Etape Du Dales - completed!

Haven't written too much on the blog lately, I was busy training for the Etape. I've done the Brian Robinson Challenge Ride at the end of April - a 125 km ride through the Pennines with 2500 meters of climbing in 4h49. This went very well. Furthermore found two climbs quite near to home which I can use as practice for climbing, there's a roundabout at the bottom of both climbs and they are connected so I can just start ascend the first climb, descend the other - then turn at the roundabout and ascend that climb, descending again on the first. Together this is around 7 miles, so doing this a couple of times gives me many climbing meters and distance. One climb is for much of the beginning around 12%, then levels out to around 5 to 6%, the other climb stays around 8 to 9% for the whole climb.
Anyway - I've done a couple of times, ready for the first big objective of the year, the Etape Du Dales.
Yesterday was the day - Sunday 17th May we went of for the 175 kilometer, near to 3500 climbing meters from Grassington to the north and back. The weather in the morning was quite pleasant, with a moderate wind in the back and sunny spells. I did just over 75 kilometers within the first three hours, as my target was 7h33, this was well within that objective. But then things turned for the worse, when we made the move south, the wind picked up - it started blowing right in the face (and on top of the Dales that is no fun!) and it started raining, first a drizzle but then really coming down. That slowed me down quite considerably, leading to a much slower speed. However, the climbs went really well - it were the flat sections with the wind against us that I suffered. I guess I am not too much of a headwind rider, I'm getting too skinny for that!
The last bit of the race, I could tie in to a nice group, taking turns at the front, we were able to get into the finish, still around my aim: 7 hours 33 minutes (which without a very slow car in front of us at a small section) would have been closer to 7h30. So objective achieved!

This is my last posting on the blog! It was all about the Etape, thanks for all who supported me with riding this for the Marie Curie Cancer Care, I was able to get donations around £700, far more than I expected!
I am sure my riding and your donations helped the MCC help a lot of people who suffer with cancer.

Last couple of days - Time Trial training

I did my first competitive time trial since the days I used to do triathlon! Our club was in charge of organizing a 10 mile TT last Saturday and a couple of weeks ago I decided to try this one. Bought a couple of clip on bars and started training, there's a small course around Mirfield which I used to built up speed, it's around 10 km long - so twice the round gives me 20 km. I've improved my time for this Mirfield 20km from over 40 minutes to around 38 minutes. It's quite hilly though - the total ascend is around 270 meters.
The TT competition was near Brotherton with much less climbing, it was actually a quite flat course - but it was a bit windy - certainly the days before. The weather was great though - quite sunny and around 12 C. My aim was to finish within 30 minutes and boy, I did beat that time - I did it in 26.40! Average speed just over 36 km/h. It certainly asks for more TT-ing. I was only slightly slower than all these other guys with their special bikes, wheels and other gear.
I did a 50km ride today just to keep the legs moving - that went actually quite well, I did the Clayton West ride, which is moderately hilly (two more or less significant climbs) in 27.3 km/h average. This is 2 km/h faster than earlier in the year (and I was just cruising!).
So....I think I'm getting in shape.
Next week I'll do the Brian Robinson Cyclo Sportive, which is 75 miles in and around the Penines (with Holmes Moss as big climb). Should be able to do in around 4.5 hours....
I will let you know next week!

Hilly Ride

Yesterday we did a very hilly club ride - we went from Mirfield up to Meltham, over the moors - then did the Isle of Skye climb, followed by Holmes Moss (north climb) - and after a short break in Glossop, the Snake Pass with the Strines as a nice desert! Total around 2500 metres of climbing for 150 kilometres. My average was 25 km/h. It's certainly my longest ride since the last 5 years but it went suprisingly well! My climbing went above expectation, I could maintain a 16 to 17 km/h speed on the Snake Pass (which is around 7% average) and my Holmes Moss climb was better then it has ever been (being second on the top just behind one of our fastest club climbers!). I really enjoyed the ride, I think I'm much better suited to do climbs than I am doing TT or doing through-and-overs on the flat. The Etape de Dales is only a bit longer than our ride yesterday, with only a couple of hundred meters more climbing, so I should be OK doing it in around 7 hours. Let's make that my objective!

Tough Week

Last week has been tough! I did a 70km ride on Friday with 1250 climbing meters. What made it hard was not so much the climbing but the weather, fearce winds and hail - not funny. Anyway, made the crossing from Oxenhope to Hebden Bridge over the moors - with these winds there was no chance of recovery during the descend. Did a clubride the Sunday after, 120 km on the flats towards Castleford - but quite speedy. I had 2 punctures during this ride, just as they were increasing the speed I felt my front tyre getting softer - sh*t! Anyway, made it home - but I didn't feel too comfortable, which resulted in having quite a heavy cold for the rest of the week. Still did around 110 km during that week, the Monday and Tuesday were not too bad. I actually managed to do a TT try-out on Tuesday 2 minutes faster than my PB (38 minutes over 21 kilometers with 230 meters ascend). My cold got worse over the week, so no cycling on Friday and Saturday.
Changed my tires - I was using Schwalbe Ultremo's - and I quite liked them, they were smooth and I could put a lot of pressure on them. But I didn't like my new set too much and certainly after my two punctures on Sunday I was far less than happy with them. Now changed to Continental Grand Prix 4000S - they look good and the feel is quite good. They have a bit more grip, but I guess that's OK in the UK.
If I feel better, I'm doing the club run tomorrow, which is a 100miles hilly ride. Good to do as a try-out for the Etappe de Dales - which is within 6 weeks!

Hard Ride!

Yesterday was a tough day! The wind was blowing quite forceful out of the west, exactly the direction we were heading with some of the guys of RCC. Within the club we changed our regime and now split up in a more social ride versus a tough ride (but shorter - because faster..). Four of us went from Mirfield toward Hebden Bridge, over the Moors towards Wycoller, than back again over the Moors towards Oxenthorpe and Queensbury. The part from Hebden Bridge towards Wycoller was tough - there must have been a wind full in our face of over 30 miles/hour - letting us struggle to go even downhill - this was full exposure to nature's elements. Anyway, these experiences make us tough, like real Flandriens.....
Ride statistics: 95 km, 1600 meters ascend, 24 km/h speed - maximum speed 70 km/h on the descend towards Oxenthorpe with the wind in my back.
My climbing is improving quite a bit - I can keep up my speed for quite some time and don't explode until I overdo myself. Just get in the right cadence, and things go well. Maybe I'm doing better because I've lost some weight, now 79 kilo's so I've lost 6 kilo's (a stone) since January. I'd like to loose another 5 kilo's or so, I think my ideal weight is somewhere around 75 - it will certainly help me with climbing.
This week again some travel, but it's reasonable quiet for the next month, so enough time to do some spinning and riding.

Longest ride so far

Today I did my longest ride so far - 140 kilometers through the Yorkshire Dales (Mirfield - Leeds - Poole - Grassington - Skipton - Keighley - Queensburry - Bailiff Bridge - Mirfield). It went quite well, certainly considering the week after my Cape Argus race. But then the weather was absolutely fantastic, the occasional cloud, a bit of wind but mostly quite sunny and around 12C. Perfect weather to ride.
Statistics were 1700 mtr total ascend, 25.8 k/h. There were some interesting climbs in the ride and I feel I'm improving quite a bit with my climbing. It's necessary as well as the Etappe De Dales has around 3000 meters ascend. If I continue however as I'm doing now, I should be able to do the EdD 110 miles in around 8 hours. Otherwise I didn't do too much this week, some turbotraining with the club and a ride to work. Had a check up at the gym at work on Friday, we did a 6 minute increased powerride on the stationairy bike - went up to 250 Watt with 85% MHR without any problems.
The Cape Argus folks added the adjustment table to their site, due to everyone complaining about their finishing times, my 4h18 should be adjusted to around 3h30 under normal circumstances, quite good actually. Maybe I can try again next year and hope for nice weather.

Cape Argus Cycle Tour

This week I have been in South Africa for work purposes and I could use the opportunity to ride the Cape Argus Pick 'n Pay Cycle Tour! This is THE event for cyclists, as it is one of the 10 UCI recognized GOLD standard tours and it has 35,000 cyclists participating!

This Sunday the tour was extremely difficult because of the winds, there was a South Eastern wind blowing with speeds of 60 to 70 km/h, which resulted in over 10,000 cyclists not showing up or not finishing the race. Even directly after the start, coming from under the Civil Center in Cape Town, the winds hit us right in the face and it caused many cyclist to walk or even fall.

However, being used the cycle against the wind along the Dutch polders, I was very brave and stayed on my bike, actually did quite well considering the weather. It was odd though to have to pedal hard on a descend to make any speed! Where I had been flyingwith no effort at all with speeds of around 40km/h the day before, now I was hardly doing 20km/h (and that on a descend!).

According to most of the cyclists at the finish, this was the hardest Cape Argus since history, I don't know about that but it actually was a bit madness.

My time was 4hour17 minutes, with an average speed of 25.6 km (110 km race).

22 February - HCA Ride

This Sunday we had a so-called reliability ride from the Huddersfield Cycling Association (of which our club is a member). We did a 60 mile tour, which gave me 120 kilometers in the end, as I had to ride from home to the start and the finish was somewhere still 15 km from home. The tour went from Brighouse, via Bradford to Gargrave and than back via Skipton and Keighley to Queensburry. On my way back home I took the Bailiff Bridge hill (around 15% ascend for a couple of hundred meters) which I can tell you is not easiest option with 100km in your legs. The ride went very well - as always I have to warm up in the beginning, but after 30 to 40 km I start to get some real energy boosts - on a flat piece around Skipton I reached speeds of around 50 k/h. The weather starts to become better, it's less cold and today there was a nice sunny spell every now and then.
Statistics: 120 km, average speed 25.8 km/h - max speed 66 km/h - 1400 mtr total ascend.
Rode the Colnago - which I have transfered into my winter bike. It's not as light as the Focus Cayo Extreme, but it's a solid bike with reliabel campa stuff.

Done a minor (45km) ride earlier in the week and did a 20.8 km timed distance (in the spirit of a time trial) on Saturday, around Mirfield. One lap is 10.4 km, I did two laps but it was extremely windy. Still did an average of 30 km/h - which with a total ascend of 250 meters is not too bad.
The first lap was a bit faster than the second (20.30 to 21.25). I tried out my clip on aero bars on the Focus bike - this really looks cool. It was a bit too low so today I made it a bit higher, that sits better, maybe can lead to faster runs. I'm certainly gonna do some TT's this year.

This week I'm on a business trip - let's hope the hotels have good gyms.

103 ride Mirfield - Burnley - Mirfield

Today did a 103 kilometre ride - uploaded into my Garmin TC from my EDGE705 - and see the result - this is only the elevation - we did 26 k/h average, which is quite fast. The weather is starting to get better, but I can't wait untill the sun really comes out.

Reached my goal! Over £500 for the Marie Curie Cancer Care.

I might have been a bit 'pushing' in my approach, but I did achieve at least one goal, over £500 have now been donated to the Marie Curie Cancer Care for my charity ride, Etappe Du Dales. Of course any further donations are welcome at www.justgiving.com/jackdebokx
I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this good cause..........I will make sure that I do succesfully achieve the second part of the objective, that is finishing the Etappe (in a reasonable state and time).

This week did 3 turbotrainer sessions (total around 75 kilometres) and one spinning sessions. The weather outside was either too cold and icy or I just didn't have the time to go outside, anyway - those inside sessions do work as well. This morning had my physics measured at the company gym: 181 lbs and just over 15% BFM. Not too bad, lost around 8 lbs since the beginning of the year. We will do another measure again in a month's time - then I will also do VO2 max. In my good days, when I was a lot younger and did triathlon, I was around 10% BFM, 160 lbs and had a VO2 max of 66.

Let's hope the weather stays reasonably OK for the weekend so we can go on a long ride again.
Keep you posted.

First real 100 km

Last week I was in the US for a couple of days were I only had the chance to go to the gym one evening, did a 10 mile ride on a stupid indoor bike with a big saddle (do they think there are elephants in the gym?) - went to Paris for a one day meeting and then came home on Thursday evening late - tired. But managed to go on the turbo training on Friday and Saturday (the weather was just too bad to go outside) for around 45 minutes each time.
Sunday we went out with the Ravensthorpe Cycle Club from Mirfield via Keighley to Otley and back through Bradford (and I still don't like that option too much), anyway, just made it over 100 km (100.5 to be exact) so this counts as my first centennial of the year! I seem to be loosing some weight, which is a good thing as I need to draf all those pounds up when doing the Etappe Du Dales. The average this time was quite OK, 25 km/h as we did some proper cycling on some of the flat roads north of Keighley. Didn't do too much climbing on this trip - only about 1100 meters total ascend. It was certainly a nice ride, hope the weather doesn't turn out too ugly so I can do some riding this week, otherwise it will the turbo again.

First February ride

This week has been quite busy, I had to fly out to cold Sweden (actually it was just similar weather as in the UK), but still had time to do a couple of turbo trainer sessions and one spinning workout at the gym. All in all nearly three hours of sweating!
Today we had our first February ride, 100 km from Mirfield to Glossop and back over Holmes Moss. Again rode with the Ravensthorpe cycle club. Never did the southside of Holmes Moss, quite different from the north side, less difficult I would say, but still quite hard. The climb is to just over 500 meters - my Garmin's altitude meter was almost spot on with the sign at the top of the climb. Did quite well, better then the climb on the way up - my engine seems to work a bit like a diesel, it takes a couple of miles before it starts working well! The weather was typical for this time of the year in the Pennines, we had snow and a freezing cold wind! Saw the sun for five seconds (don't remember where that was) and that was it. Cold - it took me ages after our midrun stop to warm up again, but then the climb to Holmes Moss did it.
With these miles in my legs I should be able to finish my rides this summer decently, just have to make sure I'm not burning it all before the summer starts.
Off to the US this week, hope I can use the gym and look forward to the trip next week.
If you want to see our ride of today, just follow this link: http://www.mapmytri.com/view_route?r=789845715294

Quite curious if this works - let me know. I've downloaded the route data from my Garmin into Mapmyride.com

That's all - next posting next week!

Sunday ride with Ravensthorpe Cycling Club

Riding on your own can become a bit boring, if the weather is nice it's ok, but during the winter, which lasts somewhere upto June in the UK, it can be quite demotivating to go out on your own, therefore I've been trying to find a club. I knew there was a club in Ravensthorpe, as I've seen some of their riders last year, so I got in touch and voila, today was my first ride with the Ravensthorpe Cycling Club. Peeking out the window early this morning wasn't too promising but Monica got me into going anyway, it wasn't raining but there were a lot of clouds and it definitely had rain. Let me tell you, I hate leaving for a ride in the rain, I don't mind too much if it starts raining somewhere along and you can go home, but not getting soaked from the beginning. But anyway, it stayed dry for almost the whole ride. We met at 9am in Mirfield and went out for a ride to Bolton Bridge (for a quick stop with a tea and scone) via Keighly, coming back via the other side of Bradford, all in all just under 100km - quite a ride. But it really helps cycling with a bunch of other guys, you talk a bit and without noticing you have 30km under the wheels. The last 20 km went better then expected as this is by far the furthest ride I've done so far this year. Average speed was just under 24km/h with a total ascend of around 11oo mtr. I had a good day and will certainly continue with these Sunday rides, they should prepare me for the 175km Etappe Du Dales! However, I don't advise anyone to go out cycling in Bradford on Sunday noon time, not a good idea - too many cardrivers think passing very close to cyclists is a sport - well it isn't!

I promissed to tell a bit about the Garmin. I've bought the Edge705 a little while ago and i have to say I'm quite pleased with this little toy. It's a GPS combined with all the data you want, like altitude, grade ascend/descend, hart rate, calories used (a bit desceptive I think) etc etc. You can upload all the information to Garmin Training Centre, in which you then can compare the data with other rides. You can even view the ride in Google Earth, that's neat. But....like with all these toys, you have to be a bit nerdish I think to really enjoy it - unless you are a professional rider and actually need all that data to improve, for me it's just fun having access to the data, although I do use the heart rate to ensure I'm not burning out too fast. It's also great for not getting lost, it replaces those little notes on which I sometimes scribble my route - they get sweaty and unreadable after a couple of hours. It's certainly one of my better buys lately, together with my legwarmers.

Saturday morning ride

Went out on a 50k ride this morning. I call it the Clayton West Tour. From our house in Mirfield I ride via the A62 upto Cooper Bridge and then past Mama's and Papa's up the hill towards Upper Heaton, then continue towards Grange Moor, then direction Flockton, go down towards the television tower with a very short and steep climb, past the tower tp Shelley, then to Skelmanthorpe to Clayton West, starting the return with again a short but steep climb towards Emley, continue all the way towards Lepton Edge, and then very nice downhill all the way towards Overton, at the outdoor shop bend left towards Thornhill to Dewsbury and back home. The ride went well as the weather was really beautiful. Did just over 24k average, total ascend of nearly 800 mtr (my Garmin Edge 705 has a lot of information available, more about that later). I wasn't too tired when I got home, so should start to be ready for the Cape Argus in just over a month.

Support me!

Obviously I am lucky to be healthy! However, I've experienced first hand what it means to be less fortunate. Therefore I have choosen to support the Marie Curie Cancer Care in doing my Etappe Du Dales. If you wish to support me, please go to
www.justgiving.com/jackdebokx

Thanks!

Start Again

Since moving from the Netherlands to the US and then around 5 years ago to the UK, I have used my bicyle a bit less. Everyone in the Netherlands rides! Well, most of them do, and not all of them on these superbikes obviously. And though many would like to think so, we haven't had too many good cyclists in the last couple of years, of course there were Michael Boogerd, Eric Dekker and more recently marginal successes with some other riders, but there hasn't been any dominant rider, but there is hope! Geesink, Boom, Thomas Dekker, Mollema - who knows where they will end. Anyway, back to myself - since the last couple of years I've been sporting again, loosing the weight I gained in the US (yes, I admit - the food isn't that good, but you eat a lot anyway). I was lucky to have a gym at work and I got into rowing and running again. I actually became OK in these two things, being able to row a sub7 minutes on 2k and even did a half marathon (Leeds 07) in 1.37. Not too bad. Then the cycle virus hit me again, and boy, did I like it. Obviously the area around Yorkshire is perfect for riding, I like the hills with their steep short climbs, the rough landscape and the tranquility on the small roads (mind you, the A-roads are generally used as one big parking spot, so no use cycling there, unless it's Sunday morning before 10AM). So 2008 saw me on the bike again quite often, I even bought myself a new one. I had a Colnago (alu frame) with Campa stuff, but it was getting a bit old, so I shifted to a full carbon. That's a tough choice, I did a lot of research, looked at Specialized, Cannondale, Scott, Trek but in the end bought a Focus Cayo Expert with Dura Ace/FSA stuff. It was considerably cheaper for similar specs - and boy it's a nice bike! (As one of my favorite riders is the Dutch guy Nikki Terpstra I was glad to see that his team Milram is shifting to Focus!). So obviously having a new bike forced me to use it even more. I then decided to do some sportives again in 2009 - my first choice being the Cape Argus, as I happen to be in South Africa for work purposes anyway the week before. I tried to get into the Fred Whitton, but when I logged in early morning it was already completely full (the registration started at 12 nighttime!). I could register, together with my cycling companian in the making, Ben G. for the Etappe Du Dales. Futher I will do a long weekend in the Alps and the sportive during the Vuelta in the Netherlands with another friend (Eino). That's it - now getting into shape. That's what this blog is about - I will do the Etappe De Dales for charity - Madam Curie Cancer Care, many folks have been donating for this good cause (175 km!) and it's only fair you can read about my progress in preparing for this sportive.
More to follow.