Thursday, September 6, 2012
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Day 1. Early lunch
Monday, August 27, 2012
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Route Details
| Day | Date | Route | Route |
| 1 | 5th wed | Brenner to Ora | Gatwick to Innsbruck Dep 07:25, Arr 10:20 |
| 2 | 6th thu | Ora to Bardolino | |
| 3 | 7th fri | Bardolino to Modena | |
| 4 | 8th sat | Modena to Montepiano | |
| 5 | 9th sun | Montepiano de Greve in Chianti | |
| 6 | 10th mon | Greve in Chianti to Pienza | |
| 7 | 11th tue | Pienza to Ronciglione | |
| 8 | 12th wed | Ronciglione to Frascati | |
| 9 | 13th thu | Frascati to Sperlonga | |
| 10 | 14th fri | Sperlonga to Naples | |
| 11 | 15th sat | Naples to Amalfi | |
| 12 | 16th sun | Amalfi to San Severino | |
| 13 | 17th mon | San Severino to Diamante | |
| 14 | 18th tue | Diamante to Amantea | |
| 15 | 19th wed | Amantea to Bagnara Calabra | |
| 16 | 20th thu | Bagnara Calabra to Villa San Giovanni Ferry. And Messina to Acireale | |
| 17 | 21st fri | Acireale to Syracuse | |
| 18 | 22nd sat | Syracuse to Portopalo di Capo Passero | |
| 19 | 23rd sun | 3 mile ride to airport! | Catania to Gatwick Dep 12:15, Arr 14:35 |
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Jeroen brings the rain with him
This week, Jeroen came out to Portugal for some training rides. This is the two of us just about to set off on the second day, enjoying the first rainy day in over a month! Conditions were atrocious, but we still loved it and ended up in Ourense in Spain after climbing over 6000 feet and burning 6000 calories over 76 mountainous miles. We were pleased to enjoy massages, tapas and copious quantities of red wine with Eunice and Rowena till late into the night.
We leave for Italy in under 3 weeks! We are very excited now.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Nothing to worry about!
Just had a lovely weekend away in the nearby Spanish mountains with my local cycle buddy Mike Wild, again fully loaded to simulate Italian touring conditions. The weights were:
Rider=81kg
Panniers, Front Box, Clothing and Water Bottles = 20kg
Bike=15kg
Total: 116kg
Here was the detailed outcome:
What is interesting is that both these days were harder than the hardest day in Italy, and I found them fine, so that's good. The average speed riding up and down all day in the mountains (10.3 mph) is 2mph slower than my speed in undulating conditions as recorded in the last blog entry, so we need to allow for that.
Profile and Photos to follow:
Rider=81kg
Panniers, Front Box, Clothing and Water Bottles = 20kg
Bike=15kg
Total: 116kg
Here was the detailed outcome:
| Start | Moving Time | Elapsed Time | Stops | Distance (miles) | Distance (km) | Elevation Gain (feet) | Elevation Gain (metres) | Avg Speed (mph) | Max Speed (mph) | Avg HR | Max HR | Calories | Average Gradient | |
| Day 1 - Yavanna to Celanova | Sat, Jul 14, 2012 7:47 | 08:04 | 10:07 | 02:03 | 79.3 | 126.8 | 7,364 | 2,245 | 9.9 | 37.3 | 123 | 164 | 6,995 | 1.76% |
| Day 2 - Celanova to Yavanna | Sun, Jul 15, 2012 8:06 | 07:17 | 09:20 | 02:03 | 77.1 | 123.3 | 6,481 | 1,976 | 10.6 | 37.5 | 124 | 160 | 5,577 | 1.59% |
| Total | 15:21 | 19:28 | 04:07 | 156.3 | 250.1 | 13,845 | 4,221 | 10.3 | 37.5 | 123 | 164 | 12,572 | 1.68% |
What is interesting is that both these days were harder than the hardest day in Italy, and I found them fine, so that's good. The average speed riding up and down all day in the mountains (10.3 mph) is 2mph slower than my speed in undulating conditions as recorded in the last blog entry, so we need to allow for that.
Profile and Photos to follow:
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Mark's First "Dress Rehearsal" Ride
I loaded my panniers with 3 five litre water bottles (15kg of ballast) and set off at 8am this morning to ride a day similar to what we will experience in Italy, to see what conclusions I could draw from it.
In summary, I averaged 11.3mph over 5:30 hours covering 63 miles. It was very hilly for about half the ride and I did have a stiff headwind heading up the coast. There was also an easy flat hour following a river. So all in all quite representative of Italy. The main difference is that I didn't stop at all, and did feel my energy fading after 4 hours. Up to that point I had been averaging 12.4mph and I think a lunch stop would have been very beneficial. So I think I could plan on a 12mph average in terms of calculating arrival times, asuming a lunch break to get the energy levels up.
The other thing about today was that I checked today's average gradient against the daily gradients in Italy and there are only three days which are slightly hillier that this ride today, and only two days which are much hillier. I find that very encouraging.
Here's my Dawes fully laden for the first time since the French trip last year - felt good!
In summary, I averaged 11.3mph over 5:30 hours covering 63 miles. It was very hilly for about half the ride and I did have a stiff headwind heading up the coast. There was also an easy flat hour following a river. So all in all quite representative of Italy. The main difference is that I didn't stop at all, and did feel my energy fading after 4 hours. Up to that point I had been averaging 12.4mph and I think a lunch stop would have been very beneficial. So I think I could plan on a 12mph average in terms of calculating arrival times, asuming a lunch break to get the energy levels up.
The other thing about today was that I checked today's average gradient against the daily gradients in Italy and there are only three days which are slightly hillier that this ride today, and only two days which are much hillier. I find that very encouraging.
Here's my Dawes fully laden for the first time since the French trip last year - felt good!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)