What a month May has been. It was a cold start, unseasonably so but the temperatures picked up and the evenings got longer, warmer and drier. The perfect time then to get some miles down.
Little Lumpy Sportive May 2013
My predominant focus was preparation for the Little Lumpy sportive and with an emphasis on climbing. All of the weekend rides have involved at least 1500m of climbing over a distance of 100-110Km. If you do something often enough and with a mind to develop technique, then things will surely happen. A weekend in Cumbria confirmed that things were going in the right direction and a climb up Tan Hill, with its sometimes 25%+ gradients went particularly well. There aren't many bigger climbs in England, but those that are, really are very big!
The sportive itself was slightly weird. I had nailed the course on the previous weekend in 3hr.44min without breaking myself. Come the day however and things were a bit slower - ten minutes slower actually. The weather was better, I felt better - all the climbs went well. I don't have an explanation so let's just say stuff happens and leave it at that.
The week after this anomaly, I decided to take on the Thursday hill repeat sessions. I took the old steel stead with me just to make the experience even less enjoyable. So, the deal is this: The group meets at the bottom of the old A3, now a cycle track over the top of the superbly engineered Hindhead tunnel. each ascent is 175m over a distance of 6.8km. not particularly steep but a good workout. A workout for both rider and bike that is. There was so much debris and flint that no-one escaped without puncturing a tyre or two.
For number lovers, here's the stats for May.
453Mk Ridden, Ascent 7471m.
reasonable, but June will be bigger.
