attempts.

Aha: http://road.cc/content/news/141773-bruce-berkeley-rides-nearly-10000km-january-set-new-guinness-world-record

Quote
That’s actually some distance short of the 13,813 kilometres that Tommy Godwin rode in 1939 on his way to establishing a new record for distance ridden in a year, and the likelihood is that Berkeley’s mark will be beaten at some point this year by Steve Abraham and Kurt Searvogel.

Kurt didn't get near that and nor will Steve. It's 276 miles per day over a 31 day month.
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #71 on: 12 January, 2016, 11:36:35 am »
Kurt and Tommy Godwin will probably have beaten 10000k in a month, and Steve as well, I would guess, as incidentals in their quest for the year record. I reckon Kurt's 15/11/2015-15/12/2015 would be well up there. He was over a Godwin for every day that month.

Kurt has since beaten his record that was just under 10000k ...Im not sure if Steve has done that yet?
I think Bruce was done under Guinness though so I guess he still has their record?

Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #72 on: 12 January, 2016, 11:43:42 am »
Bruce sounds like the usual 'Redemption' story. He's made some mistakes in his life, and he's come to terms with them through cycling.

It fits with the story arc of the leisure cyclist. Inspired by Cav, then Wiggo, but got dropped doing any sort of competitive cycling, and has now settled with Strava.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Guinness Book of Records, clearly anything before that is outside their ambit.


Re: More thoughts on the current record attempt(s)
« Reply #74 on: 12 January, 2016, 02:59:04 pm »
Bruce would seem to have been called Dave back in the early 2000s.

He seemed to peak in the Surrey League 5 day in 2003. With a good showing on day 3.
http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/UK/2003/aug03/aug15-19evanssurrey5day033

Quote
The afternoon's stage of 84 miles around the South Downs saw a breakaway group of 13 riders go clear in the opening miles and build a lead that at one time exceeded 4 minutes. Most of the main teams were represented in the break with VC St Raphael, Energy Cycles, Evans RT and Parrot Print RT each having two riders but the greatest beneficiary looked to be Dave Berkeley (Sigma Sport RT) who looked like becoming the new race leader. However, in an exciting finale the main bunch reduced the group's lead to less than two minutes and at the finish Justin Hoy (Evans RT) produced an outstanding sprint to win the stage ahead of Timmy Barry (Ras Mumhan) and Berkeley.

He's a contemporary of Gethin Butler, who won that event in 2000. Bradley Wiggins rode that level of event at the time.

2003 was his big year, there are a few results from 2004, but nothing before. He's not listed as having a category, so may have held an NZ licence.
https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/points?person_id=28236&d=4&year=2003