HoNC - aftermath glow

Mark,

super effort on getting round. The 100k is a tough ride and not to be taken lightly.

awsome day!!

first of all, thanks to wu for the entry, i doff my cap to you sir. and i hope you're feeling a bit better!

got up at the crack of sparrows fart this morning! looked outside and saw a brightish sky (well it was 5.25am!!) drove for just under 2 hours and beat the satnav by 20 odd minutes!!

next thing i know i'm in a field with familiar faces!!

the ride started quite slowley as there was so many of us, so when we got to the first gate (which was locked :roll: ) we had to climb over it so i thought that was a good spot for a photo and decided to try and look out for other retrobikers, i found sinnett and gravymonster, i was riding just behind john and ed but i knew they were gonna do the 100 and i was gonna opt for the 50, then sinnett took the long way so me and gmonster rode the guts of the day together then meeting up with chris and jason(?) several times throughout the ride.

the terrain was a mix of country lanes, gravel tracks, grass fields and bits of singletrack in places, with a couple of water crossings chucked in. oh and not forgetting some serious climbing for a hampshire flatlands wuss like me!!

the descents were really good, very fast and i have to admit i was trying to overtake as many modern 5 inch full sussers on the downhill sections as i could! just because i know it must have annoyed them!!! also ringing in my ears was heathy's rule regarding granny ring is for losers! i did use it at the start but only because of the slow roll out speed, after that i forced myself to push as hard as i could, and i didn't get off on any hills or technical bits, the last singletrack climb was funny as i saw loads of modern bikes with 22t front rings and 32t rear cassettes in first gear then walking!! and there was me gurning my way up the climbs in mid ring!! :shock: take that modern riders!!!! :twisted:

a special thanks goes out to the berk who ruined our descent/picture and then climb towards the end including taking out gmonster! idiot! :evil: it was just poor riding, no excuse for it.

thanks to gmonster for being my riding buddy for the day, i'll get an IOW ride sorted as soon as i can.

as we got back my stomach was screaming for food so the burger van got raided as soon as we were changed. mmmm . . . . burger . . . . bacon sarnie . . . . drool

then it was the chat section while we waited for the long haul riders to come in quality to meet/see everyone today, i got a few pics but not many, i'll quickley look through them and post some in a bit

cheers for a cool day, i'll defo do next year.

I got back at 15.29..... the chap at the finish was a bit surprised that there were no super fast times today, it was the wind that slowed us down in the end [ it is annoyingly loud on the video ] .. it never helps even when you take a tail wind into consideration, it just saps your energy so much.

Here is the first video.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_8r391JedM

Vid quality might improve after they process it properly ... so they claim, it is a big file so should look a bit better. There are a few other bike vids on my youtube thingy.

here's some pics from my day!

4 more

There is a big stone toad somewhere on the hills as well as the turtle/tortoise you photographed.

Like the Mark Beaumont style reportage video. Cycling through the drug cartel controlled Mexican hinterlands has got nothing on riding round the Cotwolds. The danger from audi q7s is far greater is glucestershire for starters.


Anyhow here is my one and only pic after the 100k

that pic should be called "The Hard Men"

malvernman":3d57ix36 said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heFp2dvqigA

Click to expand...

don't try and out-hard Ed!! you'll lose!!!