MFP World Championships Cycling Challenges - Discussion
TheBigYin
Posts: 5,686 Member
And, it's time for yet another Cycling Challenge. This time it's themed around the UCI Worlds Championships.
The Challenges fall into 2 categories - Road and Time Trials.
Road Race
This is basically, much the same as the on-going "Classics Challenge" - i.e. it's a simple distance based challenge.
Within the date range of the World Championships (22nd - 29th September 2013) you pick ONE SINGLE RIDE and submit the distance (in Km naturally) and the SINGLE GPS LOG that covers this distance. No "multiple sections" or "5 GPS logs for one ride" allowed I'm afraid, just pick one ride and submit it. Again, all rides to be logged via GPS and posted to either Strava or Garmin Connect. No indoor mileage, trainer miles, spinning machines or pedaloes allowed - just bum's on saddles, out on the tarmac (or Cobbles/Gravel for that air of Flemish/Tuscan authenticity :laugh:)
Time Trial
Now, this is somewhat more awkward. Owing to the disparate nature of the terrain we're riding on, I'm going to have to put a few stipulations on the course that we ride.
Submit a 16.09km ride, GPS Logged and timed.
Altitude End of route MUST be no more than 20m lower than Beginning Altitude (So 10 mile descents from the top of a pass in the Alps / Rockies etc are not allowable)
Route may be as "nett uphill" as you wish.
Obviously, as it's a Time Trial, the route MUST be from a standing start, with a flying finish if desired. What I would suggest for the Garmin Owners is to set the unit to do an "automatic lap" every 10 miles, ride to the start of the course as a warmup, reset the garmin, and give yourself the 5,4,3,2,1 and on zero, press start and pedal like hell. The Auto Lap will then "time" your ride for you. Not sure how this scheme would translate to the various Apps some people use, but I'm sure there will be something similar...
All rides MUST be ridden solo and non-motor-paced (you're on your honour for this one, as short of insisting on a go-pro on your handlebars, we can't enforce this... but if you cheat, well - you know what you are frown )
If you have a local "club 10" course, I STRONGLY advise using this route, as it's probably been worked out on roads that are safer for the purpose.
Routes should by preference either be a loop, or a out and back. "Straight out" routes will incur a 5 minute penalty weighting, as it will be presumed that you've picked the route to have a tailwind for the entire ride. Frankly, if you can get a 10 mile straight out, make it a 5 mile straight out, and a turn in the road and return...
If you're not sure about your prospective route, map it out on something like gpsies.com (or do a route in GC or Strava) and PM me with the link and I'll give it the yay-or-nay.
For example - one of the routes I'm considering using is my local cycling clubs "Club 10" - (010/09 for the UK people who have "the handbook") - Garmin Connect Route for it is here - http://connect.garmin.com/course/4472762
While not being a "out and back" it IS a circuit of sorts, so any tailwind on one sector is offset by a headwind/sidewind in other areas. It begins at 59M above sea level and ends at 75m, so is "nett ascent" and therefore ok on that score too...
Another example, this time of a "straight out" would be this one... http://connect.garmin.com/course/4813049 - While this route's elevation profile is fine, 12m above sea level at start 9m above sea level at end, it's a "straight out" and was ridden with (according to my ride diary) something like a 10mph south-westerly wind blowing. As a straight out, it'd definitely recieve a 5 minute penalty time addition.
A third example would be this one - http://connect.garmin.com/course/4813111 - to all intents and purposes, it should be the perfect course - it's pretty much pan-flat (7m above sea level at start/end and 6m above at the turnaround point), it's an out and back, with the turnaround at a roundabout rather than a dead stop - so it'd be acceptable as a prospective course. However - and this is where local knowledge comes in - there's one "stop line" right turn on the way back (remember, UK ride on the left, so it means crossing the traffic flow for us) on a quite busy motorway feeder route, so, while NOT dangerous per-se, you COULD well be waiting for 3-4 minutes to get across safely... There's also another right turn later in the ride that involves tearing around 3/4 of a roundabout at full-chat, which could be a trifle dangerous. On the right time/date it would be a blindingly fast route however - provided it was a properly marshalled race! Personally, I think I'll stick to my local "club 10" route.
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Can we ride a longer route and just segment the TT portion? I figured I would warm up on the way out to the course I am planning on riding.0
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Thinking about doing this for the Time Trial - http://www.endomondo.com/routes/248291519
Think I should be Ok on the elevation and avoid a 5 minute penalty... what o you think?0 -
This will be my route as long as I can cross the street at the turn around without getting crushed by a truck. Usually not a lot of traffic if I start at the right time. http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/2938212110
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Want to do, but my charging cable broke, so no GPS. dang it.0
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Can we ride a longer route and just segment the TT portion? I figured I would warm up on the way out to the course I am planning on riding.
I'm probably doing much the same, but with the garmin, I'll stop the garmin recording at the beginning of the course, press "reset" and ride the course, then stop the clock, reset again and ride home - so I end up with 3 .FIT files recorded on one ride - then just declare the TT bit in the middle.0 -
Thinking about doing this for the Time Trial - http://www.endomondo.com/routes/248291519
Think I should be Ok on the elevation and avoid a 5 minute penalty... what o you think?
Looks fine :-)0 -
This will be my route as long as I can cross the street at the turn around without getting crushed by a truck. Usually not a lot of traffic if I start at the right time. http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/293821211
Route's perfect - looks a quick one as well...nary a ripple in the profile, I'm guessing thats a 56-11 course
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Will sign up for the road race i'm taking on the Torr head challenge tomorrow. It will my toughest climb to date or so i'm told
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It will my toughest climb to date or so i'm told
Sound's 'painful'!
The TT course is not a problem for me; just figuring out where to start and finish to get the 16.1km's in is the issue...
The Road Race will be my problem; I'll be commuting every day, but it's just the distance (unless I branch out a bit on the homeward legs?
I'll see how we go
Already got a DNS for yesterday :grumble:0 -
It will my toughest climb to date or so i'm told
Sound's 'painful'!
The TT course is not a problem for me; just figuring out where to start and finish to get the 16.1km's in is the issue...
The Road Race will be my problem; I'll be commuting every day, but it's just the distance (unless I branch out a bit on the homeward legs?
I'll see how we go
Already got a DNS for yesterday :grumble:
Ditto!! :ohwell:0 -
The TT course is not a problem for me; just figuring out where to start and finish to get the 16.1km's in is the issue...
You did see the bit about it needing to be either a loop or out and back, didn't you... 5 minute penalty for straight out routes. :laugh:0 -
I'm working on it... I was going to do a one-wayer on the way home (til you piped up) :grumble:You did see the bit about it needing to be either a loop or out and back, didn't you... 5 minute penalty for straight out routes. :laugh:
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:0 -
I'm afraid my copy of the RTTC handbook can't help mate - it's from WAY before they started mucking about with the A1. There were a few of the old V-Region courses around topcliffe and so forth, but bacck then, if I was travelling that far for a TT it'd have had to have been a "nutcase fast" course - which pretty much meant the A1 and getting pushed along by the continual "wash" of the HGV's.... looking back at it, we must have been radio rental!0
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Well, I've posted an RR & a TT from today... See how that goes 0
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Well, I've posted an RR & a TT from today... See how that goes
I've had a look at the TT route Clive, and it's spot on - in fact I'm half tempted to throw the bike in the back of the car and give it a try myself... Looking at the weather forecast, Friday evening would be best bet 9mph side-tail on the return leg... 0 -
Nothing mentioned about bikes....TT bikes or Merckx it ??
At 10 miles you will see the advantages of aero equipment.0 -
I'm guessing the bulk of us won't actually have a specific TT Rig - I borrowed one for a couple of trial rides, but the "fear factor" of riding someone elses £4000+ bike at 105% offset the speed improvement from my regular roadbike - then again, my TT course was a pretty "sporting" (read lumpy) course, and my physique is SO un-aerodynamic that the bike/helmet/clingfilm suit would have been like lipstick on a pig. Indeed I took almost 50s out of the time recorded on the borrowed P3 yesterday, riding my normal roadbike.
If I'd have had my own Rig, set up to fit me, and had 6 months of riding it to get used to how it handled properly, i'd definitely hae used it, as it was, I was better riding it "A-la-Eddie"
I'm not going to be prescriptive about this - I'm happy for people to ride on anything from a Dutch Shopper to a Full Aero TT rig - it's not about the bike, its about getting people out riding - of course, if the regular TT and Tri riders feel that they're getting an unfair advantage over the rest of us, and decide to ride normal bikes, then it would probably be more in the spirit of things.0 -
Not going to ride a TT bike since I don't have one and the last time I tried attaching aero bars to a road bike I ended up with a broken shoulder.0
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well - that's me in for both now - I'm guessing I'm just making the numbers up in both cases - never expected to do anything else TBH, but it seemed a bit "off" somehow to come up with the challenge, and then not ride it...0
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I did the TT today as DNS is not an option :glasses:0
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well - if you haven't ridden something by now, its too late :-)
I'll keep the entries thread open for another day or so, just to give people a chance to enter up any of last weeks rides, and hopefully by wednesday evening we'll have the final results.
:drinker: Well done to everyone who got out there and did a ride - be it short or long, fast or slow - without you, these challenges are nothing :bigsmile:0 -
And Finally, The Results....
Time Trial
1. 0:25:49 - CentralCaliCycling
2. 0:26:56 - Christophenes @ 1:07
3. 0:27:22 - TheBigYin @ 1:33
4. 0:27:24 - cloggsy71 @ 1:35
5. 0:30:08 - cyclenut64 @ 4:19
6. 0:34:46 - narak_lol @ 8:57
Road Race
1. 210.15km - matsprt1984
2. 140.83km - narak_lol
3. 111.37km - katozdad
4. 110.0km - harksy
5. 106.1km - TheBigYin
6. 81.38km - cyclenut
7. 69.56km - CentralCaliCycling
8. 20.9km - cloggsy710 -
Nice CentralCali' That was a quick time!
That is also a nice distance in one hit matsprt1984; well deserved!
Well done to all who took part!
Thanks to TBY for another great challenge idea - Long may they continue :drinker:0 -
Well done guys,
I will do the time trial over the next few weeks to see how I compare, but I'm not promising to declare publicly.
Also well done on the road race, my next big milestone is the 200km, but I might clock up a few 100 milers before I go that far.0 -
Well done to all!0
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As always - this was a blast. Looking forward to what happens next.0
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Good job guys
keep going like this we will have our own racing team 0 -
As always - this was a blast. Looking forward to what happens next.
There's just the Finale of the Classics Challenge on Sunday - the "Falling Leaves", then I'm calling it a day on the road challenges until the new season I'm afraid.0 -
Nice job everyone, thanks TYB for another well organized challenge. I always have fun and these challenges they give me some extra motivation. I am going to work on that TT and see how I improve over time. the course is really close to the house so I can test myself often.0
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Well done everyone! And congratulations to the World Champions!! :drinker:
Thanks TBY for organising and running this challenge - I love organisers who can actually organise!0
This discussion has been closed.