Posted 5 hours ago
tlr

Member
Ah, interesting, thanks. I better stop dreaming of 6.45 then.

I had the impression that Blea Tarn was ‘easier’ than Hawkshead – obviously not. Although the slower times might just be that Rob Jebb has got older….

Sounds like numbers on the road are an issue now, which they weren’t when I last did it in 2014

The average finish time has also increased by a similar time though that could be due to the ‘strength’ of the fields changing as well. I rode the last Coniston’Fred’ in 2014 as well as the Grasmere course and the latest Grasmere + Blea Tarn and would swap back to the original in a heartbeat for the faster times! I’ll be happy to match my 2017 time on the longer course now!

tlr

Member
Put my name in the hat.

I’ve not done it since it was in Coniston, does it make much difference? Times from Grasmere seem to be a little quicker maybe?

About 10-15 min slower than Coniston start due to the extra distamce and with the addition of Blea Tarn there is more climbing as well. Not really been any bad days since the start swapped to Grasmere and the new course record is still 13ish minutes off the old course and the average finish time has gone up also.

In 2014 I rode most of the ride with a faster mate which really helped. To go any faster this year I’ll need to ride as part of a group.

Sounds like a top guy!! Get yourself in the club and get to a few rides. There are nearly 40 club riders doing it so I’m sure there will be people with similar aims Paul.

I ran 52/36 with a 12/28 cassette.

I made the decision to sacrifice the 11 tooth to get the 16 tooth which gets a lot more use. The jump from 17 to 15 is a bit of a pain otherwise as it lands right in the 20-22mph sweetspot for me.

I find it hard to believe myself Pridds, yeah the bike should stand out a little better this year! Eliminating the stops and 3 stone lighter should see you well under 8hrs. Hope the training is going well 😀

@chilled76 if I can knock 9 minutes 34 seconds off last years time (6:09:33) I will be over the moon. To be honest to do that I will need a lot of stars to align. I will be happy to match last years time regardless of weather and a slightly higher finishing position would be nice.

I’m in!! Motivation is high. Would love to go faster than last year if the weather is good. If not will be happy to match last years time. Can’t get another good weather day for the Fred can we??? 🙂

I have already proven up thread that the video doesn’t reflect the forces involved at all.

Marcel chose not to ride a disc brake bike the next day. No one forced him not too.

Like I said up near the start I’m not sure why people get so over excited about it and with that I’m out.

Meanwhile, there are people not buying brakes that might be helpful to them in poor weather conditions because of a nonsense argument

Who and why aren’t they buying??

Someone should tell the boot makers that their sponsorship money paid to players to wear their boots is all going down the pan.

I haven’t a clue what what boots any footballer uses. I couldn’t even name more than about 2 or possibly 3 rider/shoe sponsor’s in pro cycling. It’s not really important to the enjoyment of the spectacle is it?

It looks like you’ve been worrying about this thread for some hours now, why not go for a bicycle ride to clear your head?

Got a two hour training session later but I am enjoying this at the moment. If you’re not don’t let the door hit you on the arse.

His left shoe. Which hit the barrier.

I haven’t said Doull’s shoe cut was or wasn’t caused by the barrier. I am saying it would be interesting to see the same experiment in Skankin_giant’s video repeated with the same brand of shoe. Sorry if that was too difficult for you to understand.

Presumably though you aren’t paid explicitly to advertise said tools?

I don’t believe that any riders are specifically paid to advertise a type of brake are they? In fact I dont think that many teams are paid to run a particular groupset. Given a load of stuff free or heavily discounted maybe. Most of the riders and sponsors seem to have gone to great lengths to state they are not forcing/being forced to choose one system over another. If someone paid me to do my job with a specific tool, no problem. If a 3rd party who has never done my job and is not paying for the privilege starts chipping in telling me how to do it they are going to get told to jog on.

Also just watched Skankin’s video and worth pointing out that the shoe was being put in to the rotor toe box first which is usually heavier and more reinforced than the rest of the upper.

Would be interested to see that repeated on the upper of a wafer thin shoe like the pair Owain Doull had on.

I’m sure that it’s not a perfect comparison as that would be difficult to achieve but surely the important bit is how fast the disc is rotating and how hard the object is being pushed against it . As the rider on the turbo kept pedalling then that negates the kinetic energy argument .

Not really, in this case the torque available at the rotors edge is determined by the limited amount generated by the rider.

Here is another way of looking at it. If you have your bike in the stand, you’re checking your gear indexing, everything is good so you stop pedalling with your hand. The back wheel is spinning at 15mph but it is easy to hold your hand against the tyre tread and stop the wheel spinning.

If you were freewheeling down the road at 15mph and tried to stop by placing your hand on the tyre tread you would have a massive problem and sore hand.

As others have said the how effective the rotor cuts will depend on the pressure pushing the item onto the rotors edge, torque of the rotor spinning and the sharpness of the rotor.

The rotor may not be ‘that’ sharp but if the torque and pressure are high enough you will have a mess.

Re the interest in what brakes are in use, no one cares what football boots or studs are used in a game of football. My personal opinion is that people want their on prejudice on brakes vindicated by the pro peleton whether that is for or against. To trot out an old phrase ‘Let those who ride decide’.

I wouldn’t welcome anyone telling me what tools I could use to do my job especially when they have no personal experience of doing said job.

The kinetic energies of different systems are:

Outdoors: 43kph 80kg total mass, KE = 5706J

Tacx resistance 3: 42.9kph KE = 984J (as an example)

So yeah, irrelevant.

Try again with the bike being ridden down the road and leaning out of car window and start holding stuff on to the rotor edge.

Likewise he was definitely sat on a £50 turbo spinning 53:11.

For the record I didn’t refer to any specific incident, I haven’t stated a preference for discs or against I am just highlighting that the video is irrelevant to the forces involved in a pro road race crash.

If you’re not a pro roadie why do you, or anyone else, give a toss if they ride them or not??

Stoped watching when I saw how little resistance was on the back wheel and virtually no fly wheel. The kinetic energy in that set up is next to nothing in comparison to a 70kg guy moving down the road at 50-60km with about 500watts going through the pedals as would be the case in the last km of a race.

Also not sure why so many people give a toss one way or the other if pros use discs. If people want to use them great, why do we want to see them in races??

TiRed – Member
I check my balance on a Wattbike occasionally. It has never failed to be perfectly even circles of power. I ride at least 100km of my weekly total fixed. If you ride fixed you will have an even pedal stroke.

In reality I think it really doesn’t matter in the slightest. But it is an extra selling point. Overall power output is what matters. In the example above, if you are dropping to 235 watts, you need to work harder, not worry about your balance.
IF you ride fixed will have no effect onwhether you are balanced or not.
You have missed the point entirely re dropping to 235 Watts. The point is that you havent dropped 15 watts but the power meter will tell you that you have and you have no way of knowing. If you were doing 2 x 20’s at FTP the second interval would be way off. Your TSS would be off. Your FTP would be off.

Re balance in legs it varies between people and in the same person depending on power being put out and state of fatigue.
I know one person who at low power is left dominant, at FTP is even and at high power is right leg dominant. The transition from one to another changes in time and severity depending on a number of factors.

A seem to swap side to side by 2% from one ride to the next.

End of the day you can train very effectively without a power meter. I believe it is easier to train without than it is to train with one that isnt consistent. YMMV.

I’ll give an example;

Start a ride at 250 Watts with an even split so L=125 R=125.
As the ride progresses your left leg weakens and your right leg starts to pick up the slack so now running 47/53 in favour of the right leg.

Power meter now reading 235 watts even though total watts remains the same.

If your FTP is 250 and after 35-40 min your power meter is telling you that 250 watts is 235 watts you have a massive problem. If you dont understand why that is a massive issue and the implications that has on your PMC, CTL etc etc then you probably dont need a power meter.

Power meters are one of the best training tools but they rely on accuracy and consistency. If you dont have that you would probably be better to not have the information at all.

As a stop gap whilst you get the funds by all means buy one you can upgrade to dual sided.

Final thing, there is a reason Sky have been running prototype dual sided stages since they were paid a shedload of cash to use them.

It’s like doing 15 minutes of heavy squats at the end of a 100 mile bike ride. That’s off 11 stone, 260W FTP and running a 36:30 bottom gear. I think my avg cadence was 50rpm!?

Worth pointing out that Eurosport is part of discovery so that will also be leaving sky on Jan 31st if not resolved. For me that is a no brainer. No Eurosport, no sky subscription. I have already contacted Sky to tell them as much.

Pridds, short answer yes. Long answer, I’ve emailed you on the mail in your profile.

Why not, its only a charity event put on by volunteers after all?

Bit of d*ck move IMO.

There are 365 days in the year, ride the route on another day. The weather is bound to be nicer than it will be for the official ride.

@chilled76 No worries, if you don’t ride this year you could always marshal to guarantee your ride for next year and halve the cost of the entry. Depends how far you have to travel I guess as to whether its worth your while.

Good luck with the training either way!

@chilled76 always worth getting your name on the reserve list. Virtually everyone who goes on it gets a ride IME. Do that and assume your in and carry on training 🙂

Re gears, my personal recommendation would be a compact and a 12-30 if on ten speed or 32 bottom sprocket on 11 speed. If you feel you need to go lower do so. It all depends on your power to weight and ambition for the day. Most importantly enjoy it either at the time or in retrospect when then pain eases!!

Pridd’s some of the heroes spouting on here haven’t even ridden the event! You riding this year?

Just FYI you don’t have carte Blanche if you don’t hold a BC license. If you are a member of a BC or CTT affiliated club you can technically still be subject to out of competition testing. The chances are virtually zero but I know of one guy who has just been hit with a 4 year ban for refusing a dope test. Never raced, never intended to but UKAD rocked up on his doorstep after border controls intercepted a package of medicine he intended to take to help recover from a knee injury sustained in a crash in Majorca.

4 year ban from cycling means he can’t be a member of any BC/CTT affiliated club or ride in any club organised events. Persona non grata until sometime 2020.

I also hear on the grape vine that a very high profile sportive may be introducing random dope testing this year or next at the latest.

I’m 5’10” (178cm) and 11st2lb (71kg) and wear medium gabba. In fact virtually every bit of road kit I have is medium.

Rather than being aware of roadie sizing be aware of roadie fit. The Gabba is a ‘race’ fit, as is most top end Castelli kit.

Same demographic 😀

Sedgwick

And the ref to the other club was to try and draw attention that the accusation is against all cyclists rather than one club in specific

Just been pointed out to me by a club mate that another local clubs club run goes through this village twice every Saturday.

IMO the lane in question is too narrow for the majority of the time to make idly safe for a car to overtake a cyclist. Whilst I always try and ride in a responsible manner it’s not always safer to let the motorist try and over take.

Also it seems to be a bit off to complain the bikes are going to fast and that it’s difficult to overtake?? Which is it? Too fast or too slow?!

No clubs based in central lakes, lakes RC run the event, other local clubs have big representation in the event (honister 92, xiii etc). Numberless riders were all without club jerseys. I don’t think there will be 200 road riders in the Ambleside/Grasmere full stop so they have travelled to start at that time.

Possible but I wouldn’t have thought many would ride up kirkstone pass to spectate after the majority of riders had come through. By the way all of them were in the bunches and putting the graft in and there wasn’t a single spectator prior to the first riders arriving.

Just a quick question. Whilst marshaling I noted that there were about 150-200 riders who did not have a number on. I was fairly near the start so its unlikely that the numbers had come off and one guy without a number I asked stated that he wasn’t part of the event. What are the thoughts of people who turn up to ride this charity event without paying the entry fee?

I appreciate that the roads are free and people can ride them whenever they want however the costs incurred to put the event on and create the atmosphere etc isn’t free. I’m local and I ride these roads early in the mornings at the weekend and I have never seen that many people out all ride let alone by 8:30am so its apparent that they are choosing to ride because the event is on rather than they always ride that way.

I found it straightforward to do it in 8:30 a couple of years ago pacing a friend around but rather uncomfortable when I went over an hour and a half faster. Similarly I suspect Mr Jebb and Mr Reid would find my pace rather pedestrian.

Re ‘racing’ sportives there is only one that I’m even remotely interested in doing a time and that’s the Whitton but I’m under no illusion that I’m racing anyone other than myself. The experience is a far cry from any road race/time trial that I have done and there aren’t many (any?) that give the same epic feel of climbing/descending and traversing the landscape as this event does.

Marshalled this year so I will be back next year for more fun and games. .

matts – Member

Besides, it ain’t that hard.

Depends how fast your going compared to your ability. For some it is a battle to finish. For others 7:30 is a nice steady ride. If you found the Fred easy you weren’t trying hard enough 😈

fooman – Member
Those mile markers were a cruel joke I knew something was up when Hardknott marker said 101 miles and I tracked about 96, the 5 miles to go marker was about 10 from the end. They were probably right when the finish was in Ambleside.

I don’t think the finish has ever been in Ambleside. It was in Coniston prior to Gramsere

Just read that link and it says;

‘When you push of the starting ramp you are fresh with the adrenaline pumping and you are trying to get to race speed as soon as possible. After the 30s cranking out the big power you MUST settle down. As you look down at your bike computer you see that your average is 2x of your http://FTP.’

If you bust out 30secs at 200% of your FTP at the start of a time trial you have just started way too fast. You don’t need to get to race pace as quickly possible, just get rolling get into position and build your speed up.

The following link is worth reading;
The Start

Start slowly, don’t go chasing the pain. The pain will come and find you.

Have a good ride.

If you haven’t been training in aero position for an hour then it is very unlikely you know what HR you can sustain either. Your HR and FTP are likely different in the aero position than your normal road bike position unless the tri bar position is very upright.

If this is your first 25m TT my personal recommendation is to use the PM only for the first few minutes to stop yourself blasting off the line and digging yourself in a big hole. From then on ride to RPE using the old Boardman quote ‘is this pace sustainable?’ The answer you are looking for is maybe.

Use the PM data as a post race reviewing tool because at the moment you don’t appear to have sufficient data to use at as a pacing tool.

Medium across the board for me at 5’10” and 11 stone and a bit (178cm & 72Kg).

Don’t just go up a size on Castelli kit. If you are buying a Castelli Gabba or Free Aero Race bibs then they are going to be pornographically snug. They are meant to be the equivalent of a skin suit as they are race wear. If you go a size up for comfort off the bike then they are not going to fit you correctly on the bike.

The fit difference between Castelli ranges reflects the intention of the kit. The race stuff is super tight and gets more forgiving as you move away from the aero focused kit.

For me Rapha tops are too long on the chest and once you are down in the drops the zip will ruffle up unless it is a quarter length zip. I have a short sleeve club jersey which is a really nice casual ride top but my pro team jersey fits well stood up but ruffles awfully on the bike. To be honest I have worn it a handful of times only as I’m embarrassed to be seen in it. I think Rapha stuff is cut for a more upright position so if this is more your style they may fit.

Even Rapha’s own promotional material shows the problem;

Raced to victory at the highest level of the sport. Now available to you: https://t.co/Y8x2pRH795 #RaphaProTeam pic.twitter.com/6HOoFDBOVU

— Rapha (@rapha) March 1, 2016

paulevans – Member
A quick question for the roadies out there – I might be looking for a new road frame soon. I currently ride a 2015 Specialized Roubaix in size 58cm. I sometimes feel that the reach might be slightly too long. Looking at the Specialized size guide I fall between 56cm and 58cm – my questions is if you have the option to go big or small which way should you fall?

Definitely the smaller of the two, oh and chop it in for a Tarmac and get a longer stem.

But what do I know??

😉

Go with the 28.

If you are on 10 speed Di2 you can run a 12-30 Cassette no problem. I have been doing for a while.

Life long Lake District resident, roadie for 24 years and serial Whitton rider.

Other opinions are available

Dirtyrider just re-read your posts.

Your first post seems to imply that Alexandre Geniez would have preferred discs yesterday at the Giro.
The issue was that he didn’t, not couldn’t, didn’t slow down enough to cleanly take the corner. His ambition very nearly outweighed his talent. After that he was descending like Brad Wiggins when he lost his nerve.

Second post states that disc modulation is better than carbon rim braking. Don’t disagree. Aluminium rim braking is also better than carbon rim braking as well. I don’t understand why anyone would be riding carbon in the rain unless they are being paid to do so.

You then went on to talk out of your sphincter about moto gp tracks being flat.

Since I started road racing as Juvenile some 20+ years ago brakes haven’t been an ‘issue’ until the last few years. LBS opinion is that the complaints re braking is almost exclusively from MTB riders taking up road riding. Only people I know who have swapped were terrible descenders on rim brakes and still are on discs.

If I have still missed your point you need to learn to communicate more effectively.