Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to the 2014 MyFitnessPal LaVuetal Espana Grand Tour Challenge.

This thread is solely for entering ride details into. Please keep all questions, discussions or general banter and inter-team trash talking in the discussion thread ( http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1388638-mfp-lavuelta-signup-discussion-thread )

To attempt to simplify matters, I've created a "template" for ride logging that I really do need you to use:

Rather than create it as a file, this time I'm just going to place it here - simply cut out the appropriate and paste into your first reply. Then for subsequent replies you can quote your own prior post, edit to remove the quote bookends and add the next ride into the spaces provided.

== template begins below ======================

LaVuelta Challenge Entries for Rider 3xx Team x

Stage Date Distance Time Ascent Ride Log URL
=========================================================
1 23/08 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
2 24/08 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
3 25/08 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
4 26/08 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
5 27/08 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
6 28/08 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
7 29/08 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
8 30/08 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
9 31/08 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
r 01/09 rest day - no rides count for this day
10 02/09 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
11 03/09 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
12 04/09 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
13 05/09 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
14 06/09 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
15 07/09 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
16 08/09 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
r 09/09 rest day - no rides count for this day
17 10/09 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
18 11/09 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
19 12/09 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
20 13/09 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________
21 14/09 ___._km __h__m__s ____m ______________

Running Total ____._km


=== template ends ========================

RIDES POSTED IN OTHER FORMATS (e.g. cut and paste from excel etc. - unless identical to the above format) WILL BE DELETED AND NOT COUNT UNTIL POSTED CORRECTLY. I WASTED FAR TOO MUCH TIME IN LAST YEARS CHALLENGES TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF PEOPLES "INTERPRETATIONS" OF THE REQUIRED DATA FORMAT. So - This time, it's "No More Mr. Nice Guy..." IF YOU CAN'T DO THIS, PLEASE SAY, AND WE CAN LET SOMEONE ON THE RESERVE LIST JOIN IN INSTEAD - BUT DO THIS BEFORE THE TOUR STARTS AS THERE ARE NO SUBSTITUTIONS ALLOWED AFTER THE ROLLOUT FROM JEREZ. IF YOU'RE NOT 100% SURE HOW IT WORKS, WAIT A FEW DAYS AND SEE THE OTHER PEOPLE'S POSTS AS AN EXAMPLE - AND IF YOU'RE STILL NOT SURE, PM ME AND I'LL TALK YOU THROUGH IT.
And Please, Please, PLEASE - make sure you post your distances in KM (to 1 decimal place) and ascents in Metres (0 decimal places) - if you post in miles and feet, I'll simply delete the post.


Also - to keep the thread length manageable, I reserve the right to delete any off-topic (i.e. non-ride posting) entries without any explanation. Keep that to the Discussion thread please. Ideally, wherever possible, I will also be deleting any prior posts from a given rider as soon as the latest version of there log is updated to my spreadsheet, marked as logged (with the usual "TBY Edit - Logged" marker) - though again, this is subject to my having time/energy to sort this. If I don't do this, imagine how long the thread will get - 36 people x 21 days would mean the thread would end up splitting before the end of the challenge...

So... just a couple of guidelines / disclaimers before we start...

1) You don't have to ride every day that the tour riders do, just ride as often as you can, at a sustainable level - no point in riding 3 back to back centuries and then being restrained to the couch for the next 14 days. IF YOU GET SICK/UNWELL/INJURED STOP RIDING AND SEE A DOCTOR-YOU ARE NOT PROFESSIONAL CYCLISTS AND YOU DON'T HAVE TO TOUGH IT OUT

2) If you ride more than once in a day, post the total distance, Time and Altitude, with a series of URL's for the individual logs - with 4 teams of 9 riders to keep track of, I really don't have the extra time to be adding 6 rides to the shops and back up every day for some people. While it's no big thing for a single person, with 36 people potentially doing this, last year I think I spent more time logging things than I actually did riding.

3) Remember, It's not **really** a race - don't go out and ride at stupid dangerous speeds and hurt yourselves. It's not big, or clever, and I can't afford the lawsuits that would ensue :laugh:

4) Post your ride details as soon as you are easily able to do so - while the "intrim results" will be available in the spreadsheet, these are very much "to be confirmed" records, and are subject to scrutiny/amendment at a later date, and will not be finalised until a couple of days after the challenge closes. If however you are off the bike for a couple of days, please add the rides as "DNR" as soon as you can. Also - if you're "on tour" or away from t'internet, don't sweat it (though a PM to me beforehand to let me know so I don't waste time searching for anything from you would be appreciated) - we'll get there eventually. When I've entered your ride, I'll stick an edit in the bottom of the post to say it's sorted.

5) Rides will be logged and analysed within a Google Spreadsheet available here :-

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UXAbbaObOmLWLKui2eYTZgz8SUxhKT6vfFLJfZvH3k4/edit?usp=sharing

If you look on the "Summary" tab, you will see the rides logged for each team's riders. If the rides have been "officially logged" in this thread, and have a "TBY EDIT - Logged" at the bottom of the post, then the distance section of the sheet will have the background tinted pale red. If the data has simply been picked up by me from Strava, then the background will be left plain. There are also another couple of people who have "full access" to the spreadsheet, who may, if I'm not available for a few days, be pressed into entering the odd bit of data, just to keep things up to date - but hopefully we'll announce anything of that nature in the discussion thread. If they make any entries in the spreadsheet expect to see a different name in the "..... EDIT - Logged" markers.

6) Ride logging commences 00:01am (in your own local time zone) on 23rd Aug 2014. Logging ends at 23:59pm (again, local TZ) on 14th September 2014. For night rides that may cross from one day to the next, I reserve the right to log them in whichever day may need the extra mileage

7) Late rule addition - for Team Time Trial Stages, in order for the stage to be considered complete, at least 5 or more riders need to ride this stage - so, not only do you need to exceed 13.4km for stage 1, but 5 or more riders need to book a ride (7 of you could ride 2km each if you so wanted, or one rider could ride 30km and 4 others could ride 100m up and down the road, BUT at least 5 need to ride on that day.

8) It's all for fun and fitness - so go out there and enjoy it... See you on the Startline in Jerez, try not to sample the local Amontillado until after the stage.