This Ordinary Life

This weekend saw me and the Variado head up to the Peaks District for the Phil and Friends Challenge. Phil's a famous cycling commentator and his friends are an assortment of cycling fanatics with ages ranging from twenty-somethings to eighty-somethings.

The route is 150km of some of the most challenging the Peaks District have to offer. Total climbing was over 2600m. Combine that with the distance and you have a formula for pain and punishment.

I did what I could to prepare myself which included commuting to and from work (23min and 10km each way), a dozen gym sessions focused on core stability and 2 swims. Basically, I was very ill prepared. Although in my defence, I did carb load in the form of long drinking sessions while at Cowes Week on Monday and Tuesday, can't remember Wednesday and umpteen portions of pasta in various forms on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

I went up to Leeds on Saturday to meet up with one of my riding companions. His kids kept calling me "Jonathan", a guy who last visited and replaced me (I used to visit often when I worked on projects in the North). His wife had put on a serious feed complete with spaghetti bolognaise, garlic bread and banana splits. Only problem was that his son, Aaron, has a mild nut allergy, which meant that at 2am that spoon full of chocolate sauce with a small piece of nut that he stole from his Dad's plate resulted in him projectile vomiting a plate full of spaghetti with bolognaise sauce into his bed. I heard his cries for help at 1am and found the poor guy in a pool of vomit, not knowing what to do. My eight hours were only mildly interrupted, whereas his Dad spent an hour clean it up. This was the nail on the coffin as we didn't even manage to get a good night’s sleep beforehand.

Well, we were out of bed at 6:00 and on the road a 6:30. My mate's Imprezza rocketed us from his house to the start in Stannington in record time. Not only was I amazed that at 80mph his car was on the road, but that our bikes remained on the roof.

We started off at 8:00 with a group of about 40 people, but they quickly strung out as we travelled around the Peaks District. Rather than take you around the route blow-by-blow, I thought it fitting to give you my top ten comments.

10. £18 for First Class from Sheffield to London is not just cheap, it's a lifesaver.
9. Realising that triple chain sets are not for wimps they are for 18% gradients. Shame I only opted for the double.
8. If you break an arm off a cheap pair of DHB sunglasses, expect to lose
them the first time you get a cross wind.
7. Invest in a good pair of padded shorts, getting saddle sore is not pleasant.
6. If you are unfit and try to ride up xxxxx, don't cry. Just get off and walk, although that's not particularly easy either.
5. There no feeling like passing a guy on a £2000 carbon fibre bike on a £650 Focus Variado.
4. Don't stop for lunch even if the temptation is great.
3. Fixing a puncture after 125km of cycling is a feat that defies the rules of physics.
2. 73kmh is very, very fast!
1. A cup of tea and slice of pineapple paradise never tasted so as after 7 hours of riding.

For details of the rest of the ride, just have a look at the chart. I am amazed that I am still alive!

In summary, the Variado is proving to be a very worthy adversary for what the UK has to throw at it. Its next major event is another 150km cycle through the South Downs in September. Let's see if I'm not a bit better prepared for that one. Not as if that would be difficult after this event!