Introduction

I've done a fair amount of cycling recently but only afternoon rides of up to 30 miles.  A year ago I trained for about 6 months in order to take part in a DIY Etape du Tour 2010.  This was pretty successful and a group of us completed Stage 7 of the TDF: Tornus to Station des Rousses.  This was the preliminary Alps mountain stage covering a distance of 165km and included two cat. 3 climbs and three cat twos.  Here's a picture of me (well my bike - it's a simple Specialized Allez 2010) at the top of the penultimate cat. 2 climb

Any way, that was a over a year ago.  The longest ride I've done since then is about a 45 miles circle from Woking (where I live) to Box Hill (one of the recommended climbs in Surrey) via Newlands Corner and Cobham.

I figured I needed to find out where I was so on Saturday I decided to give it another go.  It gave me a hang over!  No, not as the result of celebrating doing it an average of 20mph but rather waking up on Monday morning feeling like I'd just got off my bike!  In the end I spent 3.5 hours in the saddle over a duration of about 4.75 hours; the rest spent on top of Box Hill and in a Cafe in Dorking giving a riding average of about 13mph; it's a good job my cycling computer pauses when I'm stationary.  I did however manage to beat one person up Box Hill.

Given the Group 5 average time is 15mph I've got some work to do!  So, goodbye to the beer (well some of it) and it's now time for a quick 10 mile loop around Fairoaks Airport.  Nothing serious, just to loosen my legs up following the weekend.