Cycling blind spots

The Manly Steed and I had a near miss the other night, and rather ashamedly I must admit that it was probably my fault.

We were heading back from a 32 mile Twycle training ride and I was pretty knackered and focused primarily on how fast I was going (trying to keep the speed at 17mph or above) rather than paying a huge amount of attention to my surroundings.

Traffic was fairly light, and as I came to a roundabout I followed the road up to the left before realising that I had taken the wrong exit, and should have carried on straight. I was still on the main throughway of the roundabout and hadn't actually exited, but all intents and purposes I was taking that exit.

With a quick glance over my shoulder I simultaneously swerved back towards the correct exit, realising at the last nanosecond that there was a car traveling at great speed along beside.

He screeched to a halt and swerved away from me, I screeched to a halt and swerved away from him, and then we engaged in a Mexican standoff before he sped around the roundabout once more and I moved onto the pedestrian island.

What transpired next was a large amount of frenzied shouting on behalf of the driver, and me calmly standing next to The Manly Steed and trying to stop my heart from beating out of my chest as he pulled up alongside me and swore at me a great deal.

So: was I in the wrong, or was he?

Frankly, I don't believe that for the purposes of this blog that it matters. What does is something my old drving instructor drilled into me - always check your blind spot.

That quick glance over my right shoulder gave me the split second between seeing and trying to avoid a threat, and cycling straight into it. Fortunately, the man who swore mightily was paying attention as well, and it was disaster averted.

When we're out and about, especially when we are tired we cannot allow ourselves to lose track of where we are in relation to everyone else.

I should have signalled, and I should have paid more attention to where I was going. It's another lesson learnt, so please bear it mind and learn from my mistakes.

Not everyone has The Manly Steed to take care of them when they are out and about...

When fitness isn't enough.

I have been finding the last few weeks of training to be a lot of fun, and the better weather has helped massively with my overall outlook on cycling. There is really only so much that you can do while battling into the teeth of a gale.

The Bank Holiday Monday just gone I decided to up the mileage a bit and do a solid first cycle of the season, aiming for a 50 mile route in the vicinity of Twickenham. Previously, the Manly Steed and I had been out for 40 mile trip in Kent back in the middle of May, and seeing as training has been going well we decided on something that goes against the grain of my cycling philosophy: just how fast could we cycle a 50 mile course?

We set out on an initial 26 mile loop to Chobham (a lovely place and straightforward to get to) and got there after 58 minutes and 15.5 miles of cycling. It was a nice day, a little overcast and with some wind but not too much: just enough to cool me down.

The Manly Steed had been in for a full service and had a new gear cable which was making things much smoother, and we flew over the M25 feeling pretty good with ourselves.

We stopped in Chobham at a small church and I ate a Powerbar thingy, chewing it down and drinking GoGo Juice from the Camelpak as I did so, before climbing back onto the bike and heading back towards Kingston.

In his book 'The Man Who Cycled The World' (a really good read!), Paul Beaumont talks about getting into the zone where you can keep going and going and everything feels good. I felt this way for about 10 of the next 15 miles or so as we cruised along at between 15 & 17 mph, passing back under the M25, into Addlestone and along the Thames and past Hampton Court Palace.

We stopped at the 2 hour mark to see how far we had come, and we had smashed out previous best mileage and hit 31 miles, a new personal best.

And this, ladies and gentleman, is where i went into a fairly significant bonk sat on the side of the road.

For those of you unfamiliar with this term, bonking for cyclists is like runners hitting the wall: it's where you run out of energy and just... cannot... physically... go... on.

After a while you find quite scarily that fitness just doesn't do it for you: it is all down to nutrition, and how much you have eaten. Put it like this: your car will only go for so long with one tank of gas before it sputters out and you sit like a numpty on the side of the road waiting for the nice man with the AA van.

I'm a big guy, and my engine needs lots of fuel. I figure that I get 1.5 - 2 hours of steady cycling on one big meal before I need to refuel, and then I'm snacking every 45mins to an hour. It's actually less than that when I've been doing high mileage every day for a while as my glycogen levels (basically the fuel storage) have been depleted.

On a long day's ride of 70+ miles over mixed terrain I have burned between 4,500 and 5,500+ calories, more than 3 times an average persons daily consumption. It is a constant battle for me and one which sometimes I lose, hence the bonking.

Once I bonk, it is really very hard to get my energy levels back up to a place where I can/want to carry on.

Having eaten my remaining 2 Powerbars I saddled up once more and headed into Kingston, over the bridge and up towards Ham Gate. What is normally an easy and straight forward ride became a hell of a challenge, and my right knee started playing up with pain at the front of it, probably caused by the high gears I'd been pushing in the first 2 hours.

I stopped 6 miles later having looped back to Ham Gate via Sheen and Richmond, and had a vanilla tasting evil sugar gel thing in a foil packet. Bonking, as per earlier, had resumed.

I then ground my way home, deciding to cut a couple of miles off as my knee was now really complaining. I stopped briefly to move my saddle backwards which seemed to help, and I struggled the last mile homewards having finished 47.5 miles in 3hr 04mins of cycling, with about 15 mins off the bike.

In retrospect I would have eaten better that day, but it is a constant battle to get enough calories in while out on a longer cycle.

My next major target for the year is to break 100 miles in a day. I'll aim to do a 70 miler before that, but I think that I'll manage that ok if training so far is anything to go by.

My tip for the year: eat lots more than you think you should!! And I do not sponsor nor endorse Powerbars - they just happened to be the only thing in Evans Cycles I liked the look of!

My route is here: http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=137755

Edit: I just found this helpful link that covers nutrition: http://www.bottombracket.co.uk/cycling-nutrition.html - well worth a read...

The Manly Steed & I Join Twycle - We're Jogle'ing Again!!

Seeing as how the Manly Steed and I are both putting on weight (well, I am) and the weather has been pants all year, I despaired of ever having the motivation to actually get out on the road again.

No more, I cry, reminiscent of some lonely rebel without a clue fighting back against the establishment!!

We have joined with a fantastic group of people who are 'Twycling' the length of Britain from John O'G to Lands End. That which I swore never to do again (and there was a lot of swearing, believe me) I have gone into with at least my eyes open this time.

Right: a bit about Twycle.

First, the name.

Twycle is a cycle ride which has been set up and publicised on Twitter. Twitter / Cycle, Twycle. It took me a while to get it.

Twycle is the brainchild of Callum Fairhurst and Monty English, and is remarkable for the fact that Callum is 12 years old and is doing this to raise money for CLIC Sargent, a phenomenal charity which helps children with cancer. Sadly, Callum lost his 14 year old brother Liam Fairhurst to cancer last year, and is carrying on the fundraising torch for him after he raised £320,000 for charity.

We are joining a team of 8 core riders, including Monty English who some of you may recognise from Dickinson's Real Deal (Ah, the double D!!) who will be riding (apparently!) on an antique bicycle with no brakes. You can almost hear The Manly Steed laughing it's chainset off at the thought...

It will be a relay style affair, with a pair of riders doing a 2 hour stint on, and then passing over to another 2 who carry on with the aim of achieving approximately 150 miles per day, and roughly a week of cycling time.

The route has yet to be decided, and I am offering the occasional piece of advice from the memories seared onto my brain from last time, and because this is a relay I can hopefully avoid Berriedale this time. I have become something of 'hill specialist' since then - it is surprising how far I will go out of my way to avoid them!

So, the website is http://www.twyclebritain.co.uk/ and the Twitter page is www.twitter.com/twyclebritain and I am now tweeting (I think - it may be called twitting!) as OasisJamesRec.

Please sign up and spread the good word about this venture, and if you are able / inclined to then please feel free to donate at www.justgiving.com/twycle - the aim is to raise £20,000 and there are various celebrities getting involved, including Sir Chris Hoy and Sir Sterling Moss!

I'll be back and blogging about the longer training rides that we do, and then writing the whole thing up in my usual wordy style.

Many Thanks to Katherine C who got me involved in this by dangling it in front of me like some vicious tease... :)