I looked at the Manchester100 last year, I think it’d be best with a group so you could make the most of drafting, that way you can go faster!

I’m doing the pendle pedal again this year as I have free entry!

What you aren’t taking into account is that your 8 hour century was achieved on a really tough, hilly sportive – The Pendle Pedal! I’ve done the original 160 km route twice and it’s very similar to the route you took apart from the start and finish, and I took well over 9 hours both times, yet I’ve already done flatter centuries in close to 6 hours. I’m sure that you could knock at least an hour off your time just by choosing a flatter route.

I came 190th out of 196 finishers in the long Pendle Pedal in 2007. I’d like to do it again and come in the top half of the field. If I ever achieve that, I’d make a new goal of top 25%. One of my mates did it in about 6 hrs 45 minutes which I thought was a great time.

My faster times were achieved at the Manchester 100 which does have 1,000 m of climbing but it’s made up of a lot of little hills, nothing too serious. You’d have no problem with them. Most of the route is out in the flattish lanes of Cheshire and you can really get some speed up there. The event starts from Wythenshawe Park in Manchester, and you set off early enough to miss most of the Sunday traffic. The lanes are pretty quiet. The only downer is the last 25-odd miles coming back into Manchester on the Sunday afternoon. You not only encounter a lot of vehicular traffic, you also have to watch out for the knackered non-cyclists / leisure cyclists who are doing the 100 km event for charity (the two routes converge at the end). Some of them don’t have much road sense and/or bike handling skills and do stupid things like stopping dead without warning or swerving about without looking behind them. It’s great that they’ve got out on their bikes for charity, but I’m amazed that there aren’t more accidents involving them. Overtake them with caution!

I’d highly recommend that you have a go at that event at least once and see what time you can do. I think you’d be shocked at how quickly you could get round. It’s always the first Sunday in September.

One other thing – you’ve got to remember that I’ve got the kind of big body that is made for going faster on the flat rather than for climbing. I’m much more likely to achieve my long distance speed goals than my climbing ones. You are always going to be more of a climber than a time triallist because you are so petite.

Perhaps a bunch of us can get together for the M100 one year? I’d need to cadge a lift off someone, or go out the night before because the trains won’t get me there in time and I’m not doing a 35 mile ride to the start in the middle of the night!

I rode down to visit my elderly mother in Coventry in 2007 and her carer came in as I was putting my bike away. She asked me if I’d just ridden up from Coventry railway station (about 2.5 miles). I laughed and told her that I’d actually ridden down from Hebden Bridge. She looked genuinely shocked and asked me how far it was. I told her that it was over 140 miles by the route I’d taken. She couldn’t understand why I didn’t look half dead from exhaustion. When I told her that I know people who do three times that distance or even further, she thought I was trying to wind her up!

As to those goals – yes, they are quite ambitious. I know that I can achieve some of them so I’ll do the easier ones first and see how I get on with the harder ones. One of my friends broke 5 hours for a century, and 2 hours for the Trawden loop and I was able to keep up with him when I was last in top shape so I’m fairly sure that I’ll be able to crack those one day. A 20 minute climb through Cragg Vale is always going to be tough for someone my size, but it’s not out of the question if I lose enough weight and get the miles in.

Those are some hard goals, I think they are beyond anything I would manage!

Well, it’s all relative isn’t it! I’m very fit compared to more than 50% of the western adult population, and probably fitter than more than 80% of my fellow over-50s but there is still plenty of room for improvement.

I’ve got some long-held cycling goals to achieve. These include a 5 hour imperial century, 20 minutes for the climb of Cock Hill (Oxenhope Moor) from the Hebden Bridge side – my current PB is about 24.5 minutes. I’d also like to do a 20 minute ascent from Mytholmroyd to Blackstone Edge (the Cragg Vale climb) – my PB there is also about 24.5 minutes. It’s a steeper climb than Cragg Vale but about 1 mile shorter so it takes near enough the same time. I want to go sub-1-hour for the 20.5 mile loop of Hebden Bridge-Mytholmroyd-Blackstone Edge-Littleborough-Todmorden-Hebden Bridge including that climb. What I’ll do is go for the 20 minute climb and if I manage that, continue flat out round the loop. I think my PB is about 1 hour 9 minutes on a fairly windy day when I wasn’t fully fit so I’m sure that I could do it on a still day, when slim and fit. Oh yes, I have a favourite 29.5 mile hilly loop which I call ‘The Trauma of Trawden’ and I’d like to break 2 hours for that (PB currently 2 hrs 11 mins).

Once I get to that kind of level, and have sorted my back out, I want to go cycling in the Alps and Pyrenees. I’ve not been before because it would be futile with my current back problems. Hey, I really fancy a CycleChat/BikeRadar alpine tour – that would really be fun!

See ya about,
ColinJ

The plank is hard But it works! I must start doing my core exercises again, I’ve been very un-motivated!