2014 MFP LeTour Signup/Discussion Thread
Options
Replies
-
Safety pins are old school. :laugh:
I am pretty much old skool... that's what comes of being old... along with knackered hips, knees that sound like they have ground glass in the joints, and an ankle that makes a popping sound every time you rotate your foot.
Still, as long as you've got your health, eh....0 -
Do you prefer we update our data daily or can we do it weekly?
I'm fine if it's daily but may consider uploading weekly if it's OK.0 -
Do you prefer we update our data daily or can we do it weekly?
I'm fine if it's daily but may consider uploading weekly if it's OK.
Ideally I'd prefer daily - as I like to keep the spreadsheet up to date, and I know some people actually check the spreadsheet to see how their team are going, before deciding on their ride for the day... If you're going to be away for a few days though, just drop me a PM and I can do the occasional catch-up direct from strava (leaving the figures in "provisionally" until confirmed)0 -
Yep, I'm one of those that check the spreadsheet to figure out what I need to do. Except on weekends when I work long shifts. That's just ride what you can when you can. Riding by headlamp last night. It's amazing how much dust in the in air at 4:30 in the morning. :laugh: :laugh:0
-
Speaking of spreadsheets. I was just checking them. Team 1, we are losing ground to team 4. We need to start playing some catch up. :bigsmile: :laugh: :laugh:
Let's go Team Yin!!!! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker:0 -
Okay folks - I may have mentioned the "Logging Spreadsheet" occasionally.
Here it is
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YhGj-P34GYYtd-IVhhnPQjBraKXfe2z3OFMBoOZO6AI/edit?usp=sharing
It's a big old beast, with quite a few little tricks and fancy bits, so I thought it may be time to give a bit of a users guide.
TABS
Along the bottom of the screen are a number of coloured tabs. Each of these present a different "view" of the data.
Yellow Tabs are "Numeric Data" information - Red Tabs are "Graphs" - Green Tabs are "Reference Data" and the plain White ones are "Raw Data"
Raw Data
These Tabs are labelled 3x1,3x2.... up to 3x9. Pretty self explanatory - check your race number, if it's 309 then look on the "3x9" tab and your information, as entered in the logging thread will be there. They're stacked 309,319,329,339 so you just scroll down until you hit your info.
This information is basically the only bit of the spreadsheet that gets data keyed into it. All the rest of the spreadsheet picks up from here. (So, for the people who DO have read-write access - PLEASE ONLY CHANGE FIGURES IN THIS BIT, and try not to bollox up any of the formulas :laugh:)
So, where does the info. trickle down to then...
Summary
First of the Yellow tabs, this is the main summary sheet, showing data in the three "jersey categories"
Yellow Section (for the GC) is probably the most involved. It begins with a column for Cumulative distance for the Challengers, which has a percentage of the overall total at its foot. Next is a Distance Total for the stage. If this is in Black, the stage distance has been achieved, if it's in red, then there's still some distance to cover. Next up is a column for each individual rider, all columns totalled at the bottom (with a smaller figure below in Miles, for the benefit of the metrically challenged). One other significant thing - rides that are officially logged should have a pale lemon background, unofficial ones (ie stuff I've just harvested from Strava are plain white - At the end of the challenge, I allow 2 days to get the final post entered, at that point, any provisional data not confirmed will be deleted - so don't think you can just let me enter your data for you!
Second up, the Green Section (for the Fast Movers) - Simple really, a column for each rider, showing average kph that stage, and overall.
Third is the Climbing Section (KoM) - very much in the same vein as the GC - theres a column for the Actual Tour Ascent, Challengers Total and individual Efforts.
Thats about it for this tab, so we'll go onto the next one...
Leaderboard
Self explanatory really - List of Names, 3 jersey categories, the data will generally be ordered by GC, the leader in each category will be highlighted appropriately to denote the "top man on the pole".
That's it for the numbers Tabs
Reference Data
Rosta
This is a simple look up table that shows race numbers, MFP Handle, Strava Handle, Strava URL, and columns of stuff for my personal reference (like if I've issued dossards, if the rider is away from the computer for a few days... stuff like that, so I don't have to try and remember it!)
Graphs
Yep, pretty pictures time
Distance by Team
Line Graph, where we can watch the four teams chasing the Yellow line of the overall distance. While ever your team is above the Yellow line at a given date, you're laughing, basically.
Distance by Rider
Four Hot linked pie charts, showing the contribution to the overall team distance by each rider. Wanted to show that every rider played their part, and that even a few rides can make a significant % contribution. And they're Pie Charts because... well, Pies are a real North of England Thing. Mmmm Pies....................
Sorry, where was I... Ah yes,
Ascent by Team
This one I really like. The Actual Overall Ascent for each days stage is represented by a shaded blue bar. Each teams ascent for the given stage is shown as a narrower coloured bar within that days Shading. If your teams climbing bar is higher than the Actual Tour Figures, then, frankly, Chapeau!
So - I hope that's been useful in some way. Right - I'm away for some breakfast and hopefully a ride out to see the riders pass by on Stage 2 this afternoon.0 -
Speaking of spreadsheets. I was just checking them. Team 1, we are losing ground to team 4. We need to start playing some catch up. :bigsmile: :laugh: :laugh:
Let's go Team Yin!!!! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker:
I think the first couple of days were likely to be a little "slow" on the distance for team #1, bearing in mind there's quite a few of us from the UK, bearing in mind it's maybe 10miles from where I live, and passed within 4 miles from Clive's door - oh - and that Fran was camping out at Harewood House...
I'm likely to be doing quite a bit less than my usual metric century today I admit... Bit of luck I'll catch up tomorrow - don't have the slightest interest in watching the Cambridge-London stage live... Its flat and Boring dahn sahrf, just like their Beer.0 -
don't have the slightest interest in watching the Cambridge-London stage live... Its flat and Boring dahn sahrf, just like their Beer.
Oi!! Cheeky! those of us from the home of London Pride & ESB take exception
Though I will admit that having spent 3 inebriated years in uni at Leeds made me quite fond of those north of the Gap
Made many a pilgrimage to Tadcaster and Masham in those days ;-)0 -
TBY - Sorry about the split recording for today. My speed/cadence sensor came lose and I had to re-attach it. If I knew that it was going to go that fast I wouldn't have shut off the bike computer. Sorry.
0 -
I think the first couple of days were likely to be a little "slow" on the distance for team #1, bearing in mind there's quite a few of us from the UK, bearing in mind it's maybe 10miles from where I live, and passed within 4 miles from Clive's door - oh - and that Fran was camping out at Harewood House...
I'm likely to be doing quite a bit less than my usual metric century today I admit... Bit of luck I'll catch up tomorrow - don't have the slightest interest in watching the Cambridge-London stage live... Its flat and Boring dahn sahrf, just like their Beer.
I'm jealous. That would be really cool! :happy: 0 -
No worries on the split mate, the commuters do that every day, it's not a problem, I just look as the strava stuff and if it looks right, I just post it.
Today was a great day out, 40km of largely uphill, find a spot to sit on the roadside, as in "get on the parcours and ride contre-route for 10 minutes" until there was a space. Sat there, saw the caravanne publicitaiire, ate my sandwiches, then saw the fast lads. As they left, saddled up, and hooned off down the road following the race until my turn off. Was amazing, thousands of people roadside, cheering me and the other weekend warriors almost as much as the pro riders.0 -
Do you prefer we update our data daily or can we do it weekly?
I'm fine if it's daily but may consider uploading weekly if it's OK.
Ideally I'd prefer daily - as I like to keep the spreadsheet up to date, and I know some people actually check the spreadsheet to see how their team are going, before deciding on their ride for the day... If you're going to be away for a few days though, just drop me a PM and I can do the occasional catch-up direct from strava (leaving the figures in "provisionally" until confirmed)
No problem. I'm happy to load it daily. Just wanted to check.0 -
Wow. The teams are really close. This is going to be a lot of fun. :happy: :happy: 0
-
Blarg... having a rough start to my Tour. Brutal temps have kept me out of the saddle until evening where I only have about an hour's light, and today tummy issues are keeping me on the couch watching Stage 3 on NBCSN Primetime. Tempted to do some laps around the community (about a quarter mile each lap) just to get some miles in for the Team...0
-
Blarg... having a rough start to my Tour. Brutal temps have kept me out of the saddle until evening where I only have about an hour's light, and today tummy issues are keeping me on the couch watching Stage 3 on NBCSN Primetime. Tempted to do some laps around the community (about a quarter mile each lap) just to get some miles in for the Team...
Banshee - I can relate. During the Giro I couldn't get far from the building one weekend due to a critical patient and I was on a 48 hour shift. I was relegated to doing laps around the parking lot and the housing development next door. About a half mile in length. It really gets monotonous after about 5 laps but you got to do what you got to do.0 -
Well, unfortunately I only did 1 of the 2 planned rides at weekend, largely because I'd had no warning quite how hilly it was going to be, especially as I'd signed up to the "gentle" ride....apparently that just meant "gentle" speed - well that it was, average 8mph or something due to walking up a couple of the 10-14% hills. I'd only had 2 croissants for breakfast but we were told there would be refreshments at the destination - sadly, there wasn't - only a croissant and they'd run out of water! Luckily I had filled 2 bottles, but trying to hit the big climbs (for me) with very little in the tank was difficult.
have to say that the ride in places left me very dejected - realising I am not a very good cyclist at all really and that even in the lowest gear I had nowhere to go on the steep climbs. I did manage a few of them, and one at the very end which picked my mood up a bit.
Woke up the next morning and the next day's ride was more of the same with some steep climbs, my legs just wouldn't have made it - they were like lead...so I had to duck out. Still glad in many ways I did the Saturday ride, it was great to see the race in full flow (as opposed to the roll out through Harewood House) but it has left me feeling a bit rubbish about my cycling abilities.
Anyway, in addition to that got back from camping yesterday (Mon) afternoon, unpacking etc left me no time to cycle. Straight out from work tonight to a friend's so no cycle commute. Hope to bike it in to work Wed-Fri and then maybe a weekend ride with Rob although do need to go bike shopping as got my Cyclescheme voucher, will try to get one in :-)0 -
have to say that the ride in places left me very dejected - realising I am not a very good cyclist at all really and that even in the lowest gear I had nowhere to go on the steep climbs. I did manage a few of them, and one at the very end which picked my mood up a bit.
Woke up the next morning and the next day's ride was more of the same with some steep climbs, my legs just wouldn't have made it - they were like lead...so I had to duck out. Still glad in many ways I did the Saturday ride, it was great to see the race in full flow (as opposed to the roll out through Harewood House) but it has left me feeling a bit rubbish about my cycling abilities.
Just because you aren't as good at hills as the other guys doesn't mean you have poor cycling abilities. The Gorilla can't climb, Nairo can't sprint and Ned Overand (mountain bikes) will never compete in the Tour de France. Just because you aren't where you would have liked to have been doesn't mean you are good. It just means there is room for improvement. There is a big difference. If you quit riding, you can say you weren't good. If you look at what you did and come up a plan to be better next year, then that's being a good cyclist with a plan to be better. :happy: :happy:0 -
Fran,
Unless you live in an area where those kind of steep hills are a regular occurrence, they are always going to be leg-breakers. Around my local area they're few and far between - there's a couple of them that basically are all on the same geological fault line and they're stupid steep (12% - 20%) but only 100 yards long at worst... On those you can just give it everything and climb all over the bike to get it up, but it's not pleasant, and it's certainly not pretty.
As with everything in cycling, a lot of it is down to power/weight ratio - something that I get hammered on because of the weight side, and even at my fittest and lightest I was over 80kg - I'm currently a lot heavier - no make that a LOT heavier. I managed to grunt my way around a couple of the climbs from the first stage, but well - frankly, there's a part of me that wishes I'd walked more, and been able to bend my knee for the 3 days afterwards!!
But - an equal part of things is the attitude you take to climbing... I used to really hate it with a passion back in the day - partly because I knew it was the ***** in my armour as far as racing was concerned - but mainly because I was riding with lads of a completely different build and outlook to climbing... Of course, on the days when we went out into the flatlands east of Pontefract, and the wind was howling, I used to get my own back, but it didn't stop the hills from hurting.
Strangely, now I'm coming back to the sport, and actually getting a little fitter (not fit you understand, but a little fitter!) I've found that I actually don't particularly mind climbing anymore - primarily because I've given up measuring my own climbing performance against anyone else but me. On Sundays ride, I clocked up over double my normal ascent for a ride of that distance, and - on the way home - I actually found myself attacking one of the longer climbs, and amazingly I actually passed more riders going up it than passed me (and as you can imagine, there were quite a lot of people riding that route on that day...)
Basically, don't be too tough on yourself Fran - enjoy your riding, stick to the diet as much as possible, and treat your commutes as base mileage - nice steady spinning along... then have one day a week where you actually go and "give it the beans" and push yourself - it'll work, you'll move forwards and improve. And you'll enjoy yourself more than beating yourself up over things.
If I dwelt upon my speed or climbing abilities relative to what I used to be capable before my accident, I'd hang up my wheels. I don't even think of it - the only cyclist I need to try and be better than is the cyclist I was last week.0 -
I'm pretty sure I'll end up being the slowest rider on Team 1 so don't feel bad. I try to do touring in the summer here, and I've found that I have to keep my heart rate below 130 for the first hour to avoid massive cramping 5 to 7 hours after my rides. So, for the first hour, I just spin along on my big steel touring bike. After the first hour, I push it some. But, I really enjoy the rides, and to me, that is the most important thing.0
-
Just because you aren't as good at hills as the other guys doesn't mean you have poor cycling abilities. The Gorilla can't climb, Nairo can't sprint and Ned Overand (mountain bikes) will never compete in the Tour de France. Just because you aren't where you would have liked to have been doesn't mean you are good. It just means there is room for improvement. There is a big difference. If you quit riding, you can say you weren't good. If you look at what you did and come up a plan to be better next year, then that's being a good cyclist with a plan to be better. :happy: :happy:
Thanks for that - I know I much prefer cycling further and faster than harder and more upwards - but I also recognise that it makes you a stronger cyclist. In fairness, it's rare I'm presented with that much climbing in one ride and generally i'm in control of where and how far I ride, so I guess it's a case of balance but not avoidance. And overall...enjoyment!0
This discussion has been closed.