[HAMR] Another go .. TG??

[Chris S]

AFAIK, there's nothing in the rules about "spirit". It's a distance record, nothing more or less than that - so Amanda's record is every bit as "In the spirit" as Kurt's was, or Steve's might be. Riding in circles for a year might be seen as being "easier" than riding open roads with hills and traffic; equally you could argue that Steve is making it difficult for himself if what he wants to do is beat the record.

I'm inclined to agree with Wowbagger - I think Steve is out to beat Godwin in as close a riding style as he can - no more or less than that.

[Bianchi Boy]

AFAIK, there's nothing in the rules about "spirit". It's a distance record, nothing more or less than that - so Amanda's record is every bit as "In the spirit" as Kurt's was, or Steve's might be. Riding in circles for a year might be seen as being "easier" than riding open roads with hills and traffic; equally you could argue that Steve is making it difficult for himself if what he wants to do is beat the record.

I'm inclined to agree with Wowbagger - I think Steve is out to beat Godwin in as close a riding style as he can - no more or less than that.

We are in danger of splitting the record into the 'hair shirt' record and the 'comfy chair' record. It is like (and I was not there) when Hungry beat England and the ticky Hungarians did not wear proper boots - we were just overtaken by progress, the world changes and Steve is old school and more like us - so we like him better 

BB

[Nuncio]

Slightly confused for a while just now when I had a Google News alert for Steve from the Baton Rouge Advocate.

   
Latest: Majority Whip Steve Scalise out of surgery, remains in 'critical condition,' hospital says
The Advocate
“He may not be at a full speed for a while, but as you well know, full speed for the rest of us is three quarters speed for Steve,” Abraham said. U.S. Rep.

[Martin]

According to the OYTT site he's still making an attempt on the HAMR although doesn't say if the overall or the age group although doesn't he already hold that?

[Bianchi Boy]

According to the OYTT site he's still making an attempt on the HAMR although doesn't say if the overall or the age group although doesn't he already hold that?

See I am not the only one at the moment who is a little uncertain as to what Steve is trying to achieve this year 

BB

[TheRedEyeJedi]

The bloke is regularly knocking out 230 miles per day.  His power looks good and his speed is up which is increasing his chances to recover each day.  His diet is excellent and his health and mental state looks positive from what we are shown.

He needs an eye watering 240 miles plus average from here on in to keep pace but a couple of really big summer months will put him easily ahead of the average.  If he got anywhere near to Godwins summer months you would make him big favorite to take the record from there.   As he is not being motor paced then you have to think it is unlikely but if he got within 30 miles per day of Godwins best months he would get the asking rate back to something more manageable.

Lots of ifs and buts but I think we need to give the guy a break.  He's clearly going for the overall record and is actually having a damn good go at it.   Yes, the odds are against him because he is up against a great rider who rode under conditions that Steve is unable or unwilling to replicate.

This is the second best year record attempt in the history of the record and its very, very impressive.   

[DaveE128]

I thought TG's tracker must be down as he posted a ride on Strava yesterday but https://frrt.org/tg/riders?offset=100&limit=50 shows last report 3 days ago...

However http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0xphW4GIkuk1vBUF3WeNCy1puogaR4PDv shows up to date tracking - must be the ivanoscope that's down.

[Neil C]

I too was worried when TG appeared to have stopped in the middle of nowhere for a very long time but then a day or two later the Strava rides were still coming through.

I believe Ivan is riding in Ireland at the moment so I'll have to live without my regular viewing of the Ivanoscope.
https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=103081.msg2165197#msg2165197

Keep pedalling TG and Ivan.

[rogerzilla]

Only BRITISH records count for anything 

[SoreTween]

Week 15:

This was an interesting week not least because Steve posted update 12 to youtube.  Audio only as he's still DEATH of technology.  He confirmed that week 14, in which he battled against constant winds, took a significant toll on him.  Even switching to night rides in week 14 did not give any respite.  At the end of that week he was well down on speed, sleep and energy.
Into week 15 the winds remained strong on Saturday and in the early hours of Sunday morning still far from home Steve took a nap in a bus shelter.  After the 70 miles home in the small hours he switched the alarm off and went to bed and slept for 20 hours.  He did this knowing he would sleep through the last day for which strong winds were forcast.  He chose recovery over another day of poor reward for maximum effort.
On Monday he was fast, his average speed was over 28 kph.  He rode good distance, had very little stop time and was home around 11PM.  Tuesday he repeated this. He said in his video audio recorded on Wednesady this was a strategy to get his speed back up; Go fast, don't stop and sleep more. Even so on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday normality was restored - average speeds were around 26.5 (par for Steve),  he had a bit more stop time and finish times around midnight.

He recovered a bit of Sundays lost miles on his fast days but not a lot.  His total for the week was 1414.3 or 202 per day, the lowest yet this year.  More proof that it is not the climbing that is most significant, it's the wind.

One last interesting tidbit from update 12, Steve said that he was 800 miles down on where he should be this year. That was Wednesday 14th, he was 783.5 miles down on Amanda after 103 days. 
At the end of week 15 he was:

1740 down vs the Coker line
1280 ahead of the Searvogel line
1571 ahead of the Godwin line

[Martin]

According to the OYTT site he's still making an attempt on the HAMR although doesn't say if the overall or the age group although doesn't he already hold that?

See I am not the only one at the moment who is a little uncertain as to what Steve is trying to achieve this year 

BB

For the current attempt it's now simply impossible for Steve to achieve the HAMR, end of

[Jaded]

For his age (and for all men) it is not impossible. End of.

[Martin]

For his age (and for all men) it is not impossible. End of.

so his goal is just to beat Tommy and / or Kurt?

doesn't say that on the OYTT website

[SoreTween]

For the current attempt it's now simply impossible for Steve to achieve the HAMR, end of

No.  After 105 days Steve was 1740 miles behind the Coker line drawn at 237.19 miles per day. After 105 days Amanda was behind that line too, by 916 miles. If Steve is planning to ramp to match Amanda he doesn't need to worry about 1740 miles, only the 800 he is behind Amanda and his own plan now. That's 3 miles a day he needs to add to his plan for the rest of the year. Impossible?

The pan flat circuit Amanda uses has been well discussed. The other advantage she has used is riding with and drafting others. There's no flat circuit suitable in the UK (ignoring that Steve wouldn't want it) but there's no shortage of very talented riders. Who fancies organising a 400 from Milton Keynes every Saturday? Bonus points for completion in exactly 14 hours, Steve's preferred active time.

[jsabine]

Even 1740 miles is 'only' seven miles a day until the end of the year, but the fact he's 800 miles behind the plan means he's been averaging 8 miles a day less than intended. That surely can't be a good thing.

(As noted above, of course, it's still hugely impressive as a feat. All the best to him ...)

[Ivan]

I too was worried when TG appeared to have stopped in the middle of nowhere for a very long time but then a day or two later the Strava rides were still coming through.

I believe Ivan is riding in Ireland at the moment so I'll have to live without my regular viewing of the Ivanoscope.
https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=103081.msg2165197#msg2165197

Keep pedalling TG and Ivan.

Yes, halfway into my ride, colleagues decided to reconfigure the network where my server lives (like it really needs 40Gb connectivity!), so faced with email alerts every 10 minutes had to shut it down - sorry about that.

Normal service should now be restored. Note that I am now (well, once the National 400 is out of the way) working flat out in my spare time on changes for TCR so there maybe some visible changes and short interruptions to the service as I push various upgrades out.

[Martin]

yes it's mathematically possible for Steve to average 244 miles a day for the rest of the attempt (even though we have now passed the longest day and there is autumn / winter to come), I haven't seen a daily mileage log anywhere but looking at the graph on Cyclechat it looks like he's only done that sort of mileage on 13 days since the attempt started.

[Ian H]

All the encouragement from friends, acquaintances, and other cyclists does of course help.

[Basil]

I only look at this one
http://bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?lnk=http://frrt.org/tg/data/riders/1-steve/route.gpx
So I don't know time or speed, but today's distance looks good.

[jsabine]

All the encouragement from friends, acquaintances, and other cyclists does of course help.

I'm sure that it does. It's a fantastic achievement so far, it compares very well to his previous shots at it, and as someone else said up there^^^ somewhere it's the second best start we've seen *ever.*
</straight bat>



Maybe I read your post as much more sardonic than you intended. Maybe I'm too cynical. But I don't think that reasoned discussion is something to be criticised.

I think most people here are cheerleaders for Steve and his achievements and his aspirations, but that doesn't mean it can't be tempered with a recognition that, however good his start has been, it's left beating Amanda's total an even bigger challenge than it was at the start of the year.

[Jaded]

All the encouragement from friends, acquaintances, and other cyclists does of course help.

+1

[SoreTween]

yes it's mathematically possible for Steve to average 244 miles a day for the rest of the attempt (even though we have now passed the longest day and there is autumn / winter to come), I haven't seen a daily mileage log anywhere but looking at the graph on Cyclechat it looks like he's only done that sort of mileage on 13 days since the attempt started.

My spreadsheet is here:
www.soretween.altervista.com/misc/Steve.xlsx

He has 10 rides recorded over 240 miles, 17 calendar days over and something over 22 'Steve days' over 240 miles.  The latter is contiguous rides that straddle days. Contiguous is defined (arbitrarily by me) as having a gap between rides of less than 2 hours.  My spreadsheet is not correctly adding up 'Steve days' that involve >2 rides.

[Basil]

The Ivanoscope has gone a bit suddenly.  It was ok until about an hour ago, now Steve has suddenly ridden from mk to Cirencester twice.

[Ivan]

Sorry, tried to update the code over my lunch break and it all went a bit pear shaped just before I was called into an interview. Should be ok now.

[Nuncio]

It is thanks.  Looks like a jaunt to the Cotswolds today and a return tomorrow? Making use of the NE winds today and a westerly tomorrow?