WHAT'S BEEN HAPPEINING IN THE MONKEY HOUSE?
GORILLA ENDURANCE
It was a big weekend for riding big distances - Sam Maybee and Neil Cocklin rode the inaugural Kings Heath 312 - 312km (194 miles) with over 5300m ( approx 17500ft) of climbing - a long day out by anyone's standards including many cafe stops, a chip shop dinner, fine forecourt dining, 20% climbs, unscheduled off road hike a bike ( for about 1km), and some roads with less tarmac than dirt . Neil's tweaking it for next year ( you'll be glad to hear), but it will still be a beast of a day out. If you fancy this type of thing, head over to our Whats App community and join the Audax group.
Pete Edwards rode the Mallorca 312 , but a combination of starting at the back of a very large pack, and some punctures meant that he missed the cut off - HOWEVER he still rode nearly 230km with nearly 3500m of climbing. Chapeau.
John Pears rode Dirty Reiver - off road for over 120km, with over 2000m of climbing is enough, but ex of this parish Kyle Houston raced the big one (196km with over 3500m of elevation) and came 14th overall. Stirling work!
QOMS and KOMS
I spotted the following Strava crowns on my feed this week, if i've missed anyone then please let us know in the comments below:
QOM'S
Kelly Murphy
Nicola Greenwood
Lisa Jones - who was riding as part of the ecobirmingham 900km fundraiser. There's still time to donate to this good cause ( just - ends 29th April), Head over to their page for all details. All donations are doubled by the Big Give.
KOM
Mohammed Arif
GORILLA EVENTS
The Gorilla Spring Classic Winners finally got their trophy and Belgian beers in a "ceremony" at the Hare and Hounds on Thursday evening - well done to the "Snac(Km)s and the "Uno X mobility Scooters".
There is now a write up of the Gorilla Easter Hunt on the club website New section.. Thanks to Rob Garratt for sorting this event.
The next event on the Gorilla calendar is the Giro Individual Time trial held over the weekend of 10th-11th May. A Strava timed segment over the same distance (approximately) - 13.7km - that the pros will race on that Saturday in Tirana as part of the 2025 Giro D'Italia . The route tries to replicate some of the features on the original course - the gpx and full instructions will be released soon.
There will be prizes for quickest open and quickest female riders , and for best time trialist.
THURSDAY RIDES
The rides for Thursday are now up for you to book onto at the website .
8 rides - including 1 off road, and 7 road rides with speeds varying from 15mph to 20mph. If it's your first time with us use the coupon code FREERIDE25 to get a free weeks trial.
Ride safe people.
Bruno