Ride Across Britain – Riding from Pasties to Haggis

In just over a weeks time riders for the 2022 edition of Ride Across Britain will start travelling down to Lands End ready for their “Grand Depart” on Saturday 10 September.

I expect there will a mixture of emotions; excitement that the event that they have been training for is about to start, trepidation as to whether they have done enough training (put off by some fellow riders posting huge Strava rides on the Facebook forum), meeting up with some old friends and making lots of new ones, and relief that the event is finally here.

One thing will be for sure, the ride will be a test of endurance, particularly if the weather is unkind. There will be battles to beat the broom wagon and the “three strikes and you’re out” rule. Hopefully, the stricter training regime brought in by Threshold (requiring several 100 mile rides) will reduce the drop outs. No one will dare raise their hand at the Friday evening briefing to say Saturday’s ride will be their first century ride – the “happy days” from 2018!

Do I miss not being on the start line? In a word “No”. I’m not sure I would want to commit to over 10 months pretty solid training. I now have a partner who would not want me disappearing for seven hour rides on a Saturday and a three hour ride on a Sunday. I have the utmost respect to riders who have fitted in training round family life. I was single in 2017/18 and could be “selfish” in my commitment to training. I was probably too single minded and other interests suffered during the training period (no tennis and less sailing for example).

I have been asked do I still cycle? The answer is most definitely. It keeps me fit, not as fit as 2018, but better than pre-cycling. Cycling allows me to clear my head and unwind after a hard day or week at work. It can be sociable when cycling with a group, although the vast majority of my rides are still solo. Would I enter Ride Across Britain in 2024 (the next running of the event)? Probably not, I think I’ll look at other challenges that don’t require the same level of commitment to training.

Good luck to all the riders setting off on Saturday. Trust in your training. Try to get in a group. Don’t go off too fast in Cornwall and Devon, it will come back and bite you on Day 5 and definitely Days 7 and 8. Above all, enjoy it and soak in the countryside as you go from the bottom to the top of the UK.

As I will be spending up to 8 hours a day riding my bike on the Ride Across Britain it is very important to be as comfortable as possible when riding the bike. It is not just a case of riding with lots of padding in the cycle shorts or on the saddle but making sure the bike fits you. A bike that doesn’t “fit” properly can cause injuries to flare up.

This is what happened to me over Christmas 2016. I did over 500 km of cycling in 8 days using two different bikes, both a which had their pluses and minuses. However, one bike resulted in me getting very sore Achilles tendons in both legs – I did very little cycling in January and February as a result!

Last Saturday I took the offending bike to a bike fit with Cranc Cycle Sport in Carmarthen where I spent three hours having the bike measured, my cycling position filmed and gradual changes made to the bike set up.

Here is a photo of me riding with sensors positioned on the major joints to create a stick man rider using a camera system and some clever computer software. The size of the bike had already been inputted into the computer using special measuring gadgets and a 3D monitoring system. The combination of minor tweaks to saddle height, saddle position on the top of the seat post, stem length and position of the handle bars can make a huge difference to the comfort of the overall ride.

At the end of the fit I had some before and after photos.

The differences may not look too obvious but they make a huge difference to the ride comfort.

On Sunday I did a two hour indoor ride on my smart trainer to test out the fit. A previous one hour ride had resulted in Achilles soreness. However, no issues arose after the two hour ride – a result in my book! It now means I can use my slightly older bike for training rides in not so nice conditions outside and not spoil my “nice” bike which I can save for later in the year when the miles build up.

One other point I brought away from the morning fit. If you are going to spend a lot of money on a bike, you may want to have a measurement session before buying a bike. Apparently, a slightly smaller bike may have been a better option for me – it is too late now !

Cranc Cycle Sport have some very nice bikes to buy – definitely worth a visit if you are looking for something special or if you want a detailed bike fit on your existing bike – see there website here

I now have no excuse but to get on with the training, both indoors and out! I’m just hoping for a bit of dry weather at the weekend (or at least not gale force winds and torrential rain) so I can go out for a long ride.

You can sponsor me to support Dementia UK at my Virgin Money Giving page

Tag: Ride Across Britain

Ride Across Britain 2022

The importance of bike fit