Tour de Pistonheads 2015

[Gruffy]

That descent off Cragg Vale... phwoar!

[Gruffy]

Starting Holme Moss now

[Gruffy]

That's Holme Moss ticked off.

[Gruffy]

Next year we're thinking it'd be great to come back to Yorkshire (it is glorious here) but without following the TdF route so rigidly. Just cherry pick the best bits and ditch the main road slogs for some Postman Pat lanes. That way we can also engineer Regular and Epic routes that rendezvous for lunch and finish (circular routes for easy logistics), opening the full monty up to many more PHers.

I'm sure Justin will post up about his experience at some point but the summary is there's a lot of fun to be had driving a support car too

[Gruffy]

Stage 2
https://www.strava.com/activities/301253122

[Gruffy]

Insomnia is rubbish. Will hide in the bunch tomorrow!

[Gruffy]

Strava Fly-Bys, Stage 1
http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/#300563172,l1L...

Strava Fly-Bys, Stage 2
http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/#301253122,BnP...

[Gruffy]

Johno_78 smashing Holme Moss.


(panorama)

[Gruffy]

Canyon 1 - 0 Pigeon

[Gruffy]

Stage 3
https://www.strava.com/activities/301989318

What an amazing, amazing day. Cracking way to finish the Tour. Massive thanks to all the riders and Tobinen's mum. Massive, massive thanks to Burriana (and Mrs Burriana) for their hospitality, photography and local knowledge. Massive, massive, massive thanks to Tony Hetherington and Johno_78 for sharing the Full Monty with me.

EFFING GIRNOMOUS thanks to JustinF, without whom stages 1-2 simply would not have been possible in those conditions and the entire Tour wouldn't have been anywhere near as enjoyable. Above and beyond, mate. Above and beyond.

[Gruffy]

[Gruffy]

Really looking forward to that gran fondo now too.

[Gruffy]

Lots of riders asked about how to contribute to Justin's costs. I don't have everybody's email address but if you drop me a line through my profile I'll forward you the details. Cheers.

[Gruffy]

And if Johno's grit and general rule5ness wasn't inspirational enough, yesterday while we were riding 160km Steve Abraham was also in Essex, starting at midnight and riding 330km. With a broken ankle.
https://www.strava.com/activities/302103355

[Gruffy]

I now have a BC full race license and a 'big boy' entry for the Gran Fondo next month.

[Gruffy]

The true elevation was around 1,600m but Strava (and barometric devices) under-measures when the gradient changes are too subtle. So much of stage 3 was flat or very gently-rolling terrain which means a lot of the tiny elevation changes just get ignored. It's more accurate when the climbs are more pronounced, like in stage 2. Even there my 810 recorded 3,200m of climbing instead of the 3,700m of 'true' elevation.

[Gruffy]

JustinF said:

This support car marlarky all day sitting in lay-by's waiting to feed sweaty men... https://youtu.be/w2hdWLyftNE

I was grinning watching that. 6 minutes from start to finish? I could've swore it felt longer than that.

[Gruffy]

[Gruffy]

Marcellus said:

JustinF said:

Yay for random photographer guy!

+1 have you got it in high res as well Gruf?

I've asked the question. They're very low resolution and © marked. I've pointed out that there's no commercial interest anywhere and I'm hoping he'll offer us the full-res unprocessed images.

[Gruffy]

My thinking is to return to Yorkshire but not tie ourselves to the TdF routes. Avoid those A-road slogs and favour the beautiful lanes between the headline climbs. Circular routes to/from a good hotel we can call home for the duration (packing up took too long and ate into recovery time) and I can put together a Regular and Epic route each day, rendezvousing for lunch.

Hopefully that opens the event up to many more riders (and drivers!). I think the suggestion to shift this to later in the season is a sound one.