Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Audax => Topic started by: mcshroom on 02 January, 2015, 06:59:26 pm
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Just had a look at the Strava MTS leaderboard and Steve is currently 8th, 250km behind the current leader, and only 4th in the single-ride riders (the three longer rides were all in SE Asia)
I'm going to bet that changes rather a lot this evening :D
http://www.strava.com/challenges/368
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You don't suppose those other three single-ride riders are *also* going for Tommy Godwin's record do you? ;D
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Just had a look at the Strava MTS leaderboard and Steve is currently 8th, 250km behind the current leader, and only 4th in the single-ride riders (the three longer rides were all in SE Asia)
I'm going to bet that changes rather a lot this evening :D
http://www.strava.com/challenges/368
Guess who's just leapfrogged well ahead of the 57,000 or so riders ;D
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Kurt Searvogel's "HAM'R" attempt apparently starts on 10th January
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Ah, of course. Those are kilometres.
Bear in mind that those in the Far East have had a lot more daylight so far this year than we have - as well as a lot more hours! They are all well into 3rd Jan now.
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You don't suppose those other three single-ride riders are *also* going for Tommy Godwin's record do you? ;D
They could be the riders who did the Rapha 500 in one hit going from Singapore to Malaka and back.
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They are.
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You don't suppose those other three single-ride riders are *also* going for Tommy Godwin's record do you? ;D
Cycle_dr 1 is/was going for it. Reported on GCN.
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AS of typing Steve is leading
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He rode 227 Strava segments today but got ZERO KOMs. That's a shockong performamce Steve, pull your finger out!
;D
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Mind you have you noticed how his Strava following has quadrupled in the last 24hrs :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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Is there a list of routes Steve will be taking each day? Would be good to know where he's heading each day with a view to riding with him when he's in my neck of the woods
Nice to see I'm not the only one refreshing the tracker first thing to see where he's off to! Gonna be great to follow his progress
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I see that Cycle_dr 1 is still going great guns around the Adelaide area. He is back at the top of the Strava leader board again at the moment. I've seen a couple of comments from him, including one that he has had to dodge bush fires. I doubt that Steve will have to worry about that sort of thing today, or burning his fingers on his STI levers...
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Is there a list of routes Steve will be taking each day? Would be good to know where he's heading each day with a view to riding with him when he's in my neck of the woods
No:
but there is a thread on this board about "Riding With Steve" which has some of the answers to this.
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Is anyone looking after Steve when he gets back to his place each night?
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Is anyone looking after Steve when he gets back to his place each night?
Yes, but not every night [at this stage], according to the calender.
http://oneyeartimetrial.org.uk/calendar#year=2015&month=1&day=3&view=month
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I see that Cycle_dr 1 is still going great guns around the Adelaide area.
I think he is going for 7 day distance record (according to Facebook).
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I see that Cycle_dr 1 is still going great guns around the Adelaide area.
I think he is going for 7 day distance record (according to Facebook).
Has anyone told him he's 42.1k off the pace?
Think how pissed off you'd be if you had set out for such a record and then Steve Bloody Abraham came along and started his bid for the Tommy Godwin record in the same week. :demon:
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A point re Steve’s tweet earlier:
https://twitter.com/steve_abraham74/status/551489138470699009/photo/1
Should this not be directed to Raleigh UK @RaleighBikes_UK, assuming they are the providers of the bikes, rather than @RaleighBicycles, which is the American concern?
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Almost certainly. I expect the team will give Steve a nudge.
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Tommy Godwin. TeethGrinder.
Coincidence?
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I see that Cycle_dr 1 is still going great guns around the Adelaide area.
I think he is going for 7 day distance record (according to Facebook).
Has anyone told him he's 42.1k off the pace?
Think how pissed off you'd be if you had set out for such a record and then Steve Bloody Abraham came along and started his bid for the Tommy Godwin record in the same week. :demon:
According to Twitter, this is what he's doing:
Bruce @cycle_dr1 · Jan 1
So, can I ride 300K's plus, a day for a month? Let's find out #bigmiles
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Steve's taken a year off work to ride this, I think the reality is starting to dawn on me that I'll need to take a year off too just to feed my addiction to reading updates about him. Or at least, accept this is going to be a very low-productivity year as long as I'm working on a computer with an internet connection.
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I see that Cycle_dr 1 is still going great guns around the Adelaide area.
I think he is going for 7 day distance record (according to Facebook).
Has anyone told him he's 42.1k off the pace?
Think how pissed off you'd be if you had set out for such a record and then Steve Bloody Abraham came along and started his bid for the Tommy Godwin record in the same week. :demon:
Close of day 4, Cycle_dr 1 holds the lead by less than a mile!
(http://i.imgur.com/WuoJf1d.png)
http://app.strava.com/challenges/january-2015-mts-ride
Riveting!
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If Strava can't tell England from Australia can we trust it's more detailed info? ::-)
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He lives in Richmond, but is cycling down under at the moment. Nothing to do with Strava
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He's based in the UK but riding on Adelaide.
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I think Steve will be riding PBP?
If so, will there be people 'looking after' him? Easing him through controls, jumping food queues, etc?
Or is that not allowed, due to it being a nordax and all? Self sufficiently and all that. How's it going to work?
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Discussions are in progress to work out how Steve's potential delays can be minimised.
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Discussions are in progress to work out how Steve's potential delays can be minimised.
A wonderfully diplomatic response, LWB. :thumbsup:
Hush up for a bit, Basil. :)
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I must be doing it wrong. I'm not known for being diplomatic.
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Accidental diplomacy can be excused. If you'd done it deliberately, we'd all be wondering what had happened to the real LWaB.
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If so, will there be people 'looking after' him? Easing him through controls, jumping food queues, etc?
I think 750 miles in 3 days, which is a fairly normal PBP schedule for a strong-ish unsupported rider, would be a decent return for the time spent. The real problem is the time lost before the start, but I imagine a bit of diplomacy could help sort that out (helpers to log the bike through and 'sign in', while Steve is off riding bike No.2 to Mortagne and back, that sort of thing). Likewise, if Steve's attempt is demonstrably going to plan, I would have thought qualification might be waived too (it's been done before).
And it's perfectly possible to ride a 'lonely' PBP with very little or no queues at all. One year when Sheila and I rode together, at one control (I think it was Loudeac of all unlikely places) we literally were the only two riders in the entire control. We did this by setting off with the fast group, and dropping off the back - the next group behind us were the 90h starters and that year we had a 6-hour start on them.
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Trackleaders seems to no longer be displaying miles to date.
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Trackleaders seems to no longer be displaying miles to date.
As mentioned in other threads, trackleaders is shortest distance between the (infrequent) points and therefore is under reporting by about 8% a day. This difference is cumulative and therefore the total mileage to date on the trackleaders site is becoming less and less accurate and has been removed because it is causing confusion. Yes it is annoying not to be able to see the live distance covered but the difference is causing so many questions that the team can't justify showing an inaccurate figure.
ETA: it should be noted that the approximate distance can still be seen in the distance speed graph shown below the map, due to the scale of the axis this is probably approximate enough not to raise questions in comparison with the accurate distance travelled as logged by the GPS and uploaded to Strava.
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Yes, Fidgetbuzz mentioned somewhere on here that they'd removed it because its inaccuracy was confusing people.
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Just out of interest, is Steve getting input from a nutritionist at all?
Clearly - he's well into high energy-density foods which is great (can't believe KFC or McDs aren't sponsors yet!), but that's different to good nutrition. He's got to be giving his immune system a right battering, and it's surely important to keep that well fed too. Is he taking any supplements or anything?
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...can't believe KFC or McDs aren't sponsors yet
I don't think the appeal is there for their normal customer demographic. :demon:
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If so, will there be people 'looking after' him? Easing him through controls, jumping food queues, etc?
I think 750 miles in 3 days, which is a fairly normal PBP schedule for a strong-ish unsupported rider, would be a decent return for the time spent. The real problem is the time lost before the start, but I imagine a bit of diplomacy could help sort that out (helpers to log the bike through and 'sign in', while Steve is off riding bike No.2 to Mortagne and back, that sort of thing). Likewise, if Steve's attempt is demonstrably going to plan, I would have thought qualification might be waived too (it's been done before).
And it's perfectly possible to ride a 'lonely' PBP with very little or no queues at all. One year when Sheila and I rode together, at one control (I think it was Loudeac of all unlikely places) we literally were the only two riders in the entire control. We did this by setting off with the fast group, and dropping off the back - the next group behind us were the 90h starters and that year we had a 6-hour start on them.
I'm sure the team are considering all options, but I wonder if the 84 hour group might give the best compromise for Steve; it'll give an early start which is what he is used to anyway, rather than missing a night's sleep from the start. It'll then allow him to ride in more or less the same way that he is riding every day (i.e. ride in the day, sleep at night), plus allow him to get miles in the day before as well as the day of the bike check/registration...there's so much faffing around involved with PBP that I could completely understand if he decided to forego it altogether.
It puts it all into perspective that really PBP is just one little section of this massive challenge, rather than the massive challenge itself that it is for most riders!
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I would have suggested the 84h group as well. It would make it easier for Steve to put in a string of 3x400k days (250 miles). Probably a little shorter than he might like to be doing for that time of year. However, it gives him a bit of lattitude for control bulges, weather, mechanicals etc. It then means he'll be relatively rested for the return journey and to crack on with his record efforts.
I'm hoping that the PBP organisers will be keen to support Steve's efforts by offering a fast track bike check and registration, perhaps while he has some lunch.
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Discussions with ACP are ongoing. What actually happens is Steve's decision ultimately.
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Just out of interest, is Steve getting input from a nutritionist at all?
Clearly - he's well into high energy-density foods which is great (can't believe KFC or McDs aren't sponsors yet!), but that's different to good nutrition. He's got to be giving his immune system a right battering, and it's surely important to keep that well fed too. Is he taking any supplements or anything?
Chris raises a very good point.
Might be worth a thread on it's own.
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He's based in the UK but riding on Adelaide.
I had a look a one of his rides today: 232km with 249m elevation - that's flat!
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WTF is Jenny?
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Hoppo's girlfriend and a replacement in the support team.
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WTF is Jenny?
That's her at 1.14, coming through the Prees Heath roundabout on the Mersey Roads 24 2014 in this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ_azKRsBT4
Hoppo mentions her doing PBP with him from 8.32.
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Surely the time spent crossing the channel will be an irksome delay for steve? It will be time wasted, n'est-ce pas?
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Some crossings are quite short and Steve stops for meals and sleep anyway. He does want to do PBP if he can but not at the expense of the record.
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Promotion email from Travelodge: "52 WEEKS AHEAD. MAKE THEM COUNT!"
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He just needs to sync up with a support someone at the Chunnel terminal, and cross in their car. Could probably be optimised down to only an hour or so break.
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He just needs to sync up with a support someone at the Chunnel terminal, and cross in their car. Could probably be optimised down to only an hour or so break.
If he syncs up with someone in a camper van, he can sleep as well. If that camper van is available for support, then time wasted at controls is minimised.
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He just needs to sync up with a support someone at the Chunnel terminal, and cross in their car. Could probably be optimised down to only an hour or so break.
If he syncs up with someone in a camper van, he can sleep as well. If that camper van is available for support, then time wasted at controls is minimised.
Yes. Or he could just use the Newhaven ferry which goes overnight, and use that as his overnight stop.
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That would be my thought too. An hour is a bit of a poor choice break wise if he can manage a decent enough sleep stop.
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I used to catch the overnight coach Paris-London which used the ferry.
The children's soft play area (wall-to-wall matress) was generally unoccupied for the silly o'clock crossing.
But a longer crossing may be more sensible - I could sleep on the coach as well.
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now mentioned on GCN, :thumbsup:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=a1A552JG1Eo#t=251
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Have there been any other attempts since 1939?
Sorry if this information is hidden away in any of the other threads.
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Have there been any other attempts since 1939?
Sorry if this information is hidden away in any of the other threads.
Ken Webb claimed the record in 1971-2. The Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Webb#cite_ref-Cyc_19_Aug_72_1-2) about him is a bit vague on the reasons why, but the record claim was disallowed.
Robert
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Have there been any other attempts since 1939?
Sorry if this information is hidden away in any of the other threads.
Ken Webb claimed the record in 1971-2. The Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Webb#cite_ref-Cyc_19_Aug_72_1-2) about him is a bit vague on the reasons why, but the record claim was disallowed.
Robert
Oh. My. God!
Can you imagine? Doing that for a year. Thinking you'd done it and then being "disallowed"?
I bet he's never got over that.
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But with no support and holding down a job for much of the time, it does seem quite likely that there was some economy with the actualité involved.
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LWaB gave me an interesting history lesson on Jan 1st. One tidbit was that there have been "races" before i.e. simultaneous attempts:
One chap finished 2nd TWICE. 2 years effort; no record, no medal, nada.
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Wikipedia says:
He set off from Fleet Street, London, then the heart of the British newspaper industry, at noon on 1 September 1971.
Webb had little support from sponsors. By 10 November he had run out of money and took a job at Gatwick Airport, near his home. He spoke of working there, riding 220 miles a day after work and sleeping two or three hours a night. He averaged better than 223 miles a day,[3] sent witnessed postcards to Cycling's office to log his progress and used a different odometer each month to support the distance shown on the cards.
So I suppose there must have been widespread belief he wasn't covering the miles he claimed.
Robert
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From the Wikipedia entry on Ken Webb...
"By 10 November he had run out of money and took a job at Gatwick Airport, near his home. He spoke of working there, riding 220 miles a day after work and sleeping two or three hours a night."
A full (or even half) day's work, 220 miles, in winter, 2 or 3 hours sleep each night.
Hmm...
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riding a stretch of 1001miglia together i was amazed at Steve's ability to sleep lying face down on his hands and how quickly he fell asleep. we stopped at a building with a tiled floor to have a cat nap. i wasn't sleepy enough, so just watched others sleeping. is there a trick why sleeping facing down is preferable to sleeping on a back? i've tried it afterwards but couldn't get myself comfortable.
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Number of the day:
(http://staff.city.ac.uk/~jwo/oytt/images/percentMovingJan11.png)
That's for every second of the year up to Midnight of Jan 11th. And these are just the shorter days! A figure that is going to feel increasingly impressive as the year goes on
(for comparison, since they started on the 4th and 10th respectively, IronOx has been cycling for 5.0% of the time, Tarzan for 49.1% of the time).
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Don't ya just love stats!!! :thumbsup:
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Another quite bewildering, thought-provoking number is that after today, TG will have completed 3.3% of the challenge - which at over 2000 miles gives you a couple of PBP's and the mere trifle of a 400km tossed in as well.
He's only just begun :o
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riding a stretch of 1001miglia together i was amazed at Steve's ability to sleep lying face down on his hands and how quickly he fell asleep. we stopped at a building with a tiled floor to have a cat nap. i wasn't sleepy enough, so just watched others sleeping. is there a trick why sleeping facing down is preferable to sleeping on a back?
You are much less likely to snore => very preferable!
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I'd just love to have someone film one of Steve's breakfasts as a counterpoint to this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/30784564
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I'd just love to have someone film one of Steve's breakfasts as a counterpoint to this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/30784564
Haha! I thought he was going to boke that mouthful of greens right back!
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I'd just love to have someone film one of Steve's breakfasts as a counterpoint to this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/30784564
Caffeine "mobilises the fat" does it? OK then, half a dozen espressos and I'll be uncatchable!
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I'd just love to have someone film one of Steve's breakfasts as a counterpoint to this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/30784564
Looks suitable for losing weight!
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I'd just love to have someone film one of Steve's breakfasts as a counterpoint to this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/30784564
;D
One of ESL films shows a bunch of audaxers tucking into a Calmac fryup on the Mull 300 a few years back. It'd be like that *10 I'd think !
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While emailing back and forth with a well-known Randonneurs USA member, I was a little surprised to read:
"Remind Steve that he is one of ours (a randonneur). The other guys are ultra-racers who don't usually associate with us. I know Steve is a top notch 24 hr time trial guys but he has taken the time to talk to many of us Americans at PBP and LEL. It has made an impression!"
Steve was a subject of discussion during a 1 degree 200 in the USA last weekend and garnered a couple of donations as a result. It looks like Steve's approach and history have struck a chord with lots of people, which doesn't seem to have happened with the others attempting Tommy's record.
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That's a nice touch.
I've had a look at Tarzan's website and I didn't see a mention of Steve on it. Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't it Steve who inspired the UMCA to formulate a set of rules for this event, and the others jumped on the bandwagon once they were published? And Tarzan has said that he intends to use Steve as a target for his rides, just carrying on 9 days behind.
That in itself is a risky policy. He needs to have a plan B if for some reason Steve can't continue.
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Yes, it was Steve who kept pushing the UMCA towards more sensible rules.
Kurt is using Steve's published schedules for his weekly and monthly totals but will juggle daily and weekly numbers as his races come up. Regardless of other riders, the real competition is against Tommy.
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I thought it was a
load of bollocks trifle ridiculous his reason for starting on the 10th was due to work commitments.
'While the other record seekers will start their quests January 1, Searvogel will start his yearlong quest on Saturday (January 10). His business, Applied Computer Solutions, handles payroll and information technology for other companies, and he needed to tie up year-end business for his clients, as well for as his own firm, before taking a year off to ride a bike.'
http://www.clarionledger.com/story/go/2015/01/09/cycling-mississippi-kurt-searvogel-endurance-record/21495607/
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Given that Steve is now over 200 miles ahead of Godwin's pace, does that mean he's planning a day off at some point? ;)
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I thought it was a load of bollocks trifle ridiculous his reason for starting on the 10th was due to work commitments.
'While the other record seekers will start their quests January 1, Searvogel will start his yearlong quest on Saturday (January 10). His business, Applied Computer Solutions, handles payroll and information technology for other companies, and he needed to tie up year-end business for his clients, as well for as his own firm, before taking a year off to ride a bike.'
http://www.clarionledger.com/story/go/2015/01/09/cycling-mississippi-kurt-searvogel-endurance-record/21495607/
Presumably, if he's indispensable to all of that year end processing, he'll have to take time off from his attempt in late december 2015/ early Jan 2016. ;)
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Given that Steve is now over 200 miles ahead of Godwin's pace, does that mean he's planning a day off at some point? ;)
He is ahead of Godwin - but on his longer distance plan ( see here http://oneyeartimetrial.org.uk/the-preparation ) -- so I dont think days off feature in the short term plan.
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I love the way that the whole thing is beginning to feel like a movie screenplay. From Chariots of Fire to The Flying Scotsman this falls nicely in the same tradition. Slightly eccentric (in the nicest possible way) non-conforming Briton follows the tradition of fellow Brits Tommy Godwin, one-armed Walter Greaves and (best name ever) Arthur Humbles in challenging what was thought to be an unachievable record. He battles the establishment to get the attempt recognised and through unassuming perseverance and grass-roots support, he rides the cold wet windy lanes of England in winter while rival ultra-atheletes sprint down the warm, flat highways of Florida and Texas...
OK, a little artistic licence, but there's got to be a film in there somewhere.
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Or The World's Fastest Indian, though this loses points for the hero being a New Toylander.
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OK, a little artistic licence, but there's got to be a film in there somewhere.
Completely agree with you Jo. But I hope there isn't some tragic twist in the plot for either Steve or Kurt.
I hope Steve can at least acquire a best seller out of it.
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I can imagine Steve taking over the mantle from Ian Botham as The Man Who Could Eat Three Shredded Wheat.
I bet Botham never necked 8 sausages, 12 rashers of bacon, half a dozen eggs, a pound of mushrooms, two tins of tomatoes, a mountain of black pudding, a side plate of hashed browns, 10 rounds of toast and a gallon of tea afterwards though. And then rode a hilly 600k.
If he succeeds, there's got to be a gong in it for him. He'll ride up to the palace, natch.
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I bet Botham never necked 8 sausages
Ooooh, that's a euphamism I wish you hadn't used WowBags
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Yes, it was Steve who kept pushing the UMCA towards more sensible rules.
Kurt is using Steve's published schedules for his weekly and monthly totals but will juggle daily and weekly numbers as his races come up. Regardless of other riders, the real competition is against Tommy.
That's absolutely right. Anything can happen between now and the end of the year for either rider. The psychological pressure of keeping going, day in, day out, for all that time could well take its toll, as well as the obvious likelihood of injury. It's just important to do the maximum mileage possible and it doesn't matter a damn what the other guy does. Even if they do both keep going and complete their year, and Steve beats Tommy and Tommy beats Kurt, Steve will be the one who has broken Tommy's 75-year-old record just by dint of finishing first. Kurt will break a record that's only 9 days old and who cares about that?
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Kurt will break a record that's only 9 days old and who cares about that?
Is that really true if Kurt gets to Tommy's mileage first?
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Kurt will break a record that's only 9 days old and who cares about that?
Is that really true if Kurt gets to Tommy's mileage first?
An interesting point. Suppose Kurt gets to Tommy's mileage first but then breaks down, and Steve complete the year with a higher mileage than Kurt?
I'd say that if he has committed for a year, he has to wait for the full year before making a claim. Don't know what the rules say. Do they allow for a declaration?
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OK, a little artistic licence, but there's got to be a film in there somewhere.
Got to agree with you there Jo. My flights of fancy have already encompassed a Musical, followed by Teethgrinder on Ice including Torvill and Dean on a tandem with studded tyres. Just think, we've got all year to flesh out the details...
Bryn
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Kurt will break a record that's only 9 days old and who cares about that?
Is that really true if Kurt gets to Tommy's mileage first?
An interesting point. Suppose Kurt gets to Tommy's mileage first but then breaks down, and Steve complete the year with a higher mileage than Kurt?
I'd say that if he has committed for a year, he has to wait for the full year before making a claim. Don't know what the rules say. Do they allow for a declaration?
Surely the first rider to hit 76,066 miles is the new record holder irrespective of when they reach the target? Tarzan could reach it first and be abducted by aliens or mistaken for a large flesh-coloured squirrel and shot the next day but he'd still be the first rider to break Tommy's record. Steve could then go on to ride 88,888 miles but it'd be Tarzan's record he'd broken, not Tommy's.
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OK, a little artistic licence, but there's got to be a film in there somewhere.
I had a think about Steve over the weekend, and wrote up some of it yesterday.
I first encountered Steve Abraham on the North Roads 24 time trial towards the end of the last century. That was the 100th running of that event, and it ran true to the course of such a ride. We all went round and round on various public roads for a whole day each, until it was your time to finish. They added up everyone’s distance and declared some winners. First was Ian Butcher, 501 miles, he and the third place rider had to be held up on the podium to receive their prizes. I’ve since seen much the same happen a number of times on the way to the record being raised to 542 miles in 2011 by Andy Wilkinson.
There were two regular 24 hour time trials in those days, and there was a prize for the longest distance ridden in both combined. Steve was usually a long way behind the winners, but he always rode both. Those events are a real family affair, with the same faces turn up riding and supporting. There’s an overlapping line that has handed the baton on from the decade before the establishment of the modern Olympics. It’s not a huge number of people, a couple of hundred active participants and helpers, but it’s a core group of support for Steve, they understand where he’s coming from, where he’s going to, and what stands in his way.
Another area of overlapping support is in Audax. That’s a form of non-competitive long distance cycling. It’s essentially a ladder. Leading to ever greater feats of endurance on a bike. Its greatest single manifestation is Paris Brest Paris, a 1200km relic of the late 19th century love affair with the bicycle. Around 5,000 people ride, and Steve’s been doing that since 1995, so he’s a well established member of that community. Audax United Kingdom is one of the clubs Steve belongs to, the North Buckinghamshire Road Club is another formally constituted one, and then there’s Yet Another Cycling Forum, a loose internet coalition of cyclists with a leaning towards the longer side of the pastime.
The record that Steve is attempting is a long standing one from 1939. It was encouraged by Cycling magazine and the first record was established in 1911. The 1930s were something of a heyday for long distance rides and distance records, and were very much a British speciality, as road races were not allowed. Record holders were the stars of the sport, and were feted at prize givings at the Albert Hall, and their names entered in ’The Golden Book of Cycling’.
Steve’s record attempt strikes me as an extension of that heritage. In the meantime, a whole new series of cycling cultures have come to the fore, with road racing and leisure cycling hybridising to give birth to the sportive scene, triathlons introducing big numbers to endurance cycling and a new discipline of ‘adventure cycling’, which has elements from other ‘adventure sports’. New media has had a role to play in the establishment of these newer types of cycling. There’s a difference in approach between time trialling, which chips seconds off the time taken to ride set distances, and ‘adventure cycling’ which seems to emphasise inspiration and aspiration and to border on ‘spirituality’.
I got around to thinking about these various ways of understanding what Steve is doing, by looking at ‘Adventure Sports’ websites. There’s usually a lot of detail about the how, and also about the why, which seems to be a component that can be best explained if you book the personality as an inspirational speaker. So I wondered how Tommy Godwin would have been an inspiration in his time. From 1939 Britain was in an arms production race with Germany, and endless toil, devoted to reaching targets, was going to dominate a lot of lives for the next five years. Tommy’s record can be seen as a combination of the physical capacities needed to carry out the work and the discipline of working in the munitions factories. It chimed with the films of George Formby and Gracie Fields, where the virtues of modesty and self-effacement don’t need to be sacrificed to achieve success. This may seem wholly nostalgic to many, but those values persist in cycling clubs around the country, it’s part and parcel of the working-class roots of the sport.
The current perception of ‘extreme sports’ doesn’t see the participant as a worker, but as a seeker after truth. People are transformed by doing extraordinary things in extraordinary places. That’s a lot easier to convey these days, as it’s now possible to record the spectacular feats in spectacular scenery fairly easily, and there are many media outlets to show the results. I can see the appeal of that ‘spiritual journey’ view, and I wonder how it might apply to Steve’s record attempt. But Steve’s not doing something obviously spectacular, there’s no summit to arrive at. He puts the hours in, at a pre-determined rate, and he arrives at his ultimate destination. In that sense he’s extremely ordinary, he’s doing what most people do, just a lot more of it, without any appreciable breaks. To me he’s the ‘Everyday Hero’. I always knew where he stood in terms of his capacity to undertake a job like this, he’s certainly bold enough, and he’s got the tenacity to see it through.
I find it inspiring that someone is upholding those sorts of values, and it makes me want to reassert that in myself.
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Proff reading time:
"There’s usually a lot off detail about the how,"
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Proff reading time:
"There’s usually a lot off detail about the how,"
I blame Safari.
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I can't. I'm using Chrome.
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Kurt will break a record that's only 9 days old and who cares about that?
Is that really true if Kurt gets to Tommy's mileage first?
An interesting point. Suppose Kurt gets to Tommy's mileage first but then breaks down, and Steve complete the year with a higher mileage than Kurt?
I'd say that if he has committed for a year, he has to wait for the full year before making a claim. Don't know what the rules say. Do they allow for a declaration?
Surely the first rider to hit 76,066 miles is the new record holder irrespective of when they reach the target? Tarzan could reach it first and be abducted by aliens or mistaken for a large flesh-coloured squirrel and shot the next day but he'd still be the first rider to break Tommy's record. Steve could then go on to ride 88,888 miles but it'd be Tarzan's record he'd broken, not Tommy's.
I think that's right. After all, Tommy was declared the new record holder in October.
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Interesting point floating around.
Tommy's record is a 1st Jan to 31st Dec record - which is exactly what Steve is doing ie he will ( all being well ) break Tommy's record - but Kurt can only break it if he has ridden further at 31st Dec 2015 ie in the calendar year.
The UMCA record is something altogether different.
DEBATE AND DISCUSS
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It is a bit academic as I don't think that Kurt will go the distance. The only question in my mind is whether he stops before or after RAAM. My money is on 'before'.
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Surely the first rider to hit 76,066 miles is the new record holder irrespective of when they reach the target?
Unless that rider is subsequently disqualified or has penalties applied which take the distance below the record.
Should Steve be offered champagne on breaking the record, he would do well to quote Walter Greaves' response in similar circumstances:
When I want to poison myself, I'll do it with arsenic.
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I see that Cycle_dr 1 is still going great guns around the Adelaide area.
From Strava comments today, he had a 100km out with Team Sky. (And also, had his share of the rain).
https://www.strava.com/activities/240433472#comments
Got to ride with Sky for 100km
...
Craig Northam - buckitbelts.com Great riding again Bruce! Which SKY riders did you have with you in the hills today? 13 hours ago
Cycle_dr 1 CJ, Richie, G, Pete Kenaugh, Luke Rowe, Puccio and Ian Stannard. Top bunch gf guys made me feel really welcome. Top days riding 13 hours ago
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Surely the first rider to hit 76,066 miles is the new record holder irrespective of when they reach the target?
Unless that rider is subsequently disqualified or has penalties applied which take the distance below the record.
Should Steve be offered champagne on breaking the record, he would do well to quote Walter Greaves' response in similar circumstances:
When I want to poison myself, I'll do it with arsenic.
Not that I've tried, but I believe arsenic to be an extremely painful way to go.
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Interesting point floating around.
Tommy's record is a 1st Jan to 31st Dec record - which is exactly what Steve is doing ie he will ( all being well ) break Tommy's record - but Kurt can only break it if he has ridden further at 31st Dec 2015 ie in the calendar year.
The UMCA record is something altogether different.
DEBATE AND DISCUSS
Kurt and Steve have both independently chosen to ride for one year under the auspices of UMCA's definition of an annual mileage award and supporters just need to respect that choice. Neither is competing in the "Tommy G" award as there isn't such a thing.
At the end of their endeavors, only one can come out as the current standing record holder of the UMCA award. IMHO it would be contemptuous to undermine that award or attempts on it with accusations it doesn't count as it's "not how Tommy did it". See the belly aching when Ned Boulting quipped the lack of World War would disqualify all modern attempts: neither of them is doing it *exactly* how Tommy did it.
Also, what LWaB said. ;D
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What I don't quite understand is that the various web accounts I can find seem to credit one of the record holders as Bernard Bennett who managed 65,127 miles in 1939 before losing the title to Godwin at the end of the year. Bennett and Godwin both started on Jan 1st 1939, so the only way I can see that Bennett could have ever held the record is if he got to 65,127 before Godwin did at some point during the year. Yet the accounts I have read suggest Godwin become the 'on the road' record holder from 26th October 1939 when he reached the 62,657 miles set by Ossie Nicholson in 1937. Did Bennett then at some point after Oct 26 overtake Godwin to reach 65,127 before him only for Godwin to subsequently overtake Bennett again to reach his 75,065 by the end of the year?
It is all rather confusing, but does suggest at least that records have been set before the year is up.
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All a wee bit puzzling. Google finds a snippet from the Townsville Daily Bulletin (http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/62452920#pstart5571275) in August 1939, reporting that a month earlier Bennett was closing on Godwin, with them both then on something over 38,000 miles.
There's also a piece in the Stoke Sentinel (http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Cycling-Riders-hit-Hanley-streets-remember/story-16283396-detail/story.html) for Godwin's centenary, saying that Godwin passed the Nicolson record on October 26, that Bennett took a month longer, but that he then "climbed off his bike and joined the Army".
My guess, then, is that Bennett's final total was recorded as giving him the record (despite Godwin's running total already being greater), and that this stood for the month or so until Godwin finished.
There's not a lot recorded about Bennett (at least not that an idle google picks up) - 21, joined the army in 1939: what are the odds he's to be found in the casualty lists?
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Does our man have a plan if the weather turns more wintry?
I see the forecast is starting to talk up a longer spell of cold weather for next week - potential for ice and snow.
Back and forth along the South Coast maybe? :)
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Laps of the Somerset levels.
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What I don't quite understand is that the various web accounts I can find seem to credit one of the record holders as Bernard Bennett who managed 65,127 miles in 1939 before losing the title to Godwin at the end of the year. Bennett and Godwin both started on Jan 1st 1939, so the only way I can see that Bennett could have ever held the record is if he got to 65,127 before Godwin did at some point during the year. Yet the accounts I have read suggest Godwin become the 'on the road' record holder from 26th October 1939 when he reached the 62,657 miles set by Ossie Nicholson in 1937. Did Bennett then at some point after Oct 26 overtake Godwin to reach 65,127 before him only for Godwin to subsequently overtake Bennett again to reach his 75,065 by the end of the year?
It is all rather confusing, but does suggest at least that records have been set before the year is up.
Bernard Bennett is described in the Motherwell Times on 5th Jan 1940 as "holder of the world's amateur record with 45801 miles", which suggests that there were separate records recognised for amateurs and professionals, but he is also referred to as the New Hudson-Cycle rider, which suggests that he had turned pro by 1939, and the rest of the article (and all other contemporary accounts I've seen) portray him and TG in direct competition with each other.
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OK, a little artistic licence, but there's got to be a film in there somewhere.
Got to agree with you there Jo. My flights of fancy have already encompassed a Musical, followed by Teethgrinder on Ice including Torvill and Dean on a tandem with studded tyres. Just think, we've got all year to flesh out the details...
Bryn
Get Peter Jackson to direct and there are at least 3 films in there.
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Suddenly, the leader board for Strava's January MTS has ben smashed by one David Fisch, from California, who claims a scarcely credible 9172.9 kilometres for 18 days' riding. That's almost twice as many as Steve, and a long way ahead of Cycle_dr1, whom I understand is going for the month record.
Edit: there's some kind of error there. David Fish's year-to-date total on his personal page shows as 908k whereas on the leader board it comes out as more than 10 times that amount.
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Looks like an extra digit has been added as his total yearly distance is only 565.3 miles.
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Out of Interest after posting up my hosting story and it being linked from the facebook and oneyearTT sites, its been interesting to see where the visitors have come from.
Big interest from Sweden, 3 times more than from USA and Australia
Its obvious the power facebook has of spreading a message very quickly too, HUGE traffic :o
Other forums discussing it:
The Aussies http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=81042&sid=30c72d471981d860c27ec8f44eacfed9 (http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=81042&sid=30c72d471981d860c27ec8f44eacfed9)
Sweden http://happymtb.org/forum/read.php/1/2582349/page=7
Cyclechat http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/205-miles-in-a-day-tommy-godwin-challenge-the-progress-thread.172199/page-14
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Out of Interest after posting up my hosting story and it being linked from the facebook and oneyearTT sites, its been interesting to see where the visitors have come from.
Big interest from Sweden, 3 times more than from USA and Australia
Its obvious the power facebook has of spreading a message very quickly too, HUGE traffic :o
Other forums discussing it:
The Aussies http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=81042&sid=30c72d471981d860c27ec8f44eacfed9 (http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=81042&sid=30c72d471981d860c27ec8f44eacfed9)
Sweden http://happymtb.org/forum/read.php/1/2582349/page=7
Cyclechat http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/205-miles-in-a-day-tommy-godwin-challenge-the-progress-thread.172199/page-14
The Austalian forumn is quite amusing. They have plenty to say about the british guy in Adelaide and most seem to be coming down on Steve's side. Although there is plenty of admiration for Kurt as well. That Steve is braving a british winter really seems to impress them!
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There's not a lot recorded about Bennett (at least not that an idle google picks up) - 21, joined the army in 1939: what are the odds he's to be found in the casualty lists?
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website has only one Bernard Bennett casualty of world war 2. Bennett, Bernard Alfred Francis date of death 10/06/1944 aged 22, buried in Rome Cemetery
Don't think its him though as the post above states 21 and another quick google suggested he was born between 1916 and 1918 which would make him older than 22 in 1944, however ages and dates of such things are often quite variable.
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Out of Interest after posting up my hosting story and it being linked from the facebook and oneyearTT sites, its been interesting to see where the visitors have come from.
Big interest from Sweden, 3 times more than from USA and Australia
Its obvious the power facebook has of spreading a message very quickly too, HUGE traffic :o
Other forums discussing it:
The Aussies http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=81042&sid=30c72d471981d860c27ec8f44eacfed9 (http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=81042&sid=30c72d471981d860c27ec8f44eacfed9)
Sweden http://happymtb.org/forum/read.php/1/2582349/page=7
Cyclechat http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/205-miles-in-a-day-tommy-godwin-challenge-the-progress-thread.172199/page-14
The German discussion is still quite limited: http://www.rennrad-news.de/forum/threads/steve-abraham.131739/#post-3364890
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Comparing the support strategy to national stereotypes.
With Kurts it's like
(http://gdb.voanews.com/A6A1F7C2-388D-4D46-A530-EB908259C838_cx0_cy3_cw0_mw1024_mh1024_s.jpg) and (http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/v2_article_large/public/2014/11/24/ferguson-riot.jpg?itok=hcHbOW22)
but with Steve it's a bit more
(http://rdwebsite.reasondigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/06.jpg) and (http://socialmediaweek.org/files/2011/08/BroomArmy_.jpg)
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Brilliant ;D
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'He's already done more than I did last year' is the new 'I wouldn't even do that in a car'.
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'He's already done more than I did last year' is the new 'I wouldn't even do that in a car'.
;D
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He'd already done more than I did last year by the time I showed up at the NYD time trial.
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Is Steve planning to have a professional masseur rub him down at any point? Muscles and all that.
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I can recommend spending some time reading through the thread on the Swedish forum (see Jack Numplumz's post above), using the translation software of your choice if necessary.
Note:
- They use a "Mil" (Swedish mile) as a measure of distance. 1 mil is about 10km.
- "Having a frontal bone" seems to mean stubborn, persistent, bloody-minded.
and
- Towards the end they're discussing how they can club together to make a donation. :thumbsup:
If you don't have a couple of hours to spare, here are some highlights
It is at once very impressive and equally frightening. Oh my god what psyche you have to have to implement this
I give him zero percent chance of doing this. He's too fat and slow quite easily. I think many people underestimate what fysmonster the best ultra-distance cyclists are.
4th January
62 h cycling in four days. What a lunatic. Unfortunately, he only managed a little over 124 mil in these hours (20km / h average). He fixes this, I promise to walk naked among Treriksröset and Smygehuk. On your hands. In the midst of winter.
("Treriksröset till Smygehuk" is the Swedish end-to-end.)
to which Elkie replies
Which side of the lakes Vänern / Vättern take you? If he succeeds against all odds, we'll have to at least make sure you get some food and coffee on the way.
Looks like he would have to clean up a bit at home. Everything is a scam to get free cleaning lady :)
This thread .. He is clearly of any timber that is not in my body.
I think 88 stroke at load sounds like you have a heart about the size of a turkey. ... I fucking also acquire a Brooks.
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This thread .. He is clearly of any timber that is not in my body.
Me too
;D
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Brilliant Salvatore
"goes off to look for a translation tool into swedish for some fun quotes"
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Wonderfully eccentric English (that's another direct translation of a comment from the Swedish forum as well as a comment on the translation thereof).
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- They use a "Mil" (Swedish mile) as a measure of distance. 1 mil is about 10km.
1 Swedish Mil(e) is exactly 10 km.
I follow that forum too, and hope so see a naked man walk 2500km through Sweden ;D
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Here's another
Piss Weather middle of winter, thirty mil a day, no recovery. Bicycles with elevated resting heart or something of the sort. It's Superman fan and he has masked his superhero in a body that does not look fit out but it is, and he has a headquarters that looks like a dump but really is an advanced communication center. This thread will be epic and måååååånga pages. Fight Steve!
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- They use a "Mil" (Swedish mile) as a measure of distance. 1 mil is about 10km.
1 Swedish Mil(e) is exactly 10 km.
Last year I was surprised how often "mile" was used in conversation. I'd seen it on old milestones, but not modern signposts, so I knew it existed, but I'd assumed it was historical. Whenever anyone used it with me, to say how far they cycled, or how far they skied in the moonlit winter wonderland, they always added "Swedish miles" to avoid confusion, so it was invariably "miles, Swedish miles".
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This is the first year that I can remember where I have been absolutely sure of the date each day.
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This is the first year that I can remember where I have been absolutely sure of the date each day.
I lost track slightly earlier, had to check. I'm not up to this challenge.
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I'd imagine that for Steve and Tarzan, the day and date cease to matter.
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365 notches on the seatpost?
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Up until this year, I never knew that there was a place called Marsh Gibbon. Now I feel like I know the place well.
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Someone on the Swedish forum has now commented on the comments in this thread about the comments in theirs. If you see what I mean.
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Up until this year, I never knew that there was a place called Marsh Gibbon. Now I feel like I know the place well.
I think YACF should be twinned with Marsh Gibbon and we should have an annual celebratory weekend there.
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Steve seems to be doing his best to erase its name from the Trackleaders map with his orange lines :)
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Up until this year, I never knew that there was a place called Marsh Gibbon. Now I feel like I know the place well.
I think YACF should be twinned with Marsh Gibbon and we should have an annual celebratory weekend there.
The marsh gibbon, Hylobates boggus, is a social species noted for gathering in flat, open areas, where it constructs temporary or portable shelters of fabric and metal, which it inhabits singly, in couples or in family groupings. The marsh gibbon, uniquely among gibbon species, prefers to travel at ground level, using a sort of conveyance with two or occasionally three wheels. The primary activities at these gatherings are the admiration of other individuals' wheeled conveyances, the consumption of vast quantities of food and drink, and a form of social interaction referred to by experts as "putting the world to rights".
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;D
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*citation needed
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Up until this year, I never knew that there was a place called Marsh Gibbon. Now I feel like I know the place well.
I think YACF should be twinned with Marsh Gibbon and we should have an annual celebratory weekend there.
Tenuous Claim to Fame: I have/had a mate, Dead Gay Jason who did/does live there. He's rubbish at keeping in touch with people though (hence the 'dead'). We used to call it Swamp Monkey. The pub was a bit meh.
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365 notches on the seatpost?
"What's that sir, you got it stuck up there because you were busy carving notches in it until you undermined its structural integrity and it broke while you were sitting on it? I see sir. Don't worry, we doctors have heard it all ... "
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Up until this year, I never knew that there was a place called Marsh Gibbon. Now I feel like I know the place well.
I seem to remember the pub in Marsh Gibbon had its own brewery round the back of its car park (1987 ish). Can't remember what its brew was like so probably nowt special.
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Here's a thought. If Steve succeeds in his quest and breaks Tommy's record, thereby simultaneously cementing his place in history as a Sporting Superstar and a Great BRITISH Eccentric, there will have to be a massive growth in that part of the economy which deals with the manufacture, distribution and fitting of all the blue plaques necessary to mark his feed and overnight stops.
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4th January
62 h cycling in four days. What a lunatic. Unfortunately, he only managed a little over 124 mil in these hours (20km / h average). He fixes this, I promise to walk naked among Treriksröset and Smygehuk. On your hands. In the midst of winter.
("Treriksröset till Smygehuk" is the Swedish end-to-end.)
Oscar now realises he may have been a little rash in doubting Steve's capabilities.
Thanks, it may be necessary (I have raised my forecast from zero to a few percent). Glad to my naked walk will be noticed even on the other side of the North Sea. Half of England will stand still when they breathlessly follow my live tracking page.
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This is great Salvatore. Perhaps a it deserves a thread of its own - "From our Swedish Correspondent"
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I have emailed the Swedish link to my son, whose gf's first language is Swedish. He has a smattering. When she finally submits her PhD thesis next week she might become calm enough to appreciate it.
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Pretty soon people at the places he is stopping off at are going to start noticing this eating machine appearing regularly.
Maybe they will run out of sausages :-\
Hopefully they will ask questions and if Steve had some nice handy oneyearTT cards to hand over the legend will be passed on with easy links to the web site and tracker.
I know riders in the TransContinental have done this and had their meals bought for them by complete strangers when their jaws drop at whats going on.
Anybody on here know any printers.
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I have emailed the Swedish link to my son, whose gf's first language is Swedish. He has a smattering. When she finally submits her PhD thesis next week she might become calm enough to appreciate it.
I don't know Swedish. What's a 'smattering'.
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I don't know Swedish. What's a 'smattering'.
It's a small dried fish, not unlike a hearing.
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This is great Salvatore. Perhaps a it deserves a thread of its own - "From our Swedish Correspondent"
Seems to be nice chaps over a yacf, too bad they have categories in their forum and therefore will burn in hell forever after the day of judgement.
A little harsh.
Is this Dez's or rogerzilla's responsibility? Should we be worried?
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A Danish mil is roughly 7,532.48 meters. They like to be a bit different.
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They are probably fans of Stackoverflow, the 'forum' for people with an attention span of 30s.
Back to Steve's Eating habits, maybe we need a version of 'Kilroy was here'.
'Teethgrinder ate here'
'We fed the One-year timetrialer and survived'
'No food today, Steve had his breakfast here'
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The way he's getting through sausages, we could have a national emergency on our hands, I think we should have lorries full of 'em ready to be despatched at a moments notice to wherever Steve is. Wouldn't want the lad to go hungry now would we?
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The Scanda mil is 36,000 feet, which is 10 x 6 x 10 x 6 x 10 feet, which is Sumarian.
Handed down from the same gods.
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This is great Salvatore. Perhaps a it deserves a thread of its own - "From our Swedish Correspondent"
It does have a thread of its own
... in Sweden.
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Up until this year, I never knew that there was a place called Marsh Gibbon. Now I feel like I know the place well.
It's marshy. But no Gibbons nowadays, not even any called Edward.
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/staticarchive/beb96712ecd6be2fcc0d10283900dee83339ec1c.jpg)
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French Canadian Forum http://www.velocia.ca/forums/le-cafe-du-velo/28499-objectif-2015-128-800-km.html
Inquietez vous pas pour ses fesses les gars, il utilise une selle brooks!
"Lads, don't worry about his arse, he's using a Brooks!"
Randonneur vs ultra cycliste, ce sera intéressant à suivre. Pour l'instant je lève mon chapeau au randonneur Steve Abraham qui semble être un genre de underdog.
"Randonneur v. ultracyclist, that'll be interesting. For the time being I'll lift my hat to randonneur Steve Abraham, who seems to be a bit of an underdog"
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On the sossiges front, maybe the PR guy/people (Idai?) should be getting someone like Heck or Olley&Olley on board?
My vote would go with Heck's
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The way he's getting through sausages, we could have a national emergency on our hands, I think we should have lorries full of 'em ready to be despatched at a moments notice to wherever Steve is. Wouldn't want the lad to go hungry now would we?
Do they have to be pork bangers? If not, the financial crisis facing BRITAIN'S dairy farmers may have a solution.
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Do they have to be pork bangers? If not, the financial crisis facing BRITAIN'S dairy farmers may have a solution.
Extract from the Official OYTT - Vistor Info wot says:
"Pork sausages to take with me the next day
if you could cook a pound or two for pocket food the next day. No less than 60% meat please.
1 lb of cheddar cheese is also a good substitute"
So pork it has to be to keep the TG motor running.
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I don't think we can rule out cravings for a bit of variety at some stage.
(I've even been known to get bored of Bs-on-T on very long audaxes. No, really!)
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Discussion of the Mil inevitably leads to Norway's 1978 Eurovision entry by Jahn Teigen (null points):
http://youtu.be/S3k7SlHEieg
Translation:
Mile after Mile
Rest now, you are tired
Rest your body before your power let's out
Water floats into you shoes
You walks in the rain
Mile after Mile after Mile
after Mile after Mile after Mile
Search for me, if you long
straight your mind to another place
Come here where i am, where the sun is close
You must not go
Mile after Mile after Mile
after Mile after Mile after Mile
and it is long (distance) to walk
It is the longing that push you
To a light that u can see but i dont
Think now
Where you going
You have wander to far
Mile after Mile after Mile
after Mile after Mile after Mile
Think now
Where you going
You have wander to far
Mile after Mile after Mile
after Mile after Mile after Mile
after Mile after Mile after Mile
after Mile after Mile after Mile
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Not sure if this has been put up here yet- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xz2QyYN6S5ve5X5lvNNwLDb4J8sEek1EOuE7qACqDbQ/pubhtml?gid=944055483&single=true
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Has anyone else noticed? Just about every thread in this board has been Godwinised.
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I think you mean the whole sub board...
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With access to forums, FB etc, and able to see photos, video and data on the current day, I wonder how nail-gnawingly difficult it must have been to have been following the riders in 1939, with weekly (and already outdated) reports in the Comic as pretty much the only information available.
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Agree with what you say, but wasn't there a war on then, perhaps that would take people's mind off of Tommy's Riding?
Only saying
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Well, not for most of it, but I imagine a lot of people either weren't much bothered by the news of growing political tensions over in that Europe, or else wanted something positive to lighten their days.
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Point taken :)
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National newspapers covered the domestic cycling scene, indeed there was little interest in continental racing. I made sure I got a copy of the Times when I was placed 9th in a Lancashire RC 12 hour, in 2000. The comic carried descriptions of the bigger events.
Steve's attempt is reported in greater detail than 1939, but to a much narrower audience.
Similarly, an article on 'The One Show' will be seen by a much smaller audience than something on 'Nationwide' in the 1970s.
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I wonder if Frankie and Benny's can be persuaded to sponsor Steve's N,000 mile celebration feeds?
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I wonder what happened to Ted Cheesbrough and W Holt?
They are mentioned in the Lincolnshire Echo (below) and the Gloucestershire Echo in their 30th December 1937 editions, and in the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer the following day, but they then disappear without trace.
(http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h323/nocensure/Screenshot-250115-134917_zps346bab28.jpg)
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Intriguing.
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Wondering if anyone closer than I should paint a few "C'mon Steve"s onto the tarmac at Marsh Gibbon. Inna TdF stylee. :demon:
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;D
I have to admit, I did have a bit of a nosy on Streetview, in case it had one of those "$PLACE welcomes careful drivers" signs that could have been modified by posting "teethgrinder" over the last two words. alas, I couldn't find one.
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I went around trying to buy a copy of Unsurpassed, as I reckon my dad would enjoy reading it (obviously I'll have first dibs!).
It's sold out everywhere, though. I wonder why...
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Wondering if anyone closer than I should paint a few "C'mon Steve"s onto the tarmac at Marsh Gibbon. Inna TdF stylee. :demon:
Actually, you could paint a "Go Steve" on any decent road in the South Midlands.
He'll see it.
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I wonder if, in years to come, people will talk of their "Teethgrinder* number" - the stages removed their cycling career is with TG. If you've cycled with him, you have a TGNo of 1. I suppose if you've had him on the back of your tandem that entitles you to a TGNo of 0.5! :thumbsup:
*I am sure chess players are not alone in having this concept associated with a Former Great. Paul Morphy (1837-1884) is the man for us. My Morphy number is 4: Morphy played Henry Bird (1830-1908), Bird played Jacques Mieses (1865-1954), Mieses played Leonard Barden (1929 - ) and I played Barden in the 1970s some time.
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Wondering if anyone closer than I should paint a few "C'mon Steve"s onto the tarmac at Marsh Gibbon. Inna TdF stylee. :demon:
You've be able to do that on the faces of the motorway bridges soon when the authorities allow him to ride on the hard shoulder to get big miles...quickly.... in order to not be humiliated to beat the enemy [cause we have been invaded by the Russians by then and at war with the Uncle Sam...or not as the case may hopefully be!]
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*I am sure chess players are not alone in having this concept associated with a Former Great.
For Mathematicians, it's Erdös Number (http://www.oakland.edu/enp/). I have an Erdös Number of 4.
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Oh yes: my pal, a former maths teacher, was telling me about Erdos. Like Teethgrinder, he led an itinerant life, announcing to fellow academics that he would be coming to discuss some obscure theorem with them, spending some time enjoying their hospitality, and then buggering off to stay with someone else.
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I went around trying to buy a copy of Unsurpassed, as I reckon my dad would enjoy reading it (obviously I'll have first dibs!).
It's sold out everywhere, though. I wonder why...
Wait for the next edition... Surpassed
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Not unexpected, but after turning in a 9751km month in January, Cycle_dr 1 backed off with a 50km today, which would suggest he was after the 300km/day for a month. Well done to him for a superb January down under.
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I went around trying to buy a copy of Unsurpassed, as I reckon my dad would enjoy reading it (obviously I'll have first dibs!).
It's sold out everywhere, though. I wonder why...
Wait for the next edition... Surpassed
It'll have rarity value, then :)
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I went around trying to buy a copy of Unsurpassed, as I reckon my dad would enjoy reading it (obviously I'll have first dibs!).
It's sold out everywhere, though. I wonder why...
http://www.mousehold-press.co.uk/detail_tommy_godwin.cfm
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Not unexpected, but after turning in a 9751km month in January, Cycle_dr 1 backed off with a 50km today, which would suggest he was after the 300km/day for a month. Well done to him for a superb January down under.
That was his stated aim.
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I went around trying to buy a copy of Unsurpassed, as I reckon my dad would enjoy reading it (obviously I'll have first dibs!).
It's sold out everywhere, though. I wonder why...
http://www.mousehold-press.co.uk/detail_tommy_godwin.cfm
That's where I ordered it - the proprietor sent me a very nice email explaining that they were out of stock until... I can't remember when, but they'll have stock very shortly.
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I went around trying to buy a copy of Unsurpassed, as I reckon my dad would enjoy reading it (obviously I'll have first dibs!).
It's sold out everywhere, though. I wonder why...
http://www.mousehold-press.co.uk/detail_tommy_godwin.cfm
That's where I ordered it - the proprietor sent me a very nice email explaining that they were out of stock until... I can't remember when, but they'll have stock very shortly.
Oh right. I ordered/bought one last week.
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I just noticed yacf is now twinned with Marsh Gibbon! :-P
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I just noticed yacf is now twinned with Marsh Gibbon! :-P
Yes, this happened some time late on Saturday. I'm not all that sure that the Marsh Gibbon twinning committee has been either informed or consulted.
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None of their bloody business anyway! :-D
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The donations page of Steve's website http://oneyeartimetrial.org.uk/donate seems to have a huge rash of Swedish names at the end. I wonder if it's the Swedes who are discussing this (Salvatore has linked to it). Great though that so many are supporting him!
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It seems that there is a MySQL problem associated with Steve's donations page.
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The donations page of Steve's website http://oneyeartimetrial.org.uk/donate seems to have a huge rash of Swedish names at the end. I wonder if it's the Swedes who are discussing this (Salvatore has linked to it). Great though that so many are supporting him!
They are a group who clubbed together to raise a tidy sum.
Website is up again now. Not my fault but somebody else on a shared server.
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Thats amazing, well done Sweden.
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More from Sweden.
(http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff320/jspooner99/Screenshot-020215-143137_zpsa1e48aba.jpg) (http://s238.photobucket.com/user/jspooner99/media/Screenshot-020215-143137_zpsa1e48aba.jpg.html)
Google translates this as
You just have to love the place names in England ... Seems to be cold today. Again.
but no reference to Marsh Gibbon.
Elsewhere in the thread (again google translated):
I can imagine that he spends a not inconsiderable time on the toilet considering how much he eats. Maybe up to 0:30
and a reply from someone who has probably met Steve:
Do not you think that most just "burn" up? He must have a calorie / day but its like, what comes out will surely be in gaseous form. I think ..
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You know it must be cold when a Swede on a Swedish form mentions how cold it is.
The second comment reminds me of the rumour, I think from the film The Interview that the supreme leader Kim Jong-un never poos as he works so hard he "burns it all off".
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You know it must be cold when a Swede on a Swedish form mentions how cold it is.
The second comment reminds me of the rumour, I think from the film The Interview that the supreme leader Kim Jong-un never poos as he works so hard he "burns it all off".
[off-topic warning ] Whereas he looks as though he just stores it.
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Swedish (and other) fans of interesting place names may wish to know that Steve is currently within farting distance of Barton in the Beans, Leicestershire.
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Swedish (and other) fans of interesting place names may wish to know that Steve is currently within farting distance of Barton in the Beans, Leicestershire.
I've bean there. A horse refused to pass my unattended bike.
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You know it must be cold when a Swede on a Swedish form mentions how cold it is.
Although, it does appear from this post (https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=sv&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bicycling.se%2Fblogs%2Fjohanmolleborn%2Ftour-de-otzi-antligen-snofest.htm&edit-text=&act=url) (Google Translate version), that at least some Swedish randonneurs are as weatherproofed as Steve and possibly of "the same timber".
Ötzi, by the way is the name given to the frozen mummified body found in the Ötztal Alps in the Tyrol.
(via J Larsson)
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"En randonneur bryter inte bara för att det är lite kallt." ("The Randonneur does not break just because it's a bit cold.")
Brilliant. I'd like to adopt that as a sig line but I don't think I could live up to it.
I see they share Steve's fondness for a sausage or two.
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Ötzi, by the way is the name given to the frozen mummified body found in the Ötztal Alps in the Tyrol.
I've seen him lying in what looks like a high-tech bus shelter in a museum in Bolzano and I'm pleased to report that TG still looks in a rather better state.
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The donations page of Steve's website http://oneyeartimetrial.org.uk/donate seems to have a huge rash of Swedish names at the end. I wonder if it's the Swedes who are discussing this (Salvatore has linked to it). Great though that so many are supporting him!
They are a group who clubbed together to raise a tidy sum.
That’s excellent.
Not only have they been generous and well-informed, I believe they are the first to broach the subject of TG’s bowel functions.
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Swedish (and other) fans of interesting place names may wish to know that Steve is currently within farting distance of Barton in the Beans, Leicestershire.
Pity the splendid cyclists cafe there closed (Betty's) -didn't even have any parking for cars!
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The donations page of Steve's website http://oneyeartimetrial.org.uk/donate seems to have a huge rash of Swedish names at the end. I wonder if it's the Swedes who are discussing this (Salvatore has linked to it). Great though that so many are supporting him!
They are a group who clubbed together to raise a tidy sum.
That’s excellent.
Not only have they been generous and well-informed, I believe they are the first to broach the subject of TG’s bowel functions.
Incredibly generous I've just seen the size of their donation.
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Swedish (and other) fans of interesting place names may wish to know that Steve is currently within farting distance of Barton in the Beans, Leicestershire.
I've bean there. A horse refused to pass my unattended bike.
It should have chewed more thoroughly.
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Swedish (and other) fans of interesting place names may wish to know that Steve is currently within farting distance of Barton in the Beans, Leicestershire.
I've bean there. A horse refused to pass my unattended bike.
It should have chewed more thoroughly.
It was straight from the horse's mouth.
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The donations page of Steve's website http://oneyeartimetrial.org.uk/donate seems to have a huge rash of Swedish names at the end. I wonder if it's the Swedes who are discussing this (Salvatore has linked to it). Great though that so many are supporting him!
I can confirm we are the same people. Our little fundraiser turned out to be a huge success. We are following Steve's progress hour by hour and at the same time joke about how silly our swedish forum looks through google translate. And now we are learning things about places in the UK we never heard of. Like Marsh Gibbon. Hope to see many of you in Paris in August (I have met some of you already both in 1001miglia Italia and PBP)
Cheers,
Jonas
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Brilliant :thumbsup:
Welcome to the forum Jonas.
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Good to hear from you Jonas L. Lots of us are looking forward to meeting other Steve supporters at PBP.
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Hello Jonas! I like the way this challenge can bring people together from different countries around the world.
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This morning Steve reached another milestone in his quest. 10,000
km ridden followers on Strava :)
Steve on Strava (https://www.strava.com/athletes/1419435=)
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What happens if later in the year Steve rides an allnighter? Does he have to stop at some point, get on the internet and upload the first part of the track to Strava? It looks like the HAMR rules tie you to only making daily rides with a break every night. He's got 24 hours to submit to Strava, so I suppose could wait until the second night and upload both parts then?
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Lots of us are looking forward to meeting other Steve supporters at PBP.
Just a thought, but wouldn't it be nice if the organisers of PBP arranged a special ceremonial send off for Steve at the head of the peloton?
Followed immediately by any suppoerter wearing a 1YTT jersey!
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What happens if later in the year Steve rides an allnighter? Does he have to stop at some point, get on the internet and upload the first part of the track to Strava? It looks like the HAMR rules tie you to only making daily rides with a break every night.
This has already been discussed with respect to PBP. The tech Steve has at his disposal means it's not a problem.
Most of my rides are on Strava within minutes of finishing, even if I'm a long way from my desktop computer. And Facebook. And Twitter. (I admit to being a social media junkie.)
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This is a particular issue for the 24-hour TT, when Steve is especially likely to be doing an all-nighter.
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Is this the busiest part of the forum now? I'm checking back here at the same rate that I do when our members are on PBP etc, but this will be going on for a year.
Any IP hits from service providers in Florida?
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Having read and enjoyed many of TG's ride reports in Arrivee. How long will this ride report be?
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Having read and enjoyed many of TG's ride reports in Arrivee. How long will this ride report be?
100,000 miles potentially! :D
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Not sure if it's been discussed before but Steve's calendar has him down to do Ride London 100! Hope he doesn't have to faff around in the start pens with the rest of us and that when he's finished he's allowed to go back to the start and have a 2nd go! He's wanting to hit 300 mpd in July/August.
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The team has been thinking about the problem, mostly how to get Steve in and out of London quickly. Any locals want to work on possible routes?
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Happy to help with routes if I can, starts from my neck of t'woods.
ETA, thinking about it, I'm also likely to about then, so could help with vehicular transport too. Might be easiest to do a car transfer from outside the M25. Similarly to escape The Smoke.
ETAA
From the Ride 100 website
Cycles that are not permitted.....
• Unconventional handlebars (including triathlon bars, aero bars, clip-ons, prayer bars, Spinaci bars and cow bars) are
not allowed.
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I would have thought the A104 through Epping Forest (Dun Run in reverse) would be OK for Steve. I'm assuming that the London 100 starts at the olympic stadium.
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....except that it appears he is staying in New Malden overnight. This might not be the most sensible option as it means a cross London jaunt. Depends I suppose on how much other riding he will need to do that day.
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From the Ride 100 website
Cycles that are not permitted.....
• Unconventional handlebars (including triathlon bars, aero bars, clip-ons, prayer bars, Spinaci bars and cow bars) are
not allowed.
Maybe he could borrow a recumbent for the day? ;D
(I note they've got strange rules about those, too. Full fairings are banned on safety grounds but no mention of chainring guards.)
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Depending on Steve's start time getting through London on that particular morning will not be a problem as there are so few cars and so many cyclists on the road. Last year I travelled along the Embankment and then A11 at about 4:30 - 5:00 am. Travelling from New Malden shouldn't be a problem.
After Ride London though I'd try to see if Steve could be allowed to ride West on the A4 ( which should still be closed ahead of the pro race ) and try for a flat run past the Chilterns and out. I'd certainly not recommend going back into London which could be very busy because of the road closures. I'd not suggest a vehicle transfer either for the same reason.
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If a vehicle transfer were to be used, then surely the best vehicle to use would be a train?
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If a vehicle transfer were to be used, then surely the best vehicle to use would be a train?
You might have thought so, but the M11 provides an effective conduit to very close to the stadium making it most effective for the purpose.
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If a vehicle transfer were to be used, then surely the best vehicle to use would be a train?
Or Paychler's black cab?
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'ere, I 'ad that teefgroaner in the back of me cab last week .....
(with apols to psychler ;) )
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I have just discovered that Teethgrinder is a Dutch heavy metal band playing something called 'Grindcore'.
Go Sleep Steve!
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http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/therapy/teethgrinder.html
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http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/therapy/teethgrinder.html
Steve is indeed a fan (as am I and a few others on here). Someone should drop them a line...
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The lodger this evening.
"Oh OK. What's he going to do next after he's done that?"
??? ??? :facepalm:
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The lodger this evening.
"Oh OK. What's he going to do next after he's done that?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouYKeeTz7Yw
https://youtu.be/ouYKeeTz7Yw
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:D
That was my dad's favourite film. Having BTDT I suppose.
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I belatedly realised that yesterday's LOL 200 passed within about 12km of Marsh Gibbon - the first control at Quainton was just down the road. Shame it didn't occur to me sooner or I might have made a detour.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouYKeeTz7Yw
https://youtu.be/ouYKeeTz7Yw
bearded deity on a bike, didn't anyone on set know how to pour a lager?
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In the pub last night, I contemplated,
In one day, Steve rides more miles than,,,
A maximum break in snooker.
Three double twenties.
All the beds in both the dart boards.
The jackpot on the fruit machine. ( £s )
The numbers on the 15 pool balls added together.
Double the legal BAC in mg/100ml.
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Also contemplated was the amount of energy Steve uses per day compared with other sports.
Twelve rounds of golf.
Six soccer matches.
Four tennis matches.
A five day cricket match.
Swimming the English Channel.
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How does it compare to climbing Ben Nevis?
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Work it out.
For Horizontal distance its 60 kCals/km and for Vertical distance its mass in kg x g x metre gained, in Joules.
4.2 kJ per kCal.
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The Eiffel Tower, with 300 m of stairs would take an 80 kg man about 200 kCals to trot up the stairs and back down again, assuming the back and forth of the stairs accumulated to 1 km.
So climb the Eiffel tower 40 times in 16 hours 40 minutes and that’s equivalent of what Steve is doing each day.
At that rate, the tower would need to be climbed up and ran down every 25 minutes.
Which is approx. 8 kCals/min work.
Do it in 23 minutes at 8.7 kCals/min and the man can have two forty minute sausage breaks.
Now consider if a Parisian chap volunteered to trot up and down the Eiffel Tower 40 times in 16 hrs 40 mins. It would be on National TV all round the World.
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Work it out.
For Horizontal distance its 60 kCals/km and for Vertical distance its mass in kg x g x metre gained, in Joules.
4.2 kJ per kCal.
OK. A walk up the tourist track of Ben Nevis involves about 1300 metres of climbing in about 8 kilometres. I was probably about 18 stone (115kg) when I last did it. Add boots and pack, say 120kg
What does the g represent in your "kg * g * metre gained" calculation?
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Gravity?
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850 kCals.
Do it 8 times in 16 hours.
1 hr 15 mins up, 45 mins down.
7 kCals / min.
EASY ?? ;)
Then the day after you can do the Pen-Y-Fan 15 times.
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You overlook the problem that it took us about 4 hours to walk to the top and by the time we had got back to the car our knees were buggered and we could hardly walk. We toyed with the idea, that evening, of calling out Mountain Rescue to give us a lift from the pub back to the B & B. :P
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And then go for a walk across an Island with a 35 lb backpack.
(http://i1085.photobucket.com/albums/j433/Lighthorse2/Marines_zpsfbbwrtol.jpg) (http://s1085.photobucket.com/user/Lighthorse2/media/Marines_zpsfbbwrtol.jpg.html)
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I'd have thought 35 lb to be somewhat on the light side even for standard issue Brutal and Licentious Soldiery.
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I'd have thought 35 lb to be somewhat on the light side even for standard issue Brutal and Licentious Soldiery.
In the Falklands, the famous "Yomp" to Port Stanley, the Paras were carrying around 100lb sacks plus the weight of the guns and amo they had as well.
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What does the g represent in your "kg * g * metre gained" calculation?
the acceleration due to gravity = 9.8 ms-2. (call it 10)
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... and also equal to 10 newton per kilogram; the strength of Earth's gravitational field in these parts.
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... and also equal to 10 newton per kilogram; the strength of Earth's gravitational field in these parts.
Where Kurt is, he's further from the centre of the earth, and has slightly lower gravity, making climbing easier. Or something like that - he just gets all the breaks.
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Although I note that on Strava, Kurt has elected to place himself in the 85-95kg category whereas Steve is in the 65-74kg group. Those 9.81 ms-2 have more Kurt to play with than they do with Steve.
[Edit] Although perhaps for different reasons, they are both governed by the MAMIL conjecture:
Rider weight + bike weight = constant.
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... and also equal to 10 newton per kilogram; the strength of Earth's gravitational field in these parts.
When I was at school, it was a capital N because Newton was a bloke. The unit is N, for Newtons.
Similarly,
temperature is K for Lord Kelvin.
Energy is J for James Prescot Joule. ( kilo Joules, not kilo James )
Power is W for James Watt.
Electrical current is A for Andre-Marie Ampere ( milli Ampere, not milli Andre )
Capacitance is F for Michael Faraday.
Magnetic flux density is T for Nikola Tesla.
Noise is B for Alexander Graham Bell.
A new unit of length is being discussed, which is equivalent to 204.53 statute miles, and is being called the G for a Marsh Gibbon.
30.4375 x G = mthG, or Montha Gibbons.
204.53 x 30.4375 = 6225.5 statute miles = 1/4 round the Earth's equator.
Therefore, 4 mthG is once round the Earth's equator.
The larger unit is the bdmthG, or baker's dozen of Montha Gibbons, = 80931.5 statute miles.
There is a cyclist aiming to ride his bicycle 1 bdmthG in 1 year.
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Work it out.
For Horizontal distance its 60 kCals/km and for Vertical distance its mass in kg x g x metre gained, in Joules.
4.2 kJ per kCal.
It can't be 60kcal/km, can it? That would make 12,000kcals for a "mere" 200km audax, before you add in any climbing, and that can't be right. Besides, surely it depends how fast you ride, what the wind's doing, and other factors?
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I reckon 20-25kCal/km based on powertap data I used to collect.
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It slipped my mind but it is too important for me not to share this.
The Head Teacher of one of the schools I teach at is one Mrs. Gibbon. She's lovely and comes form Merthyr Tydfil..
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I read the 60kCal/km figure to be for walking wrt walking up Ben Nevis?
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The unit is N, for Newtons.
In a doubly pedantic way I wish to point out that, though the unit is indeed depicted by N, N stands for newton (no capital and no "s").
But the bdmthG is infinitely better in any number of ways!
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Work it out.
For Horizontal distance its 60 kCals/km and for Vertical distance its mass in kg x g x metre gained, in Joules.
4.2 kJ per kCal.
It can't be 60kcal/km, can it? That would make 12,000kcals for a "mere" 200km audax, before you add in any climbing, and that can't be right. Besides, surely it depends how fast you ride, what the wind's doing, and other factors?
He's WALKING.
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When an animate being becomes ambulant, there are two factors to consider. The forces required for movement through a fluid and raising mass against gravity.
The single most calorific expensive exercise is swimming uphill in treacle.
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Surely to follow convention it should be Gmth (Gibbon months). Just like mAh it would then allow scaling prefixes to be added.
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The single most calorific expensive exercise is swimming uphill in treacle.
I can't believe it requires more energy than trying to get your bank to acknowledge a change of address.
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The single most calorific expensive exercise is swimming uphill in treacle.
I can't believe it requires more energy than trying to get your bank to acknowledge a change of address.
How do you know they haven't, if they got it wrong?
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I don't think Steve needs to work out where to go because, according to a couple of comments on yesterday's Strava ride, we're all routing for him.
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The single most calorific expensive exercise is swimming uphill in treacle.
That activity does, at least, enable one to refuel as one goes along, though ... :)
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I've been thinking about this Highest Annual Mileage Record. The important aspects seem to be (1) to get up early and ride, (2) to keep riding until it's night, and (3) to cycle around as much of the country as possible. If I already held the record, I'd certainly do all this to see off any challengers.
If I had the HAM'R, I'd HAM'R in the morning, I'd HAM'R in the evening, all over this land.
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I'd HAM’R out danger,
I'd HAM’R out a warning,
I'd HAM’R out the road between my breakfast and my dinner,
All over this land.
:thumbsup:
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I'd HAM’R out danger,
I'd HAM’R out a warning,
I'd HAM’R out the road between my breakfast and my dinner,
All over this land.
:thumbsup:
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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I realised yesterday, that I expect everyone to beat Godwin's record (maybe not Ironox). It's shocking how warped my sense of reality has become.
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In my unofficial attempt to beat Ham'r, I can now confirm that, as of yesterday I am 13554 miles behind Steve, 12463 behind Kurt, 11144 behind Tommy and 803 behind Iron Ox.
I am now locked in a head to head fight to the death match against Iron Ox for last place! ;D
P.S. I am currently winning that one!
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When I lived in Peckham, in the last century this (http://goo.gl/maps/vtzIf) was my local offie.
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Work it out.
For Horizontal distance its 60 kCals/km and for Vertical distance its mass in kg x g x metre gained, in Joules.
4.2 kJ per kCal.
It can't be 60kcal/km, can it? That would make 12,000kcals for a "mere" 200km audax, before you add in any climbing, and that can't be right. Besides, surely it depends how fast you ride, what the wind's doing, and other factors?
Do any of these figures include the energy requirement for the body to do it's repair work on the following days? On multi-day rides with no let up that becomes an ongoing need and must add considerably to what the physics suggests.
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The amount of ‘repair work’ is related to the athlete’s exertions against what he could do.
Muscle fibre trauma is not necessarily based on the absolute physics of the task, but based on the work done relative to the athlete’s capabilities.
For example, a ‘newbie’ cyclist who is asked to ride at 16 mph with an output of 125 W , and has a FTP of 125, will only last 1 hour and need to rest and repair until the muscles have recovered.
A half decent cyclist with an FTP of 250 will be using half his potential, and the timescale for longer durations can be read off Wilson and Whitt’s chart.
A good cyclist with a FTP of 375 will be using one third of his potential. He’ll be able to ride all day at 16 mph, take a night’s sleep and do it again tomorrow with not much bother.
In a gym, a new cyclist will score an 8 or 9 RPE for a 200 W 20 minute ride. A good cyclist will score the 20 minutes at 200 W as a 2 or 3.
Steve will score that as a 1.
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In my unofficial attempt to beat Ham'r, I can now confirm that, as of yesterday I am 13554 miles behind Steve, 12463 behind Kurt, 11144 behind Tommy and 803 behind Iron Ox.
Bizarrely I am currently ahead of the Great Ox - he is currently showing 1,903, while I'm on 2,580. That's just ridiculous. ::-)
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In my unofficial attempt to beat Ham'r, I can now confirm that, as of yesterday I am 13554 miles behind Steve, 12463 behind Kurt, 11144 behind Tommy and 803 behind Iron Ox.
Bizarrely I am currently ahead of the Great Ox - he is currently showing 1,903, while I'm on 2,580. That's just ridiculous. ::-)
I'm ahead of Miles Smith ::-)
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Why does HAM'R have an apostrophe?
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Because HAMR is a Heat Adaptive Modular Rifle, and if that abbrev was used, the CIA, FBI and MI5 would be picking up the site every day, and get sick and tired of it, to the point of covertly closing the site.
TBH, its the perfect tool for popping gibbons out of trees. :demon:
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Work it out.
For Horizontal distance its 60 kCals/km and for Vertical distance its mass in kg x g x metre gained, in Joules.
4.2 kJ per kCal.
It can't be 60kcal/km, can it? That would make 12,000kcals for a "mere" 200km audax, before you add in any climbing, and that can't be right. Besides, surely it depends how fast you ride, what the wind's doing, and other factors?
He's WALKING.
Who's walking? I thought it was about how much energy Steve uses.
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Goodness gracious and other mild exclamations. I hope I haven't brought YACF to the attention of the mighty forces of gibbon protection. I lead a sheltered life.
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Work it out.
For Horizontal distance its 60 kCals/km and for Vertical distance its mass in kg x g x metre gained, in Joules.
4.2 kJ per kCal.
It can't be 60kcal/km, can it? That would make 12,000kcals for a "mere" 200km audax, before you add in any climbing, and that can't be right. Besides, surely it depends how fast you ride, what the wind's doing, and other factors?
He's WALKING.
Who's walking? I thought it was about how much energy Steve uses.
It was.
The topic expanded to compare Steve’s efforts with other activities. Like “How many times must I climb Ben Nevis to equal Steve’s daily calorie burn?”
Then it went to forty walks up the Eiffel Tower because walking upstairs is about the same kCals/min as cycling at 16 mph on the flat.
All I can say for definite is if one follows Steve on one’s bicycle about fifty yards behind, one will experience approximately the same energy expenditure as him, and get a good idea of just how good he is.
TMK, no-one has done that yet.
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Muscle fibre trauma is not necessarily based on the absolute physics of the task, but based on the work done relative to the athlete’s capabilities.
Ahh, that explains why I'm always ravishing ravenous for days after a half Abraham!
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Why does HAM'R have an apostrophe?
For the same reason that RAAM is short for Race Across AMerica, or that Noddy has a bell on his hat?
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I thought Noddy had mirrors on his hat. ???
https://youtu.be/RPTk5poAa1c
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Why does HAM'R have an apostrophe?
I think the noun they are eluding to is HAMMER so the apostrophe
acts to signify that there are letters missing in that part of the word.
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I thought Noddy had mirrors on his hat. ???
https://youtu.be/RPTk5poAa1c
Mama weer all gibbons now.
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When I lived in Peckham, in the last century this (http://goo.gl/maps/vtzIf) was my local offie.
I first read that as 'office'.
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Another big question that's going to have me on tenterhooks is whether Steve will reach 1,000,000 kudoses on Strava by year's end. He'd currently on 150,000. Will he? Won't he?
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A quote from down under
Gabrielle260 on Aussie Cycle Forum
(http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=81042&sid=51579ca23f6925942347b3eaabd6f268&start=300)These Poms are strange!
Due to injury I have a bit of time on my hands so I have spent a couple of hours this sunny, beautiful morning reading some of the threads on the YACF forum about Steve Abraham's attempt.
Well, someone worked out that Abraham frequently goes through a village called Marsh Gibbon and started to track how often he did it. That lead to 3 pages of posts.
Then someone proposed ringing the church bells at Marsh Gibbon regularly to commemorate his ride. Apparently if you ring the bells in certain sequences and complexities, it gets recorded in a register for posterity. They have already approached the church and got permission. Two pages of posts.
Finally, someone has produced commemorative tea towels showing how many Marsh Gibbon visits Abraham has done and is running an auction for the limited first run of them. After 2 pages of threads, the bidding is up to 200 pounds sterling with all proceeds going to Abraham's ride.
AMAZING! They truly are a weird lot over there.
As someone said on their forum, I just can't imagine the yanks doing anything like this for Searvogel!
More seriously, I think it is an insight into Abraham's character and reputation amongst the UK Audax fraternity.
Just a thought; can Australia's cyclists get behind Miles Smith to this extent?
A tongue in cheek comment about poms being weird, but spot on about Steves character and reputation.
Thought people would like to know that their efforts have gained worldwide attention.
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A quote from down under
Gabrielle260 on Aussie Cycle Forum
(http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=81042&sid=51579ca23f6925942347b3eaabd6f268&start=300)These Poms are strange!
Due to injury I have a bit of time on my hands so I have spent a couple of hours this sunny, beautiful morning reading some of the threads on the YACF forum about Steve Abraham's attempt.
Well, someone worked out that Abraham frequently goes through a village called Marsh Gibbon and started to track how often he did it. That lead to 3 pages of posts.
Then someone proposed ringing the church bells at Marsh Gibbon regularly to commemorate his ride. Apparently if you ring the bells in certain sequences and complexities, it gets recorded in a register for posterity. They have already approached the church and got permission. Two pages of posts.
Finally, someone has produced commemorative tea towels showing how many Marsh Gibbon visits Abraham has done and is running an auction for the limited first run of them. After 2 pages of threads, the bidding is up to 200 pounds sterling with all proceeds going to Abraham's ride.
AMAZING! They truly are a weird lot over there.
As someone said on their forum, I just can't imagine the yanks doing anything like this for Searvogel!
More seriously, I think it is an insight into Abraham's character and reputation amongst the UK Audax fraternity.
Just a thought; can Australia's cyclists get behind Miles Smith to this extent?
A tongue in cheek comment about poms being weird, but spot on about Steves character and reputation.
Thought people would like to know that their efforts have gained worldwide attention.
That is a great post form Gabrielle260.
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Of course, not everybody here is a Pom...
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Of course, not everybody here is a Pom...
No but, as an outsider living amongst you, I'd say she's got it spot on! :thumbsup:
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I'm an Aussie.
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Therefore, 4 mthG is once round the Earth's equator.
Isn't a mthG almost exactly 10,000km?
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Therefore, 4 mthG is once round the Earth's equator.
Isn't a mthG almost exactly 10,000km?
Is that measured on a great circle route passing through Marsh Gibbon?
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I'm an Aussie.
It's OK. We won't tell anyone.
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There is a good interview with Steve on the Old School MTB (http://oldschoolmtb.co.uk/?p=72) site. :thumbsup:
OSMTB: What inspires you each morning to get back in the saddle?
SA: It is just daily routine; it is not about being inspired, it is just what I am doing.
Typical Teethgrinder. ;D
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A quote from down under
Gabrielle260 on Aussie Cycle Forum
(http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=81042&sid=51579ca23f6925942347b3eaabd6f268&start=300)These Poms are strange!
Due to injury I have a bit of time on my hands so I have spent a couple of hours this sunny, beautiful morning reading some of the threads on the YACF forum about Steve Abraham's attempt.
Well, someone worked out that Abraham frequently goes through a village called Marsh Gibbon and started to track how often he did it. That lead to 3 pages of posts.
Then someone proposed ringing the church bells at Marsh Gibbon regularly to commemorate his ride. Apparently if you ring the bells in certain sequences and complexities, it gets recorded in a register for posterity. They have already approached the church and got permission. Two pages of posts.
Finally, someone has produced commemorative tea towels showing how many Marsh Gibbon visits Abraham has done and is running an auction for the limited first run of them. After 2 pages of threads, the bidding is up to 200 pounds sterling with all proceeds going to Abraham's ride.
AMAZING! They truly are a weird lot over there.
As someone said on their forum, I just can't imagine the yanks doing anything like this for Searvogel!
More seriously, I think it is an insight into Abraham's character and reputation amongst the UK Audax fraternity.
Just a thought; can Australia's cyclists get behind Miles Smith to this extent?
A tongue in cheek comment about poms being weird, but spot on about Steves character and reputation.
Thought people would like to know that their efforts have gained worldwide attention.
That is a great post form Gabrielle260.
I'm waiting for when they find the Didcot thread ;D
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A quote from down under
Gabrielle260 on Aussie Cycle Forum
(http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=81042&sid=51579ca23f6925942347b3eaabd6f268&start=300)These Poms are strange!
Due to injury I have a bit of time on my hands so I have spent a couple of hours this sunny, beautiful morning reading some of the threads on the YACF forum about Steve Abraham's attempt.
Well, someone worked out that Abraham frequently goes through a village called Marsh Gibbon and started to track how often he did it. That lead to 3 pages of posts.
Then someone proposed ringing the church bells at Marsh Gibbon regularly to commemorate his ride. Apparently if you ring the bells in certain sequences and complexities, it gets recorded in a register for posterity. They have already approached the church and got permission. Two pages of posts.
Finally, someone has produced commemorative tea towels showing how many Marsh Gibbon visits Abraham has done and is running an auction for the limited first run of them. After 2 pages of threads, the bidding is up to 200 pounds sterling with all proceeds going to Abraham's ride.
AMAZING! They truly are a weird lot over there.
As someone said on their forum, I just can't imagine the yanks doing anything like this for Searvogel!
More seriously, I think it is an insight into Abraham's character and reputation amongst the UK Audax fraternity.
Just a thought; can Australia's cyclists get behind Miles Smith to this extent?
A tongue in cheek comment about poms being weird, but spot on about Steves character and reputation.
Thought people would like to know that their efforts have gained worldwide attention.
That is a great post form Gabrielle260.
I'm waiting for when they find the Didcot thread ;D
Thanks everyone....
I'll make sure to search out the Didcot thread!
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Just saw graph for an opinion poll on the news regarding the election, and for a split second I thought it was a process chart for Ham'r.
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There's an election?
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There's an election?
Not for quite some time I'm afraid... oh, sorry you said "ELECTION". As you were...
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There's an election?
Yep, we get to vote for Teethgrinder as world president. This is the announcement that will be made by Steve's team at the end of the week.
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I finally got round to uploading the photos I took at the Near Year's Day '10'. Clicky here for the Start of the Whole Thing (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_larrington/sets/72157651511016138/).
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:)
Thanks Mr L.
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I'm currently feeling a pang of irritation every time I see that the daily Tommy Godwin mileage tweet shows a number lower than Steve would have posted if it weren't for that #bloodymopedist
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Oi! What's Steve doing browsing car websites in the States?
http://jalopnik.com/why-is-there-a-million-dollar-91-corolla-on-autotrader-1700484746
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C'mon steve,
sing us a song.
http://www.stevenabraham.com
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This guy will sort out the crash claim.
http://www.eadsolicitors.co.uk/our-people/steve-abraham/
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I rode the Lincolnshire Cross yesterday, and the lady running the cafe that served as the control at the halfway point (Waltham Windmill) reminisced:
"There was a guy, not last year but the year before, who'd cycled all the way from Milton Keynes ....."
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Was this steve?
http://pages.rapha.cc/stories/pbp-2011-four-journeys
One rider we came across on the second afternoon, and who happily munched his way through the sausages taped to his top tube,
Truncated due to libelous content
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There was quite a lot of that sort of thing on PBP.
(Not the sausages)
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It occurred to me that TG's efforts really leave me struggling to understand. It could be said, then, that his efforts bugger imagination.
For those who peddle their bikes, you may want to know that the word should be "beggar" as in "beggars belief" or "beggars imagination" meaning it makes your belief or imagination poorer, leaving it behind. Saying it buggers imagination is a poor attempt at humour that I am not certain works. Oh Well.
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16 across in today's Guardian quick crossword: small ape (6), starts with G, ends with N.
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16 across in today's Guardian quick crossword: small ape (6), starts with G, ends with N.
Is it Steve Abraham?
Dammit. I hate crosswords.
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16 across in today's Guardian quick crossword: small ape (6), starts with G, ends with N.
Is it Steve Abraham?
No, that's the info control on the Tamworth 100.
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16 across in today's Guardian quick crossword: small ape (6), starts with G, ends with N.
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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Does this mean that spies have got in on all the secrets?
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Sorry it's contravening the 'no links to ebay' rule, but...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Recumbent-ICE-VTX-Trike-Steve-Abrahams-rode-90-miles-in-a-day-using-one-leg-/121681697955?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1c54cb5ca3
;D
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Sorry it's contravening the 'no links to ebay' rule, but...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Recumbent-ICE-VTX-Trike-Steve-Abrahams-rode-90-miles-in-a-day-using-one-leg-/121681697955?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1c54cb5ca3
;D
Shouldn't Steve be hanging on to it for the time being, just in case.
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Is there an equivalent rule to the UCI hour record where you must complete the lap that you are on when the hour is up to allow calculation of distance? ;D (Maybe "complete the day/month/year during which your 365 day period is up" :demon: )
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I notice that Steve is leading the Strava Tour de France challenge. Interesting to see the second place contender who will have to up his game if he wants to take yellow.
(http://gicentre.org/oytt/images/tdfChallenge.png)
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I notice that Steve is leading the Strava Tour de France challenge. Interesting to see the second place contender who will have to up his game if he wants to take yellow.
(http://gicentre.org/oytt/images/tdfChallenge.png)
The second contender is actually riding the Tour de France. Would be interesting if more TdF riders participate in this challenge (a few dozen ar on strava)
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The second contender is actually riding the Tour de France.
Er, yes. That was my point. Go Steve!
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I think our East Anglian contingent should be out writing on the road.
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Steve has a choice today.
Either put in a long day; or be picked up by East Anglia's Air Ambulance piloted by HRH William Wales.
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(Without disrespect to HRH or anyone else, I was much more excited to see Steve on the road a few months back, than I would have been to see HRH.)
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I think our East Anglian contingent should be out writing on the road.
It ain't gonna last 10 minutes on the main roads he's riding round here.
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I was out last night and it seems that I passed within a few hundred metres of Steve's track (we both went through Saffron Walden, although he was there a few hours ahead of me, I think, and our tracks didn't quite cross).
There was still plenty of painted slogans on the roads I rode home on left over from last year's TdF. It's always nice to see "Shut up Legs" on the brow of a hill.
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I did a Gibbon on Saturday.
I went to Granborough Charter Fayre.
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As pointed out on Strava, Steve has now climbed about 1,000,000 feet since the start of the year. Thats a vertical climb of over 300km.
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In September, he'll float past the climb figure associated with my highest AAA points total, if he maintains that average vertical pace.
(in reality he's probably passed it already, as Strava's climb figures are generally on the low side compared to contour counts and other approaches).
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As pointed out on Strava, Steve has now climbed about 1,000,000 feet since the start of the year. Thats a vertical climb of over 300km.
Steve 'Space shuttle' Abrams.
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Kurt had some battery problems with his GPS yesterday and had to move to a backup device with dodgy elevation recording. The result is that he looks like he's just ridden down a semi-arid talus slope geomorphology diagram:
(http://gicentre.org/oytt/images/talusSlope.png)
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I'll have to take your words for that, jo!
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Looks like southern Utah...
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News articles on Steve
http://www.mamilsports.com/december-steve-abraham-one-year-time-trial/