After last weekend's failure to complete this ride, four of us attempted it again. LBL2! We started earlier at 7:30am (ridiculously early) and resolved to keep the stops short.
And we did it! It took 14 hours, with 9.5 hours in the saddle- in spite of "shorter" stops, somewhere we lost 4.5 hours. All those little stops really add up. But to be honest, they were pretty much needed. Also there were a few incidents too. One crash, thanks to unfortunate lack of road markings. Fortunately not a lot of damage to humans or bike. One bee sting, those holes in the helmets can be an issue! One puncture, quickly fixed.
The overall high score; 220 kms. I think I can say that is sufficient practice for the L2P! Next weekend will be a well deserved shorter ride, with the following weekend the actual L2P ride!
In an attempt to get my miles up I and five others attempted to ride to London to Brighton return.
The route was again "borrowed" from the very useful Dirty Wknd club. I'm thinking I should join since I've now used a few of their well curated routes.
When I say "attempted" we were hampered by a very eventful day. Getting to the start was difficult for some because of broken trains. Completing the event was difficult because of a broken bike and crazy heat. Somehow London managed to pull a 32 degree day out of the hat. Ice baths became a stop requirement, but even so people slowly wilted. As time went by the six that started slowly dwindled down to two. And even then we had to give up at Dorking as the thought of Box Hill in the dark didn't sound like fun.
However it's all good, 174km for the day is my personal high score, so very happy. It was a great day
Fundraising
We're getting there with the sponsorship! A few more donations will push it over the line. Cancer is a worthy cause, one that touches us all in some way. I'm working hard to make this charity ride a reality, so I'd really appreciate any help you can give to get me to my sponsorship goal. Please see my sponsorship page for details on how to donate. Thank you!
Dirty Wknd is a cycling club with a difference. Most clubs in London seem to be pretty hard core and concentrate on racing or really long rides. Dirty Wknd concentrates on being more accessible and having fun. It does have some hard core rides, but all the rides are tagged with a colour, much like a ski slope. Different colours annoyingly. A red ride will kill you, unlike a red run on the slopes!
Bakery 2 Bakery
For my first ride I wanted something not too challenging as I was unsure of how much my usual solo average speed would be affected by riding in a group - riding in a group is much easier than riding by yourself.
So a Yellow ride made sense. Unfortunately none were available when I came to book, so I managed to talk myself into thinking I could keep with an Orange ride (one under red).
I met up with the group in Victoria Park and was surprised to find that there were only four others on the ride. Apparently the previous days atrocious weather and the amount of wind we'd be riding in had scared everyone away. It turns out that there was a red ride starting from the same point as well but the ride hadn't happened. Two of the riders were refugees from the red ride.
We took off with a hiss and and a roar. These guys were fast. The ride was supposed to achieve an average of 24km/h and we were sitting on 28 - 30, which for me fast. However while it was hard, being in a group made a massive difference and I was able to keep up. At the half way bakery we had averaged a massive 27km/h!
Heading home that all changed as we had a headwind all the way back. The speeds tumbled and the two red riders eventually disappeared into the sunset, the speeds were obviously too show for them. I had to console myself with the fact that we were still well above the planned ride average.
The ride leader told me at the end that it was a "pacey" introduction! Apparently if the group had been bigger we would have been under the average speed, given the amount of wind we had. The take home; There's hope for me yet!
Rowe and King South London Rideout
Rowe and King are the training organisation work has used to try to whip us commuting cyclists into some kind of shape. Surprisingly they seem to be succeeding.
This ride was the latest in a series that have included a Velodrome session (loads of very fast fun), the Chiltern 100 and an earlier ride out.
There were three rides: short, medium and long. I decided that given the L2P is getting close I should be doing the long ride of 125 kms. The sentiment was good, however the thinking-it-through bit was sadly lacking. I already knew from the velodrome session that we have some spectacularly fast cyclists at work. It didn't occur to me they would all do the long ride.
I soon realised my mistake! I found the pace quite quick from the off but was comfortable keeping up as long as I was in the group, however all that lovely wind assistance disappears when you hit a hill. The pack simply vanished. I wasn't the only one having difficulty. Fortunately the downhill speeds were fairly low so I was able to catch up, but I wondered how I was going to last the day.
Fate to the rescue! The medium and short groups had left before us and we caught the medium group before we turned off to our longer route. I quietly switched groups and found a pace that I could cope with. Annoyingly I was still one of the slowest up the hills, but with the slower pace it was much easier to catch up after the hill.
Then the heavens opened. It was really, really wet. Proper rain, the likes of which England rarely gets. We were in the middle of tiny lanes through hills and the edges of the road quickly turned to mud. The result was a couple of crashes. One we all stopped for while it was sorted, however the second the message didn't get through. Two of us stopped to help and when we got going it was clear that we were on our own. It was slower going as we didn't have the benefit of a group, but the sun came out and we had a lovely ride for the last half of the ride.
Fundraising
As usual, there is the usual request for sponsorship! Cancer is a worthy cause, one that touches us all in some way. I'm working hard to make this charity ride a reality, so I'd really appreciate any help you can give to get me to my sponsorship goal. Please see my sponsorship page for details on how to donate. Thank you!
Well, 19 miles of it anyway! On the Thursday before the event I received an email saying that there were still places on the Pru19, which completely surprised me as the main 100 mile ride fills up almost a year out. Because the short ride was the same route as the last 19 miles of the 100 miler I assumed everyone would be tired and it would be a fairly slow meander back into London, so I to get to the start line I headed through the hills to the south of Croydon to add on an extra 40 miles. At the start I joined a colleague, Trevor Carden and his son, and we set off for the ride into London. It was anything but a slow meander! I ended up having the highest average speed ever! I've never ridden in such a fast, large group before and I was surprised how much help you got from slipstream from so many cyclists around you.
Bike Fit!
If only this meant the bike had become more fit. Instead it is a two hours session in a bike shop to fit the bike to you:
"Using 3D motion capture technology, the Retül system accurately measures every degree of movement and millimeter of distance, providing you and the fitter with data to support the choices made during the fit for your cycling equipment and personal riding experience"
I was strapped up with data dots and then had to ride my bike in front of a camera and have my every wobble and defect recorded and analysed by the Retul system in excruciating detail. Apparently my knees move in an oval when I ride, and that is probably why I am starting to get knee issues. I really didn't like hearing about all the things that were wrong. Still, this is why you do this, to find out what isn't working. So after changing the length and angle of the handlebar stem, moving the seat and seat height and adding a few degrees tilt to my left foot the computer said my position and movement was much improved. How much only time will tell. In spite of all the computing accuracy, the human body is even more complex and takes a while to settle to any changes.
Fingers crossed.
The Goal
Of course there is a reason for all this activity, The London to Paris Ride in 24 Hours in support of The Teenage Cancer trust. It would be great if you could help me reach my fundraising target (28% so far) by donating through my sponsorship page.
It has been a very long time since I've posted anything here. It's not that I haven't been doing anything, it's I'm not great at blogging... Anyways it's time I posted something new, and this time, different. Introducing:
London to Paris in 24 Hours!
I like my cycling and cycle to work most days, however it hasn't been much more than that. While over the past few years I have done a few rides outside my commuting comfort zone, they haven't been especially long or taxing.
I'm not quite sure how it happened, but somehow someone at work has talked me into this crazy venture. I guess part of the appeal is that it is a bit different and more than a little crazy. On top of this those that know me are aware that I really find fundraising challenging and would rather do anything else. Anyway here goes:
Who's got a new bike then? And the full Mamil regalia to boot
In the afternoon on 13 September I and 300 colleagues will leave work in Canary Wharf and ride 100kms to Newhaven on England's south coast. From there we catch a 4 hour ferry to Dieppe. It will be my only chance to rest and hopefully get a bit of sleep.
From there it is merely another 170km's to get to Paris!
The reason for all this craziness is a worthy cause, The Teenage Cancer Trust. The £300k raised will go towards a new, pioneering hospital ward in London and a team of community nurses, enabling the charity, for the first time, to reach every young person with cancer in London and the South East
I would really appreciate it if you could sponsor me in this effort! I have £1000 to raise. Both the fundraising and the ride are no minor undertaking (I'm not sure which will be the hardest!), so it would be great if you could help me achieve my fundraising target. Please!
Well of course! Cycling 10km to work each day wasn't going to cut it. The guys at work who are organising the whole thing know it too, so they have arranged a training program that will hopefully help get fit.
Some of the training has actually been fun! This is the Herne Hill Velodrome where we got to practise going fast while ridiculously close to the rider in front
No overlapping wheels!
It was dangerous enough that before we went out we got some serious briefing. Apparently it can go bad very quickly!
Surprisingly the training is actually having some effect, my rides have been getting longer and the times have been getting better. Below are some of the more interesting/longer rides.
“Surely not, don’t you mean the artificial ski slope they built”?
One of the fun things I have found since my trip to Japan is how few people know that it snows in Japan, let alone has ski fields or mountains. It is amazing to think that it has the best powder in the world and almost nobody knows.
Where to go?
Typical Hokkaido snow – this is 20 minutes accumulation. You can see through the powder!
Choosing where to go was a nightmare and I kept Uncle Google up late many nights trying to figure it out. There are there hundreds of ski fields and resorts, many of them are nothing more than a single chair up a small hill, most don’t have a website or if they do, it’s in Japanese. On top of this it is often impossible to figure out what ski fields are geographically close together.
I eventually found the Snow Japan website and its associated forums which are devoted to trying to help with this problem. The forums I found the most useful and with the help of some of the forums denizens I decided to go to a ski area in Hokkaido called Niseko.
Nice in Niseko!
The snow in Hokkaido starts life as a frigid wind that sweeps across Siberia and then down across the Sea of Japan, where it sucks up a heap of moisture from the relatively warm water. Once it makes landfall it does what all self respecting clouds do and dumps big time. Being as the wind is still damn cold it makes for very cold and very dry snow. And Hokkaido gets most of it.
Between January and March this is the prevailing wind… Basically it snows all the time. Perfect!
Ski Beaver rips up a fresh line. Click for more crazy pow shots!
A vid of some mellow powder in the middle of the Niseko Resort
For the die hard Steep n Deep skiers Hokkaido is not the place to be, it definitely has the deep, but not so much of the steep. Now I quite like my steep (a la Fernie) so I was a little worried that I would get bored with Niseko. I needn’t have worried. The combination of lack of people skiing off piste, the quantity of new snow and the quality of the snow you could always find fresh lines of light fluffy powder. The funny thing is, the locals regard Niseko’s powder as being wet and heavy. I found this incredibly hard to believe, this was the lightest powder I’d ever skied. However, as I found out later, it was quite true. The snow further inland would hang in the air after you passed, much like smoke.
Japanese English is soooo much fun. This sign has nothing to do with food or bad pop…
Unfortunately for me, I’d done it again, I’d picked a less than ideal season. Hokkaido only got half it’s projected snow fall, they were looking at a record six metres of snow, well down on their usual 12. This meant that there were actually some dry weeks in the Jan to March period. If anyone even thinks the GW words, they’re going to get a slap. It’s not happening, I don’t want to know. I’ve got my head firmly buried in the snow.
I should put this in perspective though. Because of the ticketing prices I was buying daily passes, so when the snow wasn’t exciting I stayed home. In spite of this I still got 50 days in, 45 of which were powder days. It’s all relative, compared with last year Japan had a bad year, but I did enough powder days to make me into a serious powder snob.
The Sapporo Snow Festival was HUGE. There was 3 kilometres of snow and Ice Sculptures. You can see more pictures here and here.
A side effect of having less snow meant that I did a lot more exploring off piste. In Niseko this is relatively safe, it’s not that steep so the risk of avalanches is usually low. Niseko Snow Patrol, like their Canadian counterparts, limit access to off piste areas when it is dangerous. Unfortunately, their decision processes aren’t as good, potentially exposing their punters to unexpected risk. This is one of the amazing contradictions that is Japan – a first world country and they almost don’t have Health and Safety or Liability Laws. Basically if something in Japan looks dangerous it probably is – it is up to you to stay safe. I liked it.
I figured I’d better get some avalanche training. I’d got quite used to Niseko so when the snow stopped for a bunch of days I decided it was time to explore the “real” mountains of Hakuba, where they had real back country. To do this I had to go back through Sapporo, so I decided to time it with the Sapporo Snow festival.
It is a massive festival, so much so that the only bed I could find was in the scungy HI/YHA in the centre of town – at least the location was good! The Snow Festival wasn’t immune from the unseasonable weather either. On the opening day many of the smaller sculptures had started to melt. The festival requires thousands of man hours to put together so it must have been heart breaking for the artists to see their creations dying before the festival even opened.
Happy in Hakuba?
Sapporo isn’t just about snow…
Everyone knows that Japan is ridiculously expensive, it’s just one of those things. The thing is, everyone is wrong. Most prices are quite reasonable. Except for travel. To get to Hakuba I had to get 1000 kilometres to the south and across water. It was hellishly complex, unless one wanted to spend top dollar and even then you couldn’t call it simple. I’m sure the transport companies hire consultants to ensure that none of their services match up with that of any other company. Anti collusion you might say. I eventually stumbled upon another of Japans better kept secrets, a couple of cheap airlines, which helped.
I eventually settled on one plane, two trains and a bus. Easy. Except I got hopelessly lost in Tokyo with 30 minutes to find my bus. More accurately I got lost in Shinjuku Station. Shinjuku Station is big, like really big. London’s “big” stations are pipsqueaks in comparison. Some kind soul had given me a map but it didn’t help a bit. Fortunately the Japanese are a kind race and an elderly gentleman of very limited English spotted my distress and offered to help. He eventually figured out the map and delivered me personally to the bus station and even stayed around to make sure the bus people got it right. In the end it all worked, albeit a little stressfully.
My luggage on the other hand couldn’t have had it easier. In one of the contradictions I love about Japan, I delivered my luggage to the equivalent of an Off Licence/Diary/Corner Shop and for a measly $16 my luggage was whisked off to Hakuba via Japans brilliant Takkyubin service. It couldn’t have been easier. So when I dragged my bedraggled self through the door of the Hakuba Powder Lodge, there was my luggage looking fresh as a daisy to greet me.
Hakuba certainly had real mountains. The main range tops out at around 3000m so it is plenty high. In the Hakuba area there are two main arms of ranges that radiate out from a central peak giving huge scope for great slopes and scary big lines. Because of this Hakuba boasts a number of easily accessed resorts. Here I discovered another of Japans idiosyncrasies – with all these fantastic slopes to choose from the Japanese had chosen – none. All the pistes were on ridge tops or on gentle slopes with most of the interesting stuff roped off. When the resorts were “designed” the overriding design criteria wasn’t what would be fun, but the management of avalanche risk – that is by avoiding the risk altogether. It made for some fairly dull pistes. This situation had a great upside though, hardly anyone skied the really awesome stuff. The back country was steep, deep and oh yeah, it slid regularly. Not for the faint hearted or the unprepared. Unprepared I certainly was, but fortunately not unaware.
The picture doesn’t do this avalanche justice. It was big. Standing at the bottom was scary.
The season here was even worse – they hadn’t had snow in ages and all the snow was hard and fast. Much like a good New Zealand season. I wasn’t happy. I’d turned into a fully fledged powder snob. My skis were of the attitude that they would ski hardpack if they had to, but they sure didn’t have to enjoy it.
So my plan was to get myself trained up and to hit the back country. Once again things didn’t quite go to plan. The next course was a month away and the changeable weather ensured that there often was significant avalanche danger. I got myself some BC gear and managed a few trips, but the lack of snow ensured that the snow conditions were difficult to ski.
One trip was through an avalanche prone area, although anything that could slide had slid and the weather over the previous few days had promoted stability – or so the experts told me. It was damn scary. The entry into the valley was nice, but the further we got down the more avalanche debris we saw – the biggest avalanche must have been 1000m long and had snow boulders the size of cars. The Finns I was with were unfazed by all the carnage and apparent danger. I guess it was all old hat to them – I just hoped they knew what they were doing. What I didn’t know is they had done their home work and Nick the lodge expert had recommended the route and briefed them on what it would be like.
I eventually found an avalanche course that was starting soon. Even better it was back up in Hokkaido, where there was still plenty of snow.
Kurodaki is the home of the best snow I’ve ever seen. It is one of Asahikawa’s backcountry paradises.
Awesome in Asahikawa
The avalanche course was based out of the inland city of Asahikawa. It is a fantastic place, it is city that hasn’t worked out how to attract tourists, yet boasts a number of nearby resorts and great, easily accessible, safe(ish) back country skiing. It also has the best powder in the world.
The course itself was both exciting and sobering. Exciting because it would help me get access to a whole new skiing experience. Sobering because there are very real dangers, not just from avalanches.
As part of the course I got to use touring bindings and skins – these amazing pieces of equipment completely change access to the backcountry. Without them (or snowshoes) you are often struggling through thigh deep snow and moving very slowly. With skis and skins you stay on top of the snow and can easily walk up quite steep slopes. It was a complete eye opener. I think my next season in the snow is going to involve a lot more backcountry touring.
Hiking back up the back side of Kamui
The course took in the back side of the Kamui Links Resort and also the lift less Furanodaki mountain. The snow was really great
It is a funny thing, the snow industry is coming a full circle with increasing numbers of people subscribing to the “Earn Your Turns” theory ie you need to hike somewhere to find the really nice skiing. While you don’t get that many turns in, those you get are great and you don’t have to put up with hardpack powder or queues… Our grandparents would be stunned!
The course was only two days, but seemed much longer – we all learnt so much, but now knew how little we really knew.
After the course was finished it was time to put it all into practice. The course had catered mainly to the snow mad Asahikawa expat locals so it was no trouble to go to a different place every day and carve ourselves some truly fresh lines. I was only there for another week but I did as much quality skiing as I did in my first part of the season.
Asahikawa could be the ideal place to live the snowy dream!
And that was it. What a great way to finish the season.
I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas and are looking forward to an exciting new year.
As usual it has been a while in coming but please read on for my latest exciting update of what I’ve been up to and where it happened…
Sloppies in the Rockies!
Where there is water there are boys playing in it. This is how NOT to land a 360… :-)
Goodbye Fernie
In my first season in Canada the end of the season came far too fast and left everyone wanting more. I was dreading the end of this season, well I needn’t have worried - Fernie let me down gently…
Long before the season finished the snow stopped falling and the slopes went hard as rock. Even that was short lived. Yup, spring happened and it was sloppy city. I did make one nice discovery though; big fat powder skis make short work of the worst pug. They’re also brilliant for water skiing! The highlight was the 10m pond that formed by one of the main lifts.
After months of awesome powder it all come as a bit of a shock.
After a few more hostel parties it was time to move on. The car had sprouted an alarming amount of rust so it was time that moved on as well. I thought I’d lose an awful amount on the car with the amount of rust it had – so instead of trying to sell in the end of season buyers market it in Fernie, I visited some friends in Calgary to try my luck there.
The first few people who looked at the car weren’t interested, they said it had way too much rust and was too expensive, it wasn’t looking good. So I was amazed when a dealer turned up and paid the asking price after barely looking at it – it seems that Accord Wagons are something of a rarity, even if rusty bits are falling off them! The following day I got told off by another dealer who said I had way under priced it and he was annoyed that I hadn’t given him a chance by under pricing it! All very bizarre.
Flatmate and I enjoying the more serious side of Brighton!
The Summer
After all the visa hassles I had last summer with Her Majesties Imperial Immigration (dis)Service I decided I’d better get it sorted and get legal. The authorities did their best to dissuade me and encourage me to work under the table again. I had to jump through so many hoops that I considered turning pro. A bunch of the hoops were located in New Zealand so my “cheap” flight across the Atlantic turned into two one way flights via New Zealand… Still it was good to visit everyone again, even though I’d only been there a few months prior!
I finally arrived in London a month later than planned to take up reins of the project I’d been working on the previous year. It was a mess, they guy who had been entrusted with looking after it hadn’t and had even managed to get himself sacked. So all the traction that had been gained the previous year had been lost and my plans of further developing a system that had been working for many months were dashed. It was going to be an interesting summer…
My home life was far more interesting, I found myself a room in a massive three story flat in North London in one of the more arty areas. My flatmates were an eclectic mix and it was in a constant state of flux. While I was there I lived with a fringe theatre producer, a performance artist,
It’s hard to get a good shot of a BBQ, but you get the idea!
two video editors, a landscape architect, a web developer, an electrical engineer and a cricket journalist. The nationalities were even more diverse: Serbians, Italians, Spanish from the Bask Country, French, Greek and briefly an Englishman and an Australian! During the heat of summer it meant that there was a continuous series of BBQ’s and parties.
Unfortunately for the 9 to 5ers (mainly me) most of the other flatmates worked irregular hours and irregular days, it was not unusual for a Wednesday BBQ to finish in the wee hours – or daylight. For the first time in my life I was one of those people who were first in bed.
One of the Serbian flatmates was invaded by a contingent of relatives and friends from the Motherland and I was fortunate to spend a lot of time in their company. It was fascinating to learn about the recent history of Serbia from an entirely different perspective. Suffice to say I’m going to visit in the near future! Exit Festival here I come!
It was a wonderful summer and all too soon it came to an end. As I type this it is Boxing Day, it is cold, damp and slate grey outside. Cue my next adventure!
The Orient
Wile in Canada I had seen a number of ski and boarding DVD’s that raved about a country that was supposed to have snow that even the gods were envious of. I was aware that this country had snow but no idea that they had a snow industry. It had all the hallmarks of a well kept secret. Unfortunately it is a secret no longer. The word is out and Japan is now a ski destination, the 06-07 season is the first time that ski package holidays to Japan have been available from the UK. I figure that if the snow is so good then I’d better get there before the place gets completely overrun. So in two days I’m off to find out how good the snow really is and how to say Happy New Year in Japanese!
I hope you all had an awesome Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year!
