Reliability Rides 2017 West Midlands

At the start of every season a number of local clubs arrange and host reliability rides around the area. These are often around 50-60 miles in length, are unsigned, cost very little and have excellent cake at the end too. Traditionally these rides were the first test of the legs in an event, to see how they were faring at speeds a little quicker than the average Sunday club run. The reliability ride has now morphed into a popular mini-sportive, with a strong mix of riders at all levels taking part.

West Midlands Reliability Rides in 2017

Stratford Cycle Club Reliability Ride
When: 12th February 2017
Where: Home Guard Club, Tiddington, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
Start: 10am
Route: Here
2016 Review – 2014 Review

CC Giro Reliability Ride
When: 12th February
Where: Rosliston Forestry Centre, Rosliston, Derbyshire/East Staffordshire
Start: 10:15am
Route: Here
2016 Review

Bridgnorth CC Reliability Ride
When: 12th February 2017
Where: Clee Cycles, Station Works, Hollybush Road, Bridgnorth
Start: 09:30am
Route: Here (gpx)

Malvern Cycle Sport Reliability Ride
When: 19th February 2017
Where: Malvern Victoria Bowling Club, Victoria Park, Malvern Link, Worcestershire
Start: 09:30
Route: NA

Mid Shropshire Wheelers Reliability Ride
When: 19th February 2017
Where: Shrewsbury Sports Village, Sundorne Rd, Shrewsbury
Start: 08:30
Route: Here

Royal Sutton Coldfield Reliability Ride
When: 19th February 2017
Where: Town Gate, Sutton Park, West Midlands
Start: 09:30am
Route: Here

Solihull CC Reliability Ride
When: 26th February 2017
Where: Bluebell Cider House, Solihull, West Midlands
Start: 09:00am
Route: Here

Redditch Road and Path CC Reliability Ride
When: 26th February 2017
Where: Mettis Aerospace Sports & Social Club, Cherry Tree Walk, Redditch, Worcestershire
Start: 08:30am
Route: Here
2016 Review

Audlem CC Reliability Ride
When: 26th February 2017
Where: Scout and Guide Hut, Audlem, SE Cheshire
Start: 09:15am
Route: NA

Bromsgrove Olympic Reliability Ride
When: 5th March 2017
Where: Scout Hut, Kidderminster Road, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire
Start: 10:00am
Route: NA

Echelon Cycles Three Counties Challenge
When: 5th March 2017
Where: Echelon Cycles, Pershore, Worcestershire
Start: 09:00am
Route: Here

Stafford Road Club Reliability Ride
When: 5th March 2017
Where: Stafford Rugby Club, Stafford, Staffordshire
Start: 9am
Route: Here

Nova Raiders Reliability Trial
When: 12th March 2017
Where: New Inn, Newport, Shropshire
Start: 09:30am
Route: Here

Wolverhampton Wheelers ’50 in 4′
When: 15th March 2017
Where: Pattingham Village Hall, Pattingham, Shropshire
Start: 08:45am
Route: Here

Reliability Rides 2017 West Midlands was originally published on Me vs. Pro Cycling

Cycling Fights and Bust-Ups – Top 3

Sometimes fights happen when tempers boil over and particularly in a cycling peloton where crashes happen regularly and usually result in a bad injury. The higher tensions mean that sometimes aggression gets the better of some riders. Below are three recent examples of such altercations.

1. Andriy Grivko fights Marcel Kittel, 2017 Tour of Dubai

Today’s news is that Marcel Kittel was punched by Astana’s Andriy Grivko on Stage 3 of the Tour of Dubai. As you can see from the picture it looks like it was a solid punch too. Andriy Grivko has been thrown out of the race and Kittel is asking for him to be banned for 6 months. It seems that as the peloton entered an area of crosswinds, with riders jostling for position Grivko lashed out without provocation. The punch broke Kittel’s glasses and a later attempt at an apology fell on deaf ears.

2. Gianluca Brambilla & Ivan Rovny fighting whilst riding 2014 Vuelta

Two riders in the breakaway, with one saying the other wasn’t pulling his weight effort wise. Brambilla gave Rovny’s jersey a short tug and then it all kicked off. Both riders were ejected from the Vuelta Espana after this bout, which seems to have been allowed to go on for quite a while with no other interaction. The wry shake of the head from the Caja Rural rider in green says it all.

3. Carlos Barreda fights Rui Costa with a wheel, 2010 Tour de France

Possibly the worst one on this list because it involves using something else as a weapon. As well as being a bit more premeditated than an out of hand disagreement on the bike. Carlos Barreda storms across a crowd and tries to fit former World Champion Rui Costa’s head through a wheel. Everyone else around just seems to let them get on with it in the mean time. Apparently a touching of bars near the end of the stage precipitated the attack and both riders got off lightly with a €300 fine.

Cycling Fights and Bust-Ups – Top 3 was originally published on Me vs. Pro Cycling

Rapha Festive 500 2016 Roundel Opening

I completed the Rapha Festive 500 again between Christmas and New Year’s Eve 2016. The challenge is to cycle 500km over 8 days during the darkest, bleakest and most social time of the year.

Part of the reward for completing the challenge, other than the massive leg muscles, is a woven roundel patch to commemorate the achievement. This year’s has just come through the post!

Not quite as nice a package as two years ago, but the patch itself is just as good. Previously the card it came with was full of facts such as how many riders completed the challenge, which countries they were from and so on. This year it’s just a cartwheeling figure on the figure. Maybe too many people completed it and the cost is starting to climb!

A nice touch this year is a jersey available at an actual reasonable price (unlike the usual ones, jealously griped about here), I bought one, mainly to be able to show off – standard, I’ve had previous for this.

Job done, onto 2017’s challenges!

Rapha Festive 500 2016 Roundel Opening was originally published on Me vs. Pro Cycling

Rapha Festive 500 2016 – Getting it done

Completing the 2016 Rapha Festive 500

This Christmas, I set myself the challenge to complete the Rapha Festive 500 again. The challenge that Rapha set is to cycle 500 kilometres between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, which given the Winter weather and social restrictions of that time of year presents a fair obstacle. I completed the Festive 500 back in 2014 so knew that I could do it again, provided the weather was kind and I was sensible.

My Christmas Day…

Day 1 was tough, a ridiculously windy day and I didn’t get to enjoy much of the wind behind me on the fun sections! The headwinds were on the already more difficult rolling sections with the climbs and long steady gradients. Disappointingly towards the end of the ride when I should have been able to tank along with the wind, I had to keep stopping because round seemingly every bend was a horse – it turned out the local hunt were out doing their thing. I slogged through 39.6 miles on my own, but didn’t particularly enjoy it – an inauspicious start!

The second day was Christmas Day, just like two years before I split today’s mileage into two separate rides. Making sure I’d done the bulk early in the day, it was another windy solo day but thankfully dry. With the wind in the right direction, it was fun blasting along the lanes using the body as a sail. A nice easy 10 miles later on in the dark along the flat roads not far from home.

Post ride cafe fun

I get some company on the Festive 500

Boxing Day saw me join the Stratford Cycling Club’s Boxing Day ride, a leisurely jaunt of 50 miles for me. Meeting up at Box Brownie, a great cafe in Stratford, we headed up towards Shrewley and Lowsonford before heading back to Stratford via Alcester. I sat in the wheels for most of the ride, being told I was showing off because of my trackstanding whilst waiting at junctions, before taking the reigns near the end of the ride. Somehow we managed to get split up coming up the rise by Billesley, but being so close to Stratford it settled into two manageable groups. Just about 1 mile from Stratford and on a short rise I decided to liven things up by attacking on a small rise, blasting away with only Max managing to bridge the gap on the way into Stratford. We decamped into a cafe for some more coffee before heading home.

Waiting for John to sort his puncture out

The next day was another social club ride with most of the same (allbeit smaller) pack. We did 25 flat miles to begin with towards Bretforton and Badsey before making the turn back towards Stratford, someone was clearly bored and fancied a hill or two so we ended up both Saintbury and Baker’s Hill. Max smashed up miles ahead of everyone else, I was setting a good pace ahead of John and Dave but thinking we were making the left turn halfway up Saintbury pulled in, only to find we weren’t as those two went past. Momentum lost, the rest of the hill was a struggle. Leading the charge past Chipping Campden and down into Mickleton, Baker’s was taken far more sedately. Again a last little sprint was had just outside of Stratford, pleased to say I got the tactics right having sat at the back to begin with, moving up the line as people dropped out and making the sprint count at the end. Back into town for more coffee again! Managed to get another 11 miles done that evening cycling into down for some drinks.

After the harder previous days, the 28th was a relatively rest day, just a ride over to Shipston on Stour and back to see my grandparents. Still 17 miles though to keep things ticking over nicely.
The legs were beginning to ache and felt very heavy on the 29th. It took me most of the day to work up the energy to head out and I only did 21 miles that day on flat roads. I accidentally set a bit of a PB on half of a local TT circuit, which I ended up using as a banker time to try and beat later in the week.

40 miles to go…

Festive 500 Ice and Mechanicals

The club had another group ride on the 30th, the weather had changed from earlier in the week and got colder, ice was now an issue. The main road into Stratford was fine, but as we headed out towards Tysoe we found a particularly icy stretch and one of our group managed to hit the deck because of it. As we all stopped for a check up, it was hard to even stand upright at the moment and it became easier to get going again by starting on the grass verge! Tim and I decided we’d had enough of looking over the front wheel for ice all the time and bombed back into Stratford along the main road. Coming out of Stratford, crossing an island, my chain unexpectedly fell off. It turned out I’d completely destroyed the chainring, snapping it good and proper because a couple of chainring bolts had fallen out at some point. The bike was still rideable in the big chainring so that’s how I finished the ride. I got home, had some lunch and then popped out for another 20 miles on the main roads to get some miles advantage in again and have less to do the following day.

New Year’s Eve, just 25.5 miles left to complete. I went out solo, did a couple of loops of the Stratford Tuesday bash circuit by Ilmington and found time for a half-proper TT attempt to finish off. Into a headwind, I knocked over 50 seconds off the time of the first half set a couple of days earlier and set a time for the circuit which is a good starting point. Finishing in the dark I was glad to have it all over and done with – 500km in 8 days!

The patch for completing the challenge.

Rapha Festive 500 2016 – Getting it done was originally published on Me vs. Pro Cycling

UCI Worldtour Transfers 2017 Round-Up

Transfers round-up for the 2017 cycling season

As with every season, there has been a large amount of transfers and changes over the off-season. New teams have been created, old familiar teams and team names have been consigned to history. The highest profile transfers have seen the rainbow jersey of the world champion Peter Sagan change teams, as well as GC heavyweights Vincenzo Nibali and Alberto Contador. Strong sprinters, classics specialists and GC helpers have also found new homes elsewhere.

Long-term great Fabian Cancellara retired over the winter, along with fellow World Champion Michael Rogers and Giro d’Italia winner Ryder Hesjedal. There was also the sad retirement of Gianni Meersman, who after winning stages at the Vuelta Espana in September last year has been diagnosed with heart issues. The man who achieved notoriety for being knocked off his bike into a barbed wire fence during the Tour de France, Johnny Hoogerland also hung up his wheels (always feels a bit of a forced phrase…).

With the introduction of Bahrain Merida the peloton gains a splash of red, Abu Dhabi disappointingly went for a mostly black affair, just to make things more difficult from the overhead helicopter shots on TV. The peloton also loses the distinctive yellow of Tinkoff, with Oleg Tinkov throwing in the towel of his second attempt at a cycling team after a falling out with the powers that be.

With things shaken up considerably, we’re set for an interesting 2017 season.

New Teams:

Bahrain – Merida

Folding Teams:

Tinkoff Cycling

IAM Cycling

New Names for Existing Teams:

Bora – Hansgrohe (previously Bora – Argon)

UAE Abu Dhabi (previously Lampre – Merida)

Orica – Scott (previously Orica – BikeExchange)

Team Katusha – Alpecin (previously Team Katusha)

Quick-Step Floors (previously Etixx – Quickstep)

Team Sunweb (previously Giant – Alpecin)

High Profile Rider Transfers:

[table id=6 /]

Other Notable Rider Transfers:

[table id=7 /]

Noted Retirees:

[table id=5 /]

UCI Worldtour Transfers 2017 Round-Up was originally published on Me vs. Pro Cycling

Zwift Riding and Q&A with Jens Voigt

This Winter I’ve spent most of my time riding indoors on a turbo trainer, safe from the dangers of ice, snow, wind and bad driving. I have a good setup but generally need group rides and some uptempo music to keep me entertained as I literally stare at the walls. Every now and again one of the perks of Zwift is that you get the chance to ride with a pro rider who could be your hero. Jens Voigt is possibly the most popular 00s non-contender cyclist. His 17 consecutive Tour de Frances between 1998 and 2014 made him a well known name for all cycling fans, especially for his two breakaway stage wins. Jens Voigt took the chance to lead a group ride on Zwift this week.

Jens Voigt in the virtual world of Zwift

Riding with Jens Voigt

The ride with Jens Voigt took place very late one night (00:30am) as it came live from the Tour Down Under which started yesterday in Australia. Luckily this ride was on a Friday night so I knew I would be able to have a lie-in the next day! We rode for 60 minutes around the London Classique course which was used for the Women’s Worldtour race in 2016. It’s a fairly flat and easy course at 5.5km long, but it takes in all the sights of central London which even look good virtually.

Riders are taken past the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and Trafalgar Square before heading down the Mall to Buckingham Palace – I think even the London Eye sneaks in an appearance. As we cycled along at a quick tempo for mere mortals, riders were able to pose questions to Jens Voigt and have him answer to the group.

Jens Voigt wearing the Polka Dot Jersey in Stage 2, 2014 Tour de France

Questions & Answers with Jens Voigt

Many questions were asked and answered, most fairly sensible ones too surprisingly – no-one took the chance to ask him his favourite film or beer for instance. Given the proximity to the Tour Down Under which has now started (albeit with a truncated stage due to heat), he reckoned that Richie Porte had the best chance of winning it. Whilst on the topic of pro-cycling, Jens was asked quite a few questions about his time in the peloton. The best room-mate he had was ‘funny guy’ Bobby Julich, who he rode with in 2000-01 with Credit Agricole and also later at Team CSC between 2004-08. The best leader he rode for as a domestique was Andy Schleck, described as ‘classy’ – the two won the 2010 Tour de France together.

Lance Armstrong naturally came up, Jens says that he always got on with his 2011 team-mate, chatting about family and kids over coffees. Surprisingly despite the red rag to a bull effect that the Armstrong name has, something sensible followed it up. Whilst riding as a pro, Jens would clock up an average of 35,000km during the year with around half of that taking place at races – I thought I’d done well to manage 13,000km last year!

Jens Voigt whilst breaking the Hour Record

The Hour Record

Once the rules for the Hour Record were changed, Jens Voigt was one of the first riders to take to the velodrome to try and beat the existing record. Jens briefly held the record for 6 weeks before Matthias Brandle set a new record. For the Hour Record Jens was weighing 78kg (I can only dream to be such a weight!) and averaged 413 watts (I can only dream to hold such wattage for an hour!). It’s unusual to get the actual numbers, but it shows the difference between the average club cyclist and a pro. My best power to weight ratio I’ve recorded is 3.6w/kg whereas Jens held 5.3w/kg – a huge amount of daylight!

Everything else…

We also learn that his eldest son plays lacrosse and his second son raced bikes for 5 years but stopped. Clearly there won’t be any new Voigts gracing the pro peloton in future years. Finally, Jens’ worst bonk (where you run out of all energy and can barely turn the pedals) was in a junior stage race, whilst in the lead and once the bonk happened he lost the race by a big margin.

It’s always worth keeping an eye out for Zwift events with former and current Pros, you never know what tidbit you might learn!

Zwift Riding and Q&A with Jens Voigt was originally published on Me vs. Pro Cycling

As 2016 comes to a close…

At the start of the year after a lacklustre 2015 cycling-wise, I set myself the target of cycling 10,000 kilometres in 2016. As it turned out, I managed more than 13,000!

I’ve completed a few sportives in the UK (CFC Sportive, Mad March Hare) and rode the Dunwich Dynamo on a restored 1930s singlespeed tandem. I also completed the Festive 500 for the second time, after completing it before in 2014.

I also managed a couple of trips abroad, seemingly centred around Belgium. I went and saw Fleche Wallonne, rode and watched Liege-Bastogne-Liege and cycled from Brussels to Cologne for a beer festival. I also managed a few cheeky miles in Copenhagen for good measure as well.

I’ve got a couple of sportives already signed up for in 2017 such as the Mad March Hare, I’ll repeat the 10,000km target and I’m working out a trip abroad again. I’m also increasingly tinkering with the idea of doing time trials for the first time in 2017 as a way to release some of the competitiveness without having to deal with crashes. I’ll continue to race indoors on Zwift.

Happy New Year and good luck for 2017!

As 2016 comes to a close… was originally published on Me vs. Pro Cycling

Cycling to Work – Commuter Racing

Being a Commuter and Cycling to Work

There’s definitely a few of us who as a commuter are lucky enough to live roughly near to where they work and are foolhardy enough to brave the traffic to commute into work on our bikes. Out on the street you’ll see huge variation in what people use to get to work. From cheap heavy mountain bikes to the odd person still out on their carbon ride in the depths of winter sliding around on the ice.

Aside from the steed, clothing shows similar amounts of variation. There’s plenty of garish yellowy green hi-vis on show, clippy shoes, smart shoes (and even one person with clippy shoes without the clips – like having football boots without the studs) and even the odd Rapha jersey for some reason. I’ve already covered cycling kit as a whole here, but the commuter kit throws in a whole new world of possibilities.

Personally I go for the tweed jacket with laptop bag ballast, suited and booted approach, which given it has the aerodynamic properties of a woven sail flapping in the wind makes my ride into work just that touch harder. It’s still easier and quicker than having to get changed more than I need to.

Commuter Racing

It’s only natural then that we want to defeat the others that we come across on our route, some battles get played out repeatedly at the same times and the same places, just on different days. There are different ‘stages’ or ‘tracks’, the most common one for me in Birmingham is the Gooch Street – Pershore Road – Hurst Street bike route blast, however Broad Street was once a happy hunting ground and there’s a special place for beating people up the hill into Kings Heath.

The climb to Kings Heath

Everyone has their own route and points where they come across other commuters, but like all cycle racing a hill climb victory is worth more than simply being quicker than someone on the flat. Especially if you’ve got a laptop bag.

Now there are a couple of unofficial rules, going through red lights is a big no-no and an instant disqualification. Being able to then still pass someone who has gone through one of them gives a solid moral victory however. Gaining a sense of achievement by blasting past someone who is going at glacial levels of slowness is not cool, you’d have to blast past about six for one real victory.

Also overtaking and then going immediately left across their path is a bit of a dick move (it’s dangerous enough when drivers do it). Drafting is allowed, but don’t expect much information coming back to you like you would on the club ride. Their last minute swerve around the pothole could see you hit it for instance. The questionable quality of mudguards also makes this practice disadvantageous if it’s a damp day, as you’ll only end up mucky for work.

The Commuter Racer Mindset

It takes the right sort of person to initiate a race with someone they don’t know, who probably doesn’t know they’re racing and is just using a bike as a means to get to work. Hyper competitiveness is a must, a turn of speed is very useful, as is the ability to self-justify this behaviour. ‘I’m just doing it to get to work quicker’, ‘this is good training’ and ‘my anaerobic levels are going through the roof!’

Some races start by accident because the number one goal is to get into town and make that train, despite leaving the house 5 minutes later than you should have. Soon you have lots of overtakes and someone smart who has jumped onto your back wheel that you have to try and burn off where possible.

The dream days are the ones where all the lights are green, all the islands are clear and you can smash it to work in 15 minutes without having had to stop on the way.

Cycling to Work – Commuter Racing was originally published on Me vs. Pro Cycling

Zwift Review – A New Way of Indoor Training

So what is Zwift? Well, traditionally Winter cycling saw people putting on layer after layer, braving the cold and wet on a club ride or having to resort to riding indoors on a turbo trainer. The latter was always dull, staring at the four walls out of your mind bored. Some people found relief in watching films whilst riding, I generally had to resort to playing the Xbox. By distracting my brain from clock watching by playing Fifa (driving games didn’t work very well, it’s hard to fight the urge to lean into the corners). Around two years ago Zwift was created to fill in that gap and make indoor training much more interesting.

Leading the group – no helmet, black/blue kit and white/green bike.

Zwift Review

Anyone with a bike, a turbo trainer (£100+), a couple of sensors (£50), an ANT+ stick (£10) and a PC can get going. As you ride, Zwift calculates your power in watts and converts that to a speed in-game as you zoom around a couple of virtual worlds. Most people will start off with a solo workout or two before exploring the world of group rides and Zwift racing. A number of pros can be found riding as well, the likes of Jens Voigt, Michal Kwiatkowski, Laurens Ten Dam, Michael Matthews, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Andre Greipel, Thomas de Gendt, Jasper Stuyven, Fumy Beppu and Axel Merckx. I suppose you could play the likes of FIFA and Madden with/against some pros but they’re less upfront about it. On Zwift real names are used and you can even get a notification to your phone if someone you like starts riding.

The lead group has formed, I’m going with it and seeing how far I can get

Zwift works well because of the social aspect. Whilst you can be a hermit and simply ride on a workout passing everyone by with no interaction, the most fun is had on group rides. The well led ones are kept to a reasonable manageable speed. Somewhere between too easy and too difficult where conversation (typing in this case) is possible whilst riding and the chat helps the time spend riding fly by. Facebook groups help established groups get closer and before you know it, you’re fully involved in the Zwift community. A new set of people are asking where you were on Sunday and encouraging you to beat personal bests and improve that FTP (functional threshold power).

Zwift Racing

As a relatively new convert to racing on Zwift I’ve realised I’ve now found the tip of the iceberg. This stuff is serious.
Anyone who hasn’t forked out for a power meter is looked down upon and so is not racing with a heart rate monitor. The efforts required to finish high up are huge, in my last two races I’ve had to lie down straight away afterwards because I’ve put myself into the red so much. A sign of good training! As in real-life, racing is split into categories, this effectively means that in the middle of a mass race you can ignore those marked with an A because they’ll be disappearing into the distance shortly. It also gives newbies a chance to race against each other in the starter D category rather than feeling like they’re being thrown straight into the masses.

Still in the lead group…

My first race was on the Richmond 2014 World Championship circuit. I managed to lose all of the groups and spent nearly the whole thing on my own. Guaranteed to be the slowest way to race, with no draft effect to help the speed. I had put myself in the D category as a beginner but the power I put out meant I got upgraded to 10th (of 11) in the C category. The auto-upgrade prevents people under-representing themselves and winning categories they’re too good for.

I had another go a few weeks later and whilst it was hard work it was much improved. I finished 4th in C category after getting myself into one of the leading groups and then gradually falling backwards as I lost contact with my group on the last lap. Despite that, what was most memorable after this race was Zwift crashing and my PC refusing to reboot. After re-installing Windows I lost all the data and couldn’t upload it to Strava either. Far from ideal.

The last two weeks I’ve been back on it cycling wise and have done 4 races. Two results of 13 and 19 in the B category, and two more of 2 and 8 in the C category. It’s fair to say that I’m somewhere between the B and C categories and that the race circuits heavily impact what I can do. The circuit in London is a favourite, it’s relatively flat with only a blast up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square that causes brief issues. Unsurprisingly this is where I’ve done my B races. I seem to have hit on a strategy of going as fast as I can early on, hanging onto the quickest group for as long as possible and then seeing who I can hold off until the end. Hanging onto the back of a quick group early on does give you huge leads over chasing groups, I just need some more fitness to hang on until the end! It’s been this week where I’ve found out about the work that Nathan Guerra (a top American MTB-er) who has a Youtube channel that broadcasts Zwift races live as he provides commentary. It’s been useful to be able to re-watch the races and see at which point I should’ve done something better or been more active at a crucial point. It also helps me get better screenshots!

Caught on Youtube – near the start of a race trying to escape with a group

Conclusion on Zwift

As a means of indoor training, for me Zwift has made it something worthwhile and actually enjoyable to do. It saves me having to go out into the city to train on dark, wet, cold evenings so I could probably claim some safety advantages to using it as well. Especially because you can’t crash on Zwift, unless you’re particularly careless and fall off your bike somehow. Having group rides and races means that you can choose what sort of ride you want to do, whilst managing to have that social aspect. Being able to race against other actual people makes it that extra bit real and allows the competitive side to come out. It pushes you far more than a winter club ride or than you would doing a workout on your own. By doing more than just riding long rides and doing specific training rides and races, the data has shown that I’ve made improvements despite riding less in the last two months – my FTP is now around 45 watts higher than it was when I first started on Zwift 3 months ago. For me, being able to play on Zwift and ride regularly has definitely been a worthwhile investment.

Zwift Review – A New Way of Indoor Training was originally published on Me vs. Pro Cycling

Cycling Brussels to Cologne – First Touring Experience

Birmingham to Maastricht

At the start of the year we came up with a plan to visit Cologne for a beer festival and combine it cycling somehow. Not wanting to waste time cycling from home we took the Eurostar to Brussels to head off from there. It meant leaving home at 5am to head into town, briefly smashing one of my panniers on a bollard as I misjudged the size of a gap and catching the train to London. The short cycle from Euston to St. Pancras was fine and we dropped our bikes off to be put on the train. As we tried to go round the front to go through security it turned out I’d printed off everything but our actual tickets, I just had a copy of the booking confirmation somehow. Having not brought the card I booked with we couldn’t use the machines to print off so I had to use my persuasive powers to get someone in the booking office to print them for me, crisis averted!

Cycling through Belgium

We sat on the train watching Southern England and Northern France fly by, before eventually reaching Belgium and Brussels. We picked the bikes up from the cargo area and spent ages trying to put the panniers back onto the bikes, hadn’t quite learnt the routine and our cheap panniers on a non matching rack meant some bodging was necessary with bungees. The Garmin struggled to pick up our location outside the station but once it kicked in and we were facing the right way we started on our way. Leaving the centre of Brussels wasn’t particularly picturesque and the route eventually followed a river through a large industrial area, a great introduction to Belgium – eventually however we ended up punching through and escaping the city into some countryside by the airport. We found ourselves on a very long and very straight cycle path next to a busy main road and had a couple of episodes of stopping to sort out panniers as George destroyed clips and had to re-adjust.

The Albertkanaal near Zandvoort

At Werchter we turned off the road and followed a path alongside a river that was busy with cyclists despite it being 1pm on a Thursday. We stopped for lunch at an Aldi in Diest, refilled the supplies and pushed on. We joined the Albertkanaal at Hasselt and ended up creating our own fun by racing on the wide traffic-free road alongside, we spent 5 miles trying to out do each other and managed to fly through at 20mph+ even with the bags. The Zandvoort racing circuit of vintage F1 fame was on our left and something was driving round it but the barriers were disappointingly just tall enough to prevent us from seeing. The canal road was nice and flat with the exception of the locks which had a short drag uphill each time.

Lying around waiting for the Garmin to charge

We pulled off the canal for the last stretch to our overnight stay and then the Garmin died on us. I hooked it up to the portable battery and we sat down for 20 minutes on a path by some trees to let it charge up. We went through a few small towns before turning off into the forest and a fun descent down to our stop at Sonnenvijver just outside Maastricht. We’d arranged ourselves an Airbnb in what looked like someone’s summer chalet in the forest, by a lake. We chilled, showered and headed out to the other side of the lake to a restaurant for a nice dinner and time to relax before heading to Cologne the next day.

Bikes at the overnight stay in Maastricht

Maastricht to Cologne

It’s the Amstel Gold Race windmill!

We set off the next day out of the woods and off into Holland, our first destination was Valkenburg, a detour I’d enforced after looking at the map during the planning stages. Valkenburg is famous for hosting the annual Amstel Gold Race which ends on the well-known Cauberg hill. It has also held the cycling World Championships 5 times and a couple of Tour de France stages. On our way there, we passed an iconic windmill that often gets pictured in the race and took our own. The Cauberg itself is quite short and sweet, just steep. I took it easy at a constant speed, Rich shot off and promptly fell into a stinging nettle bush trying to change his chain from the big ring to the inner ring. George’s knees were hurting him so he pulled over to see what Rich had done and I made it all the way to the top in one go and waited for them to come up whilst eating some waffles. Embracing the Dutch spirit!

The Amstel Gold Race finish line – I won!

Coming off a roundabout I very nearly stacked it, crossing the road with the cycle path I managed to slide a bit going across a concrete gutter which the pannier bags made worse, somehow I managed to hold it and we avoided a crash! We managed to enter Germany without realising it, the route took us down a horrible small lane that had brutal cobblestones and when we came out the other side I noticed that the road signs had changed and the parked cars now had D registration plates – it wasn’t for another mile or so before we saw the first road sign with some German on it to confirm it. We found a Lidl in the next town and sat down for lunch in the car park, getting a few odd looks. Shortly after we’d got going again George managed to break a clip on his panniers which meant stopping for awhile and Rich hiding by a hedge to get himself out of the sun. He’d already got the moniker of Captain Redleg after just one of his legs caught the sun the day before and had gone, unsurprisingly, very red. We waiting for George to finish re-lashing his panniers to his bike and watched him purposely stride across the road onto the left hand side to get going – a quick ‘George mate, Germany’ and he realised what he’d done!

We found the Netherlands

The route kept us on bike paths for the most part, keeping us off busy roads but being able to enjoy their beautiful view to the side. At one point the path crossed sides and we missed it so were on the road coming up to a roundabout. A German driver who had turned into the relief lane took the time to stop and shout out of his car at us. The German was quick and I’d so far only had a supermarket trip with little interaction to think in German so far – the one word I did understand was ‘Idioten’, plainly he thought we should’ve been in the cycle path! On one stretch shortly afterwards that definitely didn’t have a cycle path, Rich had pulled in ahead for some directions, as I came past I told him we were going straight on before slamming on the brakes 50 metres further on. On the ground was a genuine real €50 note! I picked it up and spent it once we’d got to Cologne on everyone’s shopping, spreading a bit of good karma.

Cologne Cathedral

We had a brief detour to avoid a bridge it turned out was very much closed and impassable but managed to end up on the outskirts of Cologne before heading into the city through some cycle paths between the fields and in the parks and before we knew it we were at our apartment for the next few days. Quick trip to Lidl later and we were chilled out relaxing on the terrace with a well earned beer. The days of beer festival in Cologne afterwards were also good!

Night time at the beer festival

Cycling Brussels to Cologne – First Touring Experience was originally published on Me vs. Pro Cycling