Hi, just wondering if any decision has been made about our evening 10‘s for the rest of the season?

With the Corona lockdown still in place, and with it likely to continue for some time, we have started to meet up for some rides on Zwift. A Zwift meet-up means that riders using the game can ride together on a course. A setting can be used whereby all the riders stay together as a group, no matter what the relative power each rider is spinning at. There are a couple of things to be aware of; 1. It‘s best to be riding in the game a good 5-10 minutes before the scheduled meet-up time. This will give you the opportunity to make sure your equipment is all set up and in particular, you’ve got a good wifi signal. 2. When you are riding in the game, you will get a button come up in the bottom left corner of the screen saying ‘join meetup’, with 5 minutes to go before the scheduled off. As soon as you press the button, you will see your avatar on a turbo trainer, warming up on the assigned course. Once the start time is reached, you will all start together in the game. 3. As well as the Zwift game app downloaded to your tablet, phone or computer, it’s also useful to download the Zwift companion app. This allows you to select events, interact with other riders and easily arrange meet-ups of your own. 4. You need to be a follower of the person who is organising the meet-up. This is most easily done through the companion app. At the moment, there are 21 KPRC members who are following each other. Im going to arrange weekly rides on Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm. It looks like there is also an appetite for a Sunday morning ride too. If you want to ride for longer, either start earlier and then join the meet-up when prompted, or be at the start for the meet-up and then continue riding once it’s finished. If you’ve got any questions, just shout. But I can’t guarantee I’ve got the ability to answer. There‘s quite a few experienced Zwifters in the club, who can answer questions. The next rides are on Sunday 5th April at 9am and Tuesday 7th April at 7pm.

Many things have lurked under my bed, but currently, two enormous boxes of top quality cycling kit is residing there. If you fancy getting your hands on some, then either please use this thread. Alternatively, I have set up an e-mail address specifically for this; phoenixrckit@gmail.com. I have a most sizes of short and long sleeved tops as well as bib shorts and bibtights. At some point I will figure out how to put a current stock list onto the kit page of this website. Also In the pipeline are skin suits and cycle caps.

's 4am on Sunday morning. I've just managed to avoid 30 very drunk teenagers in Wells, who still haven't gone home after the England game; I've been riding for 22 hours and I'm shattered. My planned sleep stop at a 24 hour MacDonald's hasn't happened because I don't actually know where the MacDonald's is. Suddenly, one of my riding companions, Fraser stops and signals to the left. There, a farmer has left a field gate open and there's a full wheat field. I don't hesitate, so I climb off my bike and lie down for a sleep. It's not gone well, but at least I'm getting the full audax experience. To become a 'Super Randoneur', one has to ride a 200, 300, 400 and 600km audax ride in a season. As well as that, this is the requirement to gain entry into Paris-Brest-Paris and riding a 600 event in the year preceding PBP would mean I would stand a better chance of my entry being excepted. I guess my two main reservations were the distance (obviously) and the fact that the mercury in every British thermometer was rapidly going up. However, this was my one and only chance to do a 600 so I got my entry in (all £6 of it). This was an 'x-rated' event; nothing sleazy, but it meant that every rider would have to be completely self sufficient with no formal, manned controls. I would have to prove I had been through each town by getting a shop receipt or atm slip. Sleep was another issue. My very lose plan was to keep going until I would have to stop and then rest up, although I knew there was a 24hr Macdonalds at around the 350km point, so that seemed like to best place to get an hour or so before carrying on. The best laid plans..... There were about 25 starters so I assumed that I would be on my own for most of the ride; thankfully I was wrong, but the first six hours or so went by suitably quickly; settling in and chatting to  few people before I found myself on my own. The Van Nic felt very heavy as the only thing I hadn't packed was a kitchen sink. I'd even packed my thicker wet weather cycling cag, how stupid was that with temperatures scheduled to be around 30 degrees? The second control was in the town of Chandler's Ford and I wasted a bit of time trying to control before finding a co-op and buying lunch and getting the all-important receipt for proof of passage. This was 6 hours in and just gone midday and as I started to eat I could feel my stomach having a few problems. I can usually eat anything on the bike, but the heat meant that my stomach just wasn't working properly. Not a good sign. I left the control under a bit of a cloud but also with two other riders. One of them had just finished building his bike the night before; I didn't know whether he was inspired or mad; probably a bit of both. The other rider was Paul, and we were to ride together for the next 18 hours. The next stop was Sailsbury, which was very quiet as the England game was just starting, so we controlled at a cafe (cake and coke) before heading to Sherbourne. Soon after we lost the other rider as he had not topped up his battery on his Garmin so he stopped while we carried onto Sherbourne. This is where I started to find it really tough as the temperature was very high and on one section of road the tarmac was actually in puddles, sticking to my tires and frame.  Onto Sherbourne, where we controlled at a pub. I'd parked the Van Nic and as I opened my saddle bag I looked at a drain and thought 'I'd better not drop anything down there', and then watched my bike pump clatter on the floor and disappear down the drain. Thankfully, with my belts and braces approach to this ride I had also brought along a load of CO2 (But I had no mechanicals and no punctures, all ride). My stomach issues came back with a vengeance as I had some coke but couldn't eat the chips I ordered and I was in quite a black mood, but I thought I could get to Exeter which was halfway and assumed that if needs be, it would be easier to catch a train back home from there, so onwards to Exeter. This leg was the hardest of the day. The wind got up, which was in no way cooling and dragged our speed down; almost as much as the melting tarmac which was actually pooling into small puddles and the road was continually going up with sharp climbs. We rolled into Exeter at 12:15am, where we met up with Fraser, who I had briefly been riding with earlier in the day. He had spent the last 10 hours on his own and as we all demolished a Burger King, he asked to tag on with Paul and I, so we formed a trio as we left the Exeter Services and another small group of riders came in. So we were heading back north and as the temperature dropped our speed increased ( a bit). I was able to digest food again and was feeling better. This was quite wierd as we were riding in pitch black and there were times where I was convinced we were riding up hill only to see the speed of the bike dramatically increase and vice versa; it was a wierd and disconcerting assault on my tired senses. The 20kms into Wells were down very small farm lanes and I was getting extremely dozy; it wasn't that I was falling asleep but I just couldn't process quickly enough what I was seeing and I was really pleased to get into the town, but only to be confronted with a large group of extremely drunk teenagers. By the time we found the field, I was ready to get off the bike. Although I had been hot all day and the sun was now about to come up again, within a couple of minutes I was shivering badly as my sweat drenched kit cooled me down a bit too quickly. Thankfully, my over-preparedness worked and I was able to dig out my waterproof jacket, which kept me warm (ish). We had a 90 minute sleep and then were back on the road to Bath. We left the field at 6am and would be on the road for another 12 hours, getting back to Leighton Buzzard at just after 6pm. We decided to take it very steady, and had numerous stops, pretty much every 30-40kms.  I was really struggling in the morning, with no energy and feeling sick every time I tried to raise my cadence even slightly, and when I suggested to Paul and Fraser that they should go on ahead, they wouldn't have it and insisted that we stay together. I'm so greatful to them both for this as it made a difficult ride much more bearable.  At one point around midday, we found a shady spot and just rested up for 30 minutes. At that particular time my stomach was really tying itself in knots and this particular stop helped me to start digesting food again. I had asked some advice on the yacf forum about how to cope with the heat, so at every stop it was shoes off, helmet off, cream on, water in and then any food that I could eat. I had in my mind that I would finish this ride at around 1pm. It took me 5 and a half hours longer and according to Strava I spent the best part of 10 hours stationary. I am sure more experienced audax riders would be aghast at this but I was just really pleased to finish and while I have ridden in the heat before, this was a completely different experience and I am super chuffed just to have got around with the help of some top blokes. I learnt a lot. I need to carry kit better as my saddle bag is too flappy and upsets the bike's handling. I need to carry less kit or at least get the weight of my kit down.I need to get my contact points sorted, in particular, my feet were a problem for long portions of the ride. I need to find ways of getting calories in, if it's hot at PBP next year. So, lots learnt. Just the matter of a 200 to finish off the season.

I was really looking forward to this ride. The thought of actually using my bike and being under my own steam to travel to another part of the UK, from the capital, seemed  to conjour up a sense of daring-do and gutsy ambition. Admittedly, the 'London' bit is actually Chalfont St Peter, on the very outward western fringes of London, and the Wales bit was only just about touching it before heading east again. But nonetheless, it was still going to be 400kms and a very long day in the saddle, in fact my longest ever continuous ride. I decided to go 'full audax' and bed down at the HQ the night before as it was an early start, so I headed off the the pub with a couple of other riders to have an anaesthetic pint, while the line-dancing class finished off. In the pub a few of the locals were rocking out to a pub band and a few of them were kind enough to wish us luck for the next day's shennanigans. The start was typically low key. Coffee and toast, a few last minute fumbles with kit before Liam, the organiser, said a few words in the car park and on the dot of 6am, we were off. 119 of us setting out, north and west for Wales. As usual, a bit of a fast start before things settled and I found myself in a group of 3, cruising along some single lane at 17-18mph. My abiding memory of this section was just the haze and the gorgeous sunrise turning into full morning. I'd dressed in my leggings and long sleeves as it was cold and I was just right; comfortably cool. Before long we had turned into a group of five as two faster riders went past and we hooked onto the back, taking the odd turn on the front, but these two guys were doing a great job and didn't seem to mind us sucking their wheels.   I had got chatting to a rider called Jacko and we spent an hour or so chin-wagging, before pulling into the first control at a social club in Woodstock to have a full fried breakfast. The club was a throwback to the mid 1980s, with brown swirly carpet, sticky dancefloor and pub furniture, but it was perfect. There were no energy gels, protein bars or shakes here; just a full english brekkie! I inhaled the sausage, eggs, beans and bacon. Brevet card stamped, water bottles topped up and I got going again. Leg 2 was going to be another 70kms to Tewksbury and as I left the control I hit the first junction with a chap called Nick. We had a few brief words as we'd missed the obvious road to the route and then I spent a few silent minutes with Nick sitting on my wheel, so a few more words to say hi and from that point we rode the next 15 hours or so together. The sun was starting to get up and it was going to be a very hot day, but I was still in a long sleeve top and cosy warm, rather than hot. Nick and I chatted for the next few hours, talking all things endurance sports, work, kids. Although this was his first audax, he'd done plenty of other long endurance ultra-marathons so I could tell he had that calm, even temperament that I think you need to keep going when things are hurting and maybe not going to plan. After a while we caught up with Jacko who had left Woodstock 10 minutes or so before me and we rode the last hour into Tewksbury, where we had to get a receipt as proof of passage. It was properly hot now, so it was time to strip off, eat one of Gregg's finest steak bakes, top up bottles and get going towards Tutshill. The sun was shining, my legs felt great, Wales was 3 or 4 hours away and all was right with the world. The countryside continued to unroll under my wheels; never ending fields and carpets of bluebells. The route was really wonderful and quiet, which made the cycling such a joy. While we had a good tempo going I wanted to take the time to smell the metaphorical roses, and I tried to take as much of the scenery in as I could. It made me realise how much of my own country I have yet to explore and what a great way that a bicycle is to do it. Nick and I were working together well and we were keeping the speed up as we glided through Gloucestershire and into Herefordshire. The terrain was less than lumpy, but more than rolling, so at times we could really get the speed up, while some of the rollers sapped all the speed from my heavier than usual Van Nic. We had an infomation control at a war memorial, where I lent another rider who was on his third puncture, a tube, before we headed towards the big climb of Yat Rock. By this time we had hooked up with a female rider in full LEL kit and the three of us headed to the base of the climb. I started it ok but as we got to a steeper ramp near the top I got out the saddle and all of a sudden I just knew that I couldn't keep the bike moving forward, as Nick and LEL lady weaved up the road to the summit, I got off and discovered that I had not tightened the QR skewer tight enough and when I was pushing really hard to keep the bike moving forward, the wheel had moved (as happened at the Bec HC a couple of years ago). Frustrated, I sorted out the skewer before walking the rest of the way to the top, where Nick and LEL lady were waiting. The Tutshill control was still a good hour or so away, and this was where I had my only really bad patch of the ride. I was frustrated and a bit angry at myself for not getting up Yat Rock (pure male ego) but I noticed that I was getting the tingles in my arms and starting to feel a little shaky. With the increase in heat I had been religiously taking in water but I had stopped eating for some time. I also realised that my worsening mood was an indicator that I didn't have enough energy in my system, so I got out two soreen bars and forced them down, hoping that they would be enough until we got to Tutshill. Nick and I had been sharing the work, but he was looking comfortable so I took the opportunity to sit in and take his wheel while I recovered. Nick's a big lad and made a large hole in the air so it made my life considerably easier to take a draft while I recovered. We had arrived at Tutshill at 14:15 and not too many riders had gone through, so the control was quiet. The two fast lads I had been with early on were there with another two or three and I tucked into a big plate of pasta and a couple of bags of crisps for the extra salt. I could literally feel the energy pouring back into my muscles and as I slapped on more sun block and vaseline,  my mood lifted considerably and I started to look forward to getting back home.  Within minutes we were over the Severn Bridge with clear views across the estuary and we headed for the climb up to the Somerset Monument at Hawkesbury. My front mech was playing up and had been for a while so I had a couple of mechanicals where I was overshifting. This would only be very mildly irratating on a standard club ride, but 240kms into a ride even a small issue becomes a major problem. It seemed sensible to just keep in the small ring which helped keep my legs relatively fresh. Again, plenty of green fields, bluebells, country mansions and  york stone villages. Audax riding really is a brilliant way to see the country. There were some sections where Nick and I were able to 2up along some faster roads, each of us taking a turn on the front for a few kilometres before swapping. I was thankful that I'd been able to stave off a full on bonk earlier, which would have been a bit of a disaster by this point in the ride. Nick was great at making us stop at a few other intermediate points to top up bottles and grab a flapjack or ice lolly. This was a big lesson for me to not just rely on the controls for food and while each stop cost us a few minutes it helped to keep energy levels up and take the pressure off our contact points, which I'm sure helped keep our average speed that little bit higher. We pulled into the last control at Lambourne and had soup and a roll, flap jack with fruit and a few cups of tea. It was about 7:30pm and it was warm but the heat was dropping fast, so I got my long sleeve top on, more vaseline and I was good to go. As I pulled out the control I suffered another mechanical and had a proper sense of humour failure. I'd just washed my hands and then within seconds they were covered in oil again. I told Nick to carry on and I would catch up, but it took me a couple of minutes to get the Van Nic back up and running. Nick had waited for me a kilometre or so further on (he'd taken the opportunity to stop and put on some arm and leg warmers). I was really grateful that he had waited; as the sun was going down, night riding after being in the saddle for over 12 hours was going to be a new challenge. It was also really quite lumpy. In my mind I thought that this section would be flat and easy; it wasn't. There were a couple of really quite tough climbs that had me bobbing and swaying out the saddle in the lowest gear I could get, the weight of my bike trying to drag me back down.  Things were starting to get quite tough. Nick was doing more work at the front as his front lights were much better than mine. He was also doing a great job signing the many potholes, but after a while I asked him to stop. I think he was more likely to come off with only one hand on the bars and I would just run into the back of him, so I dropped back a bit and just hoped for the best. After Henley and avoiding the drunks, there was another climb out and by this time I just wanted to get it done. I tried to take turns on the front where the light was better, but Nick was able to read his GPS easier than me, so he was burdened with most of the hard work. I was behind him, clattering into potholes, swearing profusely and hoping to stay upright. With a few kilometres to go, I was just hoping not to get a puncture in the pitch black and it was testament to my mood that at that time a puncture would have seemed a disaster, but in reality it's nothing more than a minor inconvenience.  In the last 10kms, there were another couple of steep-ish hills and tons of gravel that I just couldn't see that had me slipping all over the road. It was pretty hard work and when we eventually got onto the A40 and the turn for Gerrards Cross I was a very happy bunny. Amazingly, we made it back before midnight, which meant that there were approximately 20 riders of the 119 or so who had made it back to the HQ before us; all in all, a pretty good day's riding! I fell on the food. Dahl, rice pudding, peaches, tea, biscuits; I had the lot and despite being achy and tired, all in all, I felt pretty good. Although not the toughest route in the audax calendar, it was still a hard test, with a varied diet of roads. I was extremely lucky to hook up with Nick. Working with another rider makes it much more bearable when things get tough and over those last 50 kms it would have been a lot more difficult, but his steadfastness and easy company really helped the miles go by. I've learnt so much about audax from this ride. I'll blog my main thoughts another time, but the main two things I've taken away is that a 400km audax is very much more than a 300km one and I really enjoy audax 📷

A few people have talked about ressurecting these again. Before we do, what evenings will be best? I would prefer Wednesday or Thursday? If we do Wednesday then that would fit nicely with our Evening 10 and we could have a chaingang session on the alternate Wednesday during the TT season. 8pm? Earlier? Thoughts please.

Don’t forget to get you entries in for this event. We are aiming to get 20 riders out to put us in the driving seat for the Rawson Shield. Come on people, let’s get this done.