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Challenge Henley 2011
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hi bedders,
it'll be great to see you again...
however, you'll have to enter as soon as.. entries is closing on the 19th august midday..
SteveHo - yes would be good as I enjoyed Regensburg a lot - tried to find you on FB but no luck so pl ping me a link. My email address is on the profile.
I am still undecided as I have done buggar all since IMR but feel I need to focus on something now. And I need to get my bike over to UK.
Bedders - just mailed you.
If anyone else fancies bike course recce then SteveHo & myself are meeting at Henley Business School for a 10am start, tomorrow (Saturday) morning.
They've extended the deadline for entries until midday Monday so it'll give you a chance to do a lap or 2 of the bike course before deciding whether you want to enter
Jaffa - it was great riding with you!!! hopefully we'll have good weather on race day...
Don't leave us in suspense - how was the course? It's a bit far away for me to recce...
81M for me today, averaged 14.5mph with no drafting assistance and around 1500m of climbing so pleased with that - got sunburnt though! Appparently Mr Pitt and the zombie filming had to cease today because it was too sunny in Glasgow - what were the chances of that!
WW - the course profile is quite decieving its not that bad at all.. the climbs maybe only about 6% and kicks up to 9% on the steapest little bit.. plus there are loads of long down hill to make up lost time..
glad you got to cycle in sunshine WW, we got bliddy drenched.
Really glad I did the reccee it's boosted my confidence as like Steve I don't think it's too bad. We did a lap and a half so I can imagine the hills feeling harder on the last lap but it's not a killer and there is plenty of recovery time.
Summary on the challenge website is fairly accurate I'd say, a flat spin out of transition plenty of time to get yourself comfy and get some liquid or fuel on board if you want, then the first hill / drag upto Nettlebed (which I found the worst), I'll be spinning up it fairly gently on lap 1 and lap2 and see how I feel for lap 3.
About 4-5 miles probably but consistently up with a couple of little flat bits. Left at the roundabout and then a nice flat / downhill stretch for 5 miles, down on tribars and pick up some average speed, turn and back up which isn't too bad then right at the rbout and the big downhill where you can just hammer it ( I dropped my chain 2nd time round and still freewheeled it at 24mph), tight left at the bottom (you'll need to take lots of speed off) flat stretch which will be good to get fuel on board and then a long climb (Pishill) which personally I didn't find too bad (although only did this once) it's quite tight and will be 2 way so you'll need to be alert to those coming down. Road surface could be better but I think they are resurfacing prior to the race.
Turn right at the top and this is a lovely stretch, down on the bars out and back from the turn point and you can just pick up speed before turning left back down Pishill. It was chucking down with rain when we did it so rode it fairly cautiously, I'd just be aware of surface and lines (bearing in mind the road will be coned 2 way traffic) but there's the potential to pick up average speed for the lap here.
Then right at the bottom to start the loop again with the drag to Nettlebed.
How's your biking compared to last year at Outlaw?
We took it reasonably comfortably up the 2 different hills of the first lap and only started to ride harder at the 30 mile turn around when it started to rain, in total we managed just over 50 miles in just over 3 hrs so I'd hope for a sub7 hr ride on the day. I think it's got PB written all over for you!
In general I was under the impression that I'm a lot slower than last year but given I'm training on as many hills as I can find and living in Scotland compared to herts/essex rides of last year I'd say I might be being deceived! I looked back at last year's training diary and I actually did my last long ride (in a fairly strong wind mind) in 14.9mph and averaged 16mph at outlaw. I'm definately better on hills this year than last but I'll just have to wait and see - I would be over the moon with 7.5 hrs. This year's run should slaughter last years, lack of stomach pain permitting - another 16M run today, av 9:15 min/mile
Thanks for the course details, tis v.helpful!
It's this weekend you're racing, isn't it, folks? Looks like being a fantastic finish to the season and really looking forward to reading what you think about the UK's first does of the Challenge Family treatment. On the back of last weekend.... wishing you fair weather.
I hear that Challenge have a "tracker" that actually works, so you can be assured that we'll all be telling you to HTFU via the wonders of the world wide web
yeah finger cross we get descent weather this coming weekend!!
Also to stay positive keeping in the back of my mind is what ever mother nature throw at us, it'll only be half as bad at IMW's... plus learning from experience of regensburg I'll be using my trusty Clincher wheels just incase i need my brakes to work on the down hills.
Have you got a list? Me and Mr J will be marshalling on the bike course, probably on the Fairmile, so will be cheering you on.
I'm not sure your hills will be any easier than IMW, though, so take it steady for the first 75 miles.
Good luck!
Gladys - i'm trying my best to learn to swim.
as for pee on the move absolutely not doing that, don't want to either get my bike smelling of pee or end up in the ditch by the side of the road!!
Good luck guys, race well, this was getting plugged all over Radio Berkshire this morning. THere seems to be quite a lot of local interest so hope you get the same sort of support the Welsh IM guys got.
we're also hoping to make the 4pm race briefing tomorrow but that's not definite at the mo
God luck to everybody racing hope you have a great experience I am off to my dads wedding this weekend so will look forward to the race reports on monday
Countdown is progressing, and the first touch of prerace anticipation is starting to come out.
Quick update, water temp is 16c this morning according to the site.
Weather forecast looks like it may be a bit damp but winds shouldn't be as bad as last weekend in Wales so it's not all bad.
Small but select starting list,
SteveHo 430
Jaffa 501
which witch 510
richard campbell 599
http://results.racetectiming.com/default.aspx?CId=38&RId=214
(hopefully it'll work on the day)
So more pirate's marshalling / reffing than racing I think! (good job guys, thanks in advance!)
See you in T1 if not on Saturday (I'll probably be at the earlier race briefing)
FB, do your official reffing duties extend to finish line pints?
It should be fun!
It's a short list, jaffa. But just look at the quality.
A crack squad of semi elites!
Anyone else supporting?
Good luck everyone.