A couple of weeks ago we asked you what your bicycle speed-record was. We told you about ours, a shade over 72 kph in the 1998 Hogmanay Triathlon coming off Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh (pronounced Ed-in-buh-ruh despite all written evidence to the contrary). It was the the first time we'd ever been on a closed course; the park around Arthur's Seat is a Royal Park and as such, relatively easy to get it closed down to traffic! For those of you who qualified for World Du's at Cyclesmith last June, we believe that this will be your course and it's a doozy. The 70 kph descent isn't free however; there's a whack-load of climbing on the back-side and the mini-roundabout half way down just adds to the course's sporting nature.
The data from the "how fast" poll were nicely Gaussian, with the mean max speed being between 70 and 80 kph. There were some daredevils amongst us though, with a quarter of you breaking 80 kph. We were slightly surprised not to have anyone in three digits though (Chris Milburn, you did vote, right?)! Perhaps some of you did, but you were concentrating too much on keeping it all together to notice the numbers! We should have asked if you prefer twisting descents or the fast straightaways? Here in the office we prefer technical descents, which is odd given our old club nickname of "Abdu" (in honour of the Tashkent Terror's penchant for spectacular chutes rather than our sprinting abilities), but we reckon the corners give us something to think about apart from "if I come off now this Lycra isn't going to protect me one bit".
A note of caution however; please don't think you haven't been living if you haven't done highway speeds on a bicycle. Just concentrate on getting to the bottom in one piece and dont worry about the numbers!
While we're at it, a clear majority of you reckoned that Gerrad Lewin and Tom Boonen were indeed separated at birth
The data from the "how fast" poll were nicely Gaussian, with the mean max speed being between 70 and 80 kph. There were some daredevils amongst us though, with a quarter of you breaking 80 kph. We were slightly surprised not to have anyone in three digits though (Chris Milburn, you did vote, right?)! Perhaps some of you did, but you were concentrating too much on keeping it all together to notice the numbers! We should have asked if you prefer twisting descents or the fast straightaways? Here in the office we prefer technical descents, which is odd given our old club nickname of "Abdu" (in honour of the Tashkent Terror's penchant for spectacular chutes rather than our sprinting abilities), but we reckon the corners give us something to think about apart from "if I come off now this Lycra isn't going to protect me one bit".A note of caution however; please don't think you haven't been living if you haven't done highway speeds on a bicycle. Just concentrate on getting to the bottom in one piece and dont worry about the numbers!
While we're at it, a clear majority of you reckoned that Gerrad Lewin and Tom Boonen were indeed separated at birth
We don't precisely know how this makes Gerrad feel, but at least it makes the TA feel relieved that we weren't seeing things.
The TA's legal department (well, not legal department per se, more like Sarah Wood, who also fills in as the TA's copy editor, mince-pie baker and conscience) reminds us to point out that Gerrad is, in fact, the cleaner-living separated-at-birth-twin and furthermore Gerrad has never sprinted through a level crossing to win a Classic.
Speaking of seeing things, we're also pretty sure we saw Cyclesmith RD Paul Shaw in Gladiator ("If you find yourself alone, riding in the green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled"), TNS Executive Director and conscience Sarah Wood in Four Weddings and a Funeral ("Bugger, bugger, bugger"), and we're convinced that Matthias Jaepel did in-fact win the '83 and 84 Tours de France ("sardines will be thrown into the sea. Thank you very much". Actually that was another enigmatic Frenchman, Eric Cantona and no, we don't know what that means. Nobody does). Clearly we're spending way too much time watching DVDs while on the trainer and the hypoxia/hypoglycaemia/hypomentalstimulation has finally done our collective head in! We can't wait to get back on the roads, all this aggravation ain't satisfactioning me...
'til next time, I hope you're seeing what you're really seeing....
Ooh, ahh, Cantona!
AD
'til next time, I hope you're seeing what you're really seeing....
Ooh, ahh, Cantona!
AD
Too bad there is not an "other" category on the poll... what about beer, ice cream, chips! Would that list be a direct reference to what the TA was secretly thinking of giving up for Lent himself?
ReplyDeleteOoops, sorry; have added beer, chips and ice-creeam as well as "other" :) Will re-vote everything in.
ReplyDeleteAs for us, yes, we confess to giving up EPO-CERA for Lent, but to be honest, but this does mean we no longer have to wait for Jason Murphy every time we want to pee!
I've given up TV for Lent, well, except for a little figure skating, and bobsleigh, and hockey, and halfpipe, and skiing, and...
ReplyDeleteAs for Monsieur le TA, his DVD inspired hallucinations make me think less trainer time and more road sunshine are indeed in order. (And for all of us Nova Scotians, for that matter).
"If you find yourself alone, riding in green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled. For you are in Elysium and you are already dead!" I assume Elysium is somewhere after the 5 hour point on the bike.
And besides, I like to think I've got more of a George Clooney thing going on than Russell Crowe. must be my own hypoxia. Unfortunately, Diane burst my bubble, as she thinks I look more like Opie from the Andy Griffith show. sigh.
I blew up in Elysium once!
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