March Miles Update

Another half decent weekend on the bike for me just passed.  Managed two rides, a flat ride on Saturday of 40 miles and an undulating 45 mile ride in and around the Ribble Valley on Sunday.

The run on Sunday had 2.8K of ascent across the route and I felt good going up and over anything that came my way, despite some very wet and cold conditions it felt great being out on the roads near the Trough of Bowland.

Plan was to re-run the Onix Twitter ride route from a few weeks ago with some fellow riders from the up and coming London to Paris event I'm participating in, however snow on higher ground overnight meant the roads were slush and deserved a miss and we re-routed on roads in lower ground.

Necking a coffee at our start point - ProTool Cycleworks - in Waddington (quick recommendation if you want a bike fit or bike service use these guys, they are the best in the business), we weren't quite sure what the day was going to bring - other than rain. 

Given the striking scenery, the weather conditions were easy to ride through, I was well layered with a full sleeved base layer, full sleeved top and rain jacket.  On the bottom half, three quarter bibs and overshoes kept the worse of the conditions at bay.  Arriving back, everything was wet to the core, bike was filthy and we got straight in the cafe after getting changed.

One welcome addition on the ride was the neutral race support vehicle which followed us around the route on Sunday.  Lucky it was there as we had a couple of riders who tired at different points on the run and they jumped into the support vehicle for a warm ride home!

Neutral Race Support sponsored by Brother UK

March has so far seen me put around 14 hours in the saddle, covering 218 miles (350km), with two full weekends to go (crossing fingers for good weather) I hope to build on that to around 350 miles (560km).  Total ascent has been 8.3K ft with an average speed of 15.7mph (25km/h) so everything is totally on plan for my London to Paris ride in June.  Voila!

Ride One
Distance - 40miles
Ascent - 1,154ft
Avg. Speed - 16.3mph (26km/h)
Ride Ascent Ratio (Ascent/Distance) - 28.9 (easy/flat)

Ride Two

Distance - 45miles
Ascent - 2,814ft
Avg. Speed - 14.6mph (23km/h)
Ride Ascent Ratio (Ascent/Distance) - 62.5 (medium/undulating)