Posts Tagged ‘joe’
Sunday, January 17th, 2010
With the snow and ice washed away by rain and milder weather, I’ve spent the weekend pulling January’s shoddy training schedule back into line.
Despite waking up on Saturday morning vowing to spend two days at my laptop, I braved the drizzle for an hour on Regent’s Park. As ever, the hardest part about going for a ride in bad weather was pulling on the lycra in the first place. I rode the hack, and got soaked.
Today I rode the Finchley – Knebworth ‘cheat the week’ route – for one last time before the move south. To be honest, it’s not one of the classic routes (no hills to speak of, plenty of A-road) but from North London, without taking a train, it’s about as good as it gets. I’ve never Google mapped it before, so here it is for posterity:
View Cheat the Week in a larger map
It was 3hr 30 – the majority in the small front chainring. Conserving le jus at this stage. Joe once told me one of his club mates didn’t go into the big ring before March – excessive or the best way to build an early-season base?
Tags: cheattheweek, joe, london, regentspark
Posted in news, training | No Comments »
Monday, July 6th, 2009
Marmotte route.
It is finished. The results are in. Now never mention the M word again!
(more…)
Tags: alpedhuez, alps, croixdefer, france, galibier, glandon, joe, marmotte, montagnac, sportive
Posted in news, sportives | 5 Comments »
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
At a weigh-in last Wednesday my weight was 10st 10, a new – and probably ultimate – low. On Saturday I was 10st 12, on the same scales as I used just before Christmas, when I was a hefty 11st 12 (who ate all the mince pies, etc.). I haven’t weighed this little since I was a malnourished student surviving on espressos and rollies. (more…)
Tags: fitness, joe, jus, light, training, weight
Posted in training | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
On the shoulder of the Col du Galibier.
Some epic shots of the Col du Galibier from a website called steephill.tv, which has a decent ride report of La Marmotte. When he came to London in January, Joe gave me one clear piece of advice about riding La Marmotte.
Focus on the top of the Galibier. If you think beyond that, you’re screwed.
Tags: galibier, joe, marmotte
Posted in armchair, bike | No Comments »
Sunday, March 22nd, 2009
Mornflake: a true breakfast contender (old-style packaging on the right).
Mornflake has had a packaging makeover. Gone is the old skool red-and-yellow logo; a new era has been ushered in, presumably aiming to re-position Mornflake alongside Jordans in the competitive muesli market. The farmhouse colour scheme and countryside imagery hit all the right rustic notes. Back of the net, then, for Mornflake. (more…)
Tags: ewan, food, joe, mornflake, si
Posted in armchair, nutrition | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
I discovered Half Acre Cycling via a post on their designer’s website. It’s a really cracking site that continually reminds me I need to create a new theme for this one. Another reminder was my discovery last night of Joe’s Échapée site, which obviously uses the same ClockWorkSimple theme as this blog. It is on my list, but I want to give it some proper time.
Tags: design, joe
Posted in web | No Comments »
Friday, January 9th, 2009
View Larger Map
Rode this last Sunday with Joe, who was over for a Christmas visit. It came after 5 days of parties and not much sleep, and the temperature was sub-zero: the water in our bottles was slush after a couple of hours. We completed it in 3 hours.
I am now ill and missing out on this weekend’s training!
Tags: epsom, joe, routes, weather
Posted in routes, training | No Comments »
Sunday, December 28th, 2008
I was in a happy relationship with my Wilier Mortirolo Veloce 2007 for a year after we got together. Then I went to France and picked up / rode / stroked Joe’s Trek Madone 6.9. Suddenly the Wilier felt decidedly hefty…
The trouble with cycling is that the more you ride the more you demand from your bike, and the more performance you realise can be delivered by a lighter, more expensive machine.
But for sure I still like my bike. At 16 months old the drivetrain is getting a bit sticky, but other than that it still feels stiff, responsive and flickable. The time is ripe for a series of upgrades to take the Wilier to the next level – so it’s heartening to read the bikeradar.com review of the 2008 version of my bike.
2008 model
I quote (note the ‘Veloce version’ refers to my bike):
The Wilier’s frame is absolutely first class…
Although it doesn’t perform quite as well as the Veloce version we tested last year, our Mirage-equipped Wilier displays most of the same fundamental traits. The overall ride feel is fairly aggressive and when you push harder you get an instant response whether you’re on flat roads or climbing. Put the hammer down for an all-out sprint and the Mortirolo is up for that too, and it takes on corners in the same assured manner. On top of all that, descending is sure-footed enough to inspire bags of confidence, the steering is bang on and it smooths out rough surfaces without ever a second thought.
If we do have a negative comment, it’s that the Wilier is under-specced for the quality of its frame. The positive spin on that, though, is that if you do decide to buy this bike, you could gradually upgrade the components as they wear out without much danger of out-classing the chassis.
Tags: bike, joe, madone, mortirolo, trek, veloce, wilier
Posted in bike, kit | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
I’ve just added La Marmotte (4 July 2009) to the calendar. No turning back now…
I decided to ride La Marmotte while staying with Joe in September. He’s ridden it before, at least a couple of times, and at his most recent attempt came 80th out of 8000. Top 1% – a truly phenomenal effort. In Joe’s view, La Marmotte – not L’Étape – is the French cyclosportive to do.
Here are a couple of accounts:
So that’s the big target basically – my plan is going to be focussed on this event, although I hope to enter further races / sportives later next summer.
Tags: joe, marmotte, sportive
Posted in bike, news | 4 Comments »
