WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING IN THE MONKEY HOUSE?
GORILLA ENDURANCE
He's nearly there now, well in John Pears Transcontinental adventure 600km to the finish is nearly there, for the rest of us it would be unmanageable. To catch up everyone who is not following pedalingpears on Instagram , or on the Audax group in the community:
Day 8 - 215km, 3100m of climbing over 13 hours - a day in Italy with Pasta, pizza and gravel.
Day 9 - 291km, with a mere 1600m of climbing (!) was the passos of Lombardy. Today was a good day.
Day 10 - 269km. Today was not good day, the essential Parcours that he had to ride as part of the race was brutal, the heat was insane, and he got on the road by 4am!!
Day 11/12 - "todays" ride time was nearly 32 hours ! But the distance was 667km ( with over 5000m of climbing) - all to get the ferry near Bari at the bottom of Italy.. according to Strava this was John's 2nd longest ride!!!!!!
Day 13 - "only" 128km today , due to a ferry ride to the Balkans, fixing a number of slow punctures, riding through cities and with nearly 2500m of climbing.
Day 14 - saw a 3am start, a ride time of nearly 16 hours and 346km covered, and 3 countries visited. He also got a Strava cup on the final segment of the day in Serbia.
We'll let you all know when he completes it...
Others have been doing BIG rides too, that at any other time would be front page news.
The London-Edinburgh-London crew all got thwarted by the weather when the event was cancelled, when they reached North Yorkshire. But still by anyones standards ( apart from John Pears ) they were BIG rides:
James Brown did 244miles day 1, 86 miles day 2, then he had to turn around and collect his car from London, where he's left it, so did 198 miles day 3, and 122 miles day 4 - 650 miles in 4 days! Neil Cocklin and Oliver Agar also rode back to Birmingham from Richmond , after riding there from London...
We also had Alex Cull, Lee Tandy and Iain Davie ride the 207km Grand Day out from earlier this year, as they couldn't make it on the day. Arlando Thompson rode 218km to the Peak District and back, and David Lee rode 260km down to Devon .
HILL CLIMB
A couple of of the troop headed over to Winwood last Thursday to race the Midlands Hill climb league event organised by Bromsgrove Olympique Cycling Club . Scott Hamblett came 2nd, and Paul Astin came 5th .
QOMs and KOMs
Lots of Strava crowns coming the clubs way this week:
QOMs
Nicola Greenwood
KOMs
Aran Martin
Jack Morrie Evans
Paul Astin
Arlando Thompson
KJ Andrews
Carl Pearson
Blake Timmins
THURSDAY RIDES
This week is a Thomas the Tank Engine takeover week - check out full descriptions on the website - use coupon code Freeride25 for a weeks free trial.
19-20mph Diesel - Studley Loop
19mph Gordon the Big Engine - Fenn End
18-19mph Edward the "Blue" Engine - Hayswood.
17-18mph Percy the Little Engine - Fiery and Bristol road.
16-17mph The Fat Controller - Beoley and Broad lane
16-17mph Toby the Tram Engine - flat Easterly
14-16mph Lady Hatt - flat 25 Train Station hunting.
See you Thursday.
Ride safe
Bruno