On Saturday, I was riding the Farnham 10 mile TT open time trial. Off number 100 in a field of 101. It was a good race; despite a north westerly wind, it felt fast. I managed to do the 10 miles in 20.21, which was just enough for first place, pushing Nick Dwyer into second place by 1 second in 20.22. For the first time in the year, I took off my waterbottle cage to make the bike more aerodynamic, perhaps that was the second there… Marginal gains and all that.
My Garmin told me I’d done 20.04. But, if there’s one thing I’ve learnt from organising time trials – the timekeeper is always right, Garmins are wrong!
Anyway, it’s always quite exhilarating doing a 30mph ride, especially on a ‘fair’ course like Bentley A31. There are a couple of significant drags. Traffic makes a difference, but there aren’t really any lorries, and traffic’s not too heavy like some courses. It’s a big target to do a 19 on the H10/8, though it will have to wait for a better day.
The next day I was down to ride the Hounslow & District 100 mile TT. I was quite dissappointed not to make it, with an unexpected commitment in London. With reasonable weather, I was fairly confident of breaking my 100 mile pb of 3.52. It would have been an important confidence boost before entering the national 100 and national 12 hour later in the year.
With Sunday off the bike, and heavy rain forecast for Tues and Wed, on Monday I decided to cycle off to Frocester. It’s about 58 miles as the crow flies so quite a long ride. It ended up being 123 miles all round, just shy of 200km. The aim of the ride was two fold. Firstly, reconnoitre a possible venue for a 24 hour hill climb, and secondly get some training in for a 12 hour time trial in August. Because I was training for a possible 12 hour time trial, I thought I ought to do the ride on a time trial bike. This is a hard call, a time trial bike just isn’t designed for a comfortable 7 hours ride. But, if I’m going to do a 12 hour time trial, I need to get used to being in a low position for a long time. The main drawback of the ride was the growing pain in the shoulders and neck from being in the TT position for so long. The ride would have been more enjoyable on a road bike. There were times during the ride when I was thinking, what are you doing – 7 hours on a TT bike, why not just stick to the short stuff?
That’s the dilemma about going up the distances. I get a lot of joy from racing short distances. Moving up to 100 miles, 12 hours and beyond is a different kind of pain and difficulty. There are always times on long rides, when you feel really tired, but after stopping off in Burford for some water, the last 20 miles was OK. I was glad there was a tailwind on the way home though.
On the plus side, the time trial bike was pretty useful for cutting through a really strong wind on the way out. It was hard for the first two hours, and really cold. The other difficulty of riding 60 miles out to Frocester, is that you don’t know the roads, and unless you’re going to stop to look at a map every 5 minutes, it means taking a few more A roads than you would prefer. It wasn’t the most romantic ride. But, I felt good when I got back and was able to sit normally in a chair.
Frocester Hill
View from Frocester Hill
Frocester Hill direction SW
| Distance | 2.1km |
| Avg Grade | 9.0% |
| Elev Difference | 185m |
| Elev Gain | 220m |
Frocester hill is a great climb, you ascend nearly 200 metres in 2.2km. The gradient starts off at 3% from the village of Frocester and then reaches a fairly steady 10% all the way to the top. It’s very nice to climb and is a good test. The road surface is reasonable. From a hill climbing perspective, it would make an ideal hill for the 24 hour hill climb. The only drawback is that it is just a little busy to be doing 300 u-turns in the middle of the road. It’s not as busy as many roads. But, when you imagine doing a u-turn at the bottom of a fast descent, you realise how difficult that is. In the good old days of time trials, ‘dead turns’ in the middle of the road were quite common – because traffic was so light. But, the dead turn has pretty much disappeared from courses these days.
It’s a shame because I’d really like to do it on this hill, but I will have to keep looking for a more suitable climb. Also, when I climbed the hill, there was a perfect headwind making the climb quite difficult. It’s a great view from the top. It felt pretty impressive to be able to see Wales. It’s the first time I’ve gone on a bike ride from Oxford and seen another country!
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Nice write up and a serous undertaking spending 7 hours in the saddle of a TT bike. I live local to Frocester and climb that hill as part of my 20 mile training route. It’s tough but a reasonable gradient. The length of the climb is the killer. A harder climb lies just a few miles to the South in the form of Crawley Hill. At the top of Frocester, if you turn right onto the main road, Crawley Hill can be found a mile or so along this road. It drops steeply (12% to 15% in places) into the village of Uley and onto the market town of Dursley. It’s a harder test than Frocester but both are pretty gruelling rides, as is the other big hill to the North, which can be found 4 miles further on towards Stroud from the top of Frocester at Selsey. Frocester Hill is a good training hill to be able to cycle up Selsey hill!