PH does the (UK bit of the) Tour de France

[AndStilliRise]

I am a long distance runner (marathon runner), can I come, or is this for the real cyclists?

I will have the endurance and can handle a bike reasonably well.

Will I be able to cope?

[Steve vRS]

Great idea Guffy!

Shame all my cycling brownie points have been already spent for 2015 or I would have been up for this.

Steve

[Gruffy]

AndStilliRise said:

I am a long distance runner (marathon runner), can I come, or is this for the real cyclists?

I will have the endurance and can handle a bike reasonably well.

Will I be able to cope?

There's only one way to be sure but I do think it'd be optimistic to translate your running endurance straight to the bike. Your engine may be more than up to the job but you'll reach fatigue in very different parts of the body. Your arse won't be conditioned. Your neck and shoulders will suffer from extended time in the riding position. Your hands won't have toughened. There'll be lots of small positional corrections you'll make that you may only learn about after some big days in the saddle.

The idea is open to anybody but I think you'd be wise to test yourself with some long distance rides and, ideally, some big back-to-back days on the bike. Then you'll know how much you can bite off and still have a good shot at finishing it.

[CoolC]

I like the sound of this although I very much doubt I could do all 3.

I'd quite fancy doing stage 2 as I spectated on that and rode some of it (Holme Moss) so doing the lot would "complete the story" 😊

Remember also there is the new tour of Yorkshire in may.

[Gruffy]

T' Tour is 1-3 May but I think we'd actively try to avoid bank holiday weekends, despite the time-off advantage. My thoughts are to aim for Friday 8th to Sunday 10th May. This means the popular stage 3 can be run on the Sunday to suit the most riders but also avoids any chance of taking 20 broken riders through London rush hour traffic.

Apologies in advance to those riders who will be cursing the dates. It's always going to rule somebody out.

[numtumfutunch]

Gruffy said:

T' Tour is 1-3 May but I think we'd actively try to avoid bank holiday weekends, despite the time-off advantage. My thoughts are to aim for Friday 8th to Sunday 10th May. This means the popular stage 3 can be run on the Sunday to suit the most riders but also avoids any chance of taking 20 broken riders through London rush hour traffic.

Apologies in advance to those riders who will be cursing the dates. It's always going to rule somebody out.

If youre starting on a Friday you need to make the call on time and official location of the off

As posted previously the bit from Leeds to Harewood House is dual carriageway ring road type material and really best avoided in peak hour traffic
A handy get out is that the Tour was neutralised until Harewood so you could legitimately duck this bit

All the best

[Johnny]

Just seen Gruffy's update re. dates and for a change they work pretty well for me. Will need to take the 10th off, but am off the rest...

With that in mind I'm going to head out on the cross bike today, despite feeling like st and having been off sick the last couple of days. I think some cycling might help rid me off this bastid cold.

[Gruffy]

numtumfutunch said:

As posted previously the bit from Leeds to Harewood House is dual carriageway ring road type material and really best avoided in peak hour traffic
A handy get out is that the Tour was neutralised until Harewood so you could legitimately duck this bit

I've met with friends who, between us, have ridden all three stages and they've also flagged up a few sections that are best avoided. I don't think there's any issue with tweaking the route to make it more appropriate for riding without closed roads. As long as we cover the official distance along a broadly similar route I won't feel like I'm cheating. If anything we're likely to add a couple of kms to the distance in trying to avoid some direct 3-lane carriageways.

[Black can man]

The 10th of May weekend is perfect for me ,


I'm a defo for stage 3

[Johnny]

1. Gruffy - Full Monty
2. M3John - TBC
3. Tony Hetherington - Full Monty
4. Anthony - TBC
5. Marcel - TBC
6. JT - Fully Monty
7. Marcellus - I'd give the full monty a bash
8. waterwonder - TBC
9. Nikolai - TBC
10. pablo - TBC
11. bakerstreet - TBC
12. Johnny - Full Monty. What's the worst that could happen..?
13. j00py - Full Monty
14. tobinen - Stage 3
15. pembo - Stage 3
16. pembo's +1 - Stage 3
17. GarryDK - Stage 3 (maybe more)
18. Black Can Man - Stage 3
19. Pete R - Full Monty
37. Sweni - full monty. ( someone's got to make you lot look good)

[TonyHetherington]

Great stuff. Yup, I'm in, and dates work well for me too.

[richardxjr]

Seriously considering this. Done 3000m days in the alps, SDW off road in a day, still don't think it's enough though.

But I've got a week around the Cairngorms at Easter (if the weather plays ball) and I'm wanting to ride the full Marmotte route in June so it would fit nicely.

[pembo]

The date is fine with me, mentioned it to a friend at our cyclocross race on Sunday and he said he would be keen too.

[Gruffy]

I've mentioned it to the chaps at PH. I think it'd be a great thing for PH to be involved with but hopefully we'll find out if they agree soon enough.

[Gruffy]

They do. Watch this space.

[SixPotBelly]

May I put my name down provisionally for Stage 3? The provision being that I can get myself fit enough in time and (and that you'd be happy to have me along).

I've only recently bought a road bike, but have previously done London-Brighton on my MTB. Being half the distance, that gives me at least half an idea of the legs I'll require! I also recently started using a turbo trainer and the plan is to build a base with that over the winter then hit the roads come March. Solo rides initially then group rides with the cycling section of my running club or a local CC. I won't really know until March whether I'm being overly optimistic now in thinking a hundred mile day should be achievable by May, but I don't think I am...

[Gruffy]

I don't think you are either. If you can do L2B on a MTB then I reckon you can already do 100 flat-ish miles on a road bike, with a group.

[SixPotBelly]

1. Gruffy - Full Monty
2. M3John - TBC
3. Tony Hetherington - Full Monty
4. Anthony - TBC
5. Marcel - TBC
6. JT - Fully Monty
7. Marcellus - I'd give the full monty a bash
8. waterwonder - TBC
9. Nikolai - TBC
10. pablo - TBC
11. bakerstreet - TBC
12. Johnny - Full Monty. What's the worst that could happen..?
13. j00py - Full Monty
14. tobinen - Stage 3
15. pembo - Stage 3
16. pembo's +1 - Stage 3
17. GarryDK - Stage 3 (maybe more)
18. Black Can Man - Stage 3
19. Pete R - Full Monty
37. Sweni - full monty. ( someone's got to make you lot look good) wink
38. SixPotBelly - Stage 3

[pembo]

SixPotBelly said:

May I put my name down provisionally for Stage 3? The provision being that I can get myself fit enough in time and (and that you'd be happy to have me along).

I've only recently bought a road bike, but have previously done London-Brighton on my MTB. Being half the distance, that gives me at least half an idea of the legs I'll require! I also recently started using a turbo trainer and the plan is to build a base with that over the winter then hit the roads come March. Solo rides initially then group rides with the cycling section of my running club or a local CC. I won't really know until March whether I'm being overly optimistic now in thinking a hundred mile day should be achievable by May, but I don't think I am...

Don't worry about it, at the moment you are much better prepared than my +1 and I can't see him catching you by May. He is still deciding on what bike to buy!

[Gruffy]

1. Gruffy - Full Monty
2. M3John - TBC
3. Tony Hetherington - Full Monty
4. Anthony - TBC
5. Marcel - TBC
6. JT - Fully Monty
7. Marcellus - I'd give the full monty a bash
8. waterwonder - TBC
9. Nikolai - TBC
10. pablo - TBC
11. bakerstreet - TBC
12. Johnny - Full Monty. What's the worst that could happen..?
13. j00py - Full Monty
14. tobinen - Stage 3
15. pembo - Stage 3
16. pembo's +1 - Stage 3
17. GarryDK - Stage 3 (maybe more)
18. Black Can Man - Stage 3
19. Pete R - Full Monty
20. Swerni - full monty. ( someone's got to make you lot look good) wink
21. SixPotBelly - Stage 3
22. richardxjr - Full Monty