Oxford Big Bike Ride

[Bob Young]

Anthony Nolan Big Bike Ride yesterday. Now that was a warm one! So how did you all get on?

regards, Bob

[Jon Martin]

Bob Young was sufficiently re-animated to talk about Oxford Big Bike Ride
>Anthony Nolan Big Bike Ride yesterday. Now that was a warm one! So how did you all get on?
>
>regards, Bob
>
>
Aiming for 5:46 for the 75 miles, recorded 77 in 5:53 so quite happy. New personnel top speed of
43.1mph coming into Hook Norton. Lovely sun burn (forecast said clouds.... took waterproof, no sun
screen. Whoops). Nice varied ride on new course, except putting Beckley (sp?) hill just at the end.
And did we ~have~ to use the WorstRoadInOxfordshire TM (with the ford) ~again~??

But, no marshals at junctions, gentle decrease in number of water stops, no sign of the
promised sarnies (was I too early or too late?), no XL t-shirts for >£100 sponsorship, no medal
at the end....

I'll be thinking carefully about doing next years ride.

Cheers,

Jon

--
Why does everything nice I buy at the moment keep @##*%ing breaking? Jon@nospam.demon.co.uk NOT!!
nospam=defblade

[Daren Austin]

"Bob Young" <bob.young@rl.ac.uk> wrote in message news:<bdpb88$16dk@newton.cc.rl.ac.uk>...
> Anthony Nolan Big Bike Ride yesterday. Now that was a warm one! So how did you all get on?
>
> regards, Bob

Team Flying Banana was originally going to tackle 50 miles but sibling rivalry and sickness/temper
on the part of the luggage (Alex) meant we again settled for the 25 miles.

Parked at Headington and coasted down the hill to the start with a max of 38mph. Left at 9:30 at a
blistering pace (16-17mph), with stokid Thomas putting down plenty of power. Beat numerous singles
up the first hill and zipped down into Islip at 28mph. We reached Deddington
(1/2 way) in 55 minutes stopped for a footie break and a snack, cycled back to Islip for a
playground break and more footie, and finished the ride in 2:40 (about 1:45 of cycling) and 2/3
of a packet of chocolate bourbons (about 4/hr for stokid and the same for Alex).

To show how exahusted the boys were they proceeded to play on the bouncy castles for 20 minutes and
I test rode some bikes and we flew a small kite. The ride up Headington hill saw us plumb the depths
of 6mph (average for hill of 22mph).

Team flying banana is a yellow Dawes Toucan kiddyback tandem with a child seat. Stokid Thomas is
five and Alex is three. It has front low riders for the food/drink/games/jumpers/camera/tools etc
because the rear seat needs a rack (v. low seatpost). It also has twin speedo's and twin thunderbird
two horns and a map holder for Thomas to read where we are going.

So a 25kg bike with about 40kg of luggage - but some of the luggage pedals!

All in all great fun and about 90 minutes faster than last year (no waiting for mummy!)

Do say: "Hello.....Hello.....Hello!" Don't say: "You could do with an extra seat for me" - common
reposte on hills.

Kind regards,

Daren

[Dave Larrington]

A Certain Number of BHPC types and Geoff's mate James encountered the ride grinding up the hill
outside Great Tew, following a Twed-inspired detour to the Falkland Arms. Recumbents may not be able
to climb, but I was quicker than the bloke on the mountain bike even before he got off and started
walking...

Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
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http://www.bhpc.org.uk/
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