Today a user posted that for every upvote that he got, he would cycle one mile tomorrow. He posted this into /r/bicycling which has 40,000 followers. I doubt he was expecting to get as many upvotes as he did, as his post reached the frontpage.

At the time of writing, he’ll have to cycle 1,296 miles, which equates to him having to cycle 54 mph for 24 hours straight. Not only will he die, but I’m pretty sure he’ll break several world records along the way.

Someone is going to be aching in the morning.

Anyway, Barkston heath is a circuit that is just under a mile and a half long. Two hairpins, a little bit of gravel and a nice little set of flowing corners. Not a bad circuit but the southern hairpin can be quite nasty if you’re in the wrong place at the time.

When I arrived, Ant was already there and had already signed on, so we met up and I went to do the same. On the ride to the race HQ tent, I noticed my front dérailleur was foobar’d, so I have to quickly fiddle with some pliers and an allen key in an attempt to get the chain into the big ring. It worked and I was ready to go. Ant, for some reason, was setting up his turbo, but because there was plenty of room and we had some time to go out on track, we both warmed up by rolling around the area. This was for about fifteen minutes before we took our places on the start line.

I was in the third row back with Ant just behind me, the race officials weren’t ready yet and sent us on a steady lap, by time we got back round we were on the opposite side of the track, therefore going to be on the inside of the hairpins, something I was a little apprehensive about after nearly crashing on a hairpin in my first race of the season back in March.

We were sent on our way and I managed to go around the course without crashing, my nerves settles down and everything went smoothly for the first couple of laps. As I went over the line for the second time, I glanced at my HRM and saw it was above 190, I decided that if I wanted to finish the race, I should just drop off and continue at a decent pace. Quite a few had already dropped off so I could easily find a group forming somewhere. So with 2 and a half laps done, I slowed up and allowed myself to slip backwards, I was happy and remembered that I’m racing 3 of 4 weeks this month, so I shouldn’t really overdo it in the first week. A good choice me thinks.

Only about one more lap passed before I found myself in a group of 4 people, all of a fairly similar situation and able to keep up. So the next 15 or so minutes passed fairly quickly, even though it was only me and a woman from Boston wheelers working in this group. The main bunch came round to lap us after 20 minutes and we both decided to tag onto the back. The two other people in our group dropped completely off and I managed to stick with it for another 2 or so laps. The woman from BW managed to stick for another one.

Meanwhile, ant had been forced off the track at some point and had crashed, I have no idea how he managed this, but even so, he was a lap down and in his own group.

For a while, I was on my own but another fragment of the main bunch came around and I managed to tag onto this. I sat towards the back and we eventually caught Ant to lap him and had the next group, containing my counterpart from the previous group I was in, in our sights.

However, the bell rang and the pace got stupid again, I stuck with it for another half a lap but by this time I was pretty shot from earlier efforts, I finished the race in a group of four including Ant, not without trying a breakaway with two corners to go though!

So that was my second of the season done and I finished feeling happy. I managed to stick with the bunch for a decent amount of time, was far from finishing last and took part in quite a few groups. Speaking afterwards with the woman from BW, she was surprised that I was only 17 and that Ant was in his first race ever.

Overall, I’m happy with the race and it shows real improvement from a year ago, as the month goes on, I’m looking forward to being able to improve even more and start taking more of a part in racing rather than just trying to hold on.

The Tour of Britain will return to Nottingham this September, for the first stage start of Britain’s biggest professional cycle race to be held in the city.

Monday 10th September will see Stage Two of the race commence from the city’s castle, before heading the 177.8 kilometres across Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Cheshire to the finish on Merseyside at Knowsley Safari Park.

Cllr Jon Collins, Nottingham City Council’s Leader, says: “Nottingham city has a proud tradition of hosting world class sporting events such as the cricket, tennis and watersport. Nottingham has a great cycling heritage with it being the birth place of one of the world’s most famous cycling manufacturers, Raleigh. And so it is fitting that Britain’s biggest professional cycle race starts here.” 

Nottingham has hosted stages of the modern Tour of Britain twice before, holding stage finishes in 2004 and 2005, the former of which was won by then World Champion Tom Boonen.

“We are very pleased to be returning to Nottingham this September, and look forward to bringing the excitement of a stage start to the city,” said Mick Bennett, Race Director.

“Stage Two will be one of the most iconic stages of this year’s Tour, starting from the beautiful surrounds of Nottingham Castle and finishing at Knowsley Safari Park, it is sure to be one to remember for spectators.”

The Tour of Britain begins in East Anglia on Sunday 9th September, with Stage One taking the race from Ipswich to the Norfolk Showground near Norwich.  Following Stage Two riders head to Scotland, before returning to the North West for Stage Three from Carlisle to Blackpool.

Stoke-on-Trent, Wales and Devon hold the next three days of racing before the race climaxes in Surrey on Sunday 16th September with a challenging stage finishing in Guildford, where the winner of the IG Markets Gold Jersey of race leader will be crowned.

More details on the Nottingham start for Stage Two will be announced in the Summer.

For more news on the Tour of Britain, click here.

Both me and Adam have decided to focus on one race next month. This race being the Loughborough University Criterium. This race is on the 26th of May and we have come up with a training plan for the coming month.

The plan is to do at least 30 miles per day (at semi-race pace) up until the week before the race. To stop us overdoing it, we are both allowed one rest day per week. If either of us has a mechanical, that day doesn’t count. If one of us doesn’t complete 30 miles on a day, they  must pay the other a £2 loser’s fee.

We will be keeping track of each others rides via Strava, and we invite you to monitor our progress either by clicking on that link, or viewing the rides on the right hand sidebar.

So in the coming month, we are going to aim to do just over 750 miles. We are also going to be racing on the 6th May at Barkstone Heath. We will keep you updated with both our challenge and the upcoming races.

The part I like the most is the Segment section where you can set a time over a certain distance/road. Each ride your time on that segment is added to a league table, where you can compare your speed to other local riders. It helps you make interval training much more competitive.

As you may of already seen, on the right hand side there is now a Strava widget. This will show all the rides which anyone who joins our Strava group. Currently I’m the only one in the club, but hopefully someone will come and join me soon. So if you’re already on Strava, feel free to join us.

We planned to set off at 8am, which would see us get into Scarborough around 4-5pm. The day didn’t get off to the best of starts, with us pushing back the start time due to it being -1°C at the intended start time.

At 9am we finally departed with the temperature improving to around 3°C and it staying dry hopefully. I took the lead since I had the maps and garmin, but my navigation skills let us down on the first roundabout 2 miles into the ride. The second exit was the one we were meant to take, but the first exit was the one we took. Thankfully I realised my mistake after only 100 meters so it wasn’t that big of a problem to turn around and get back on track. After about 10 miles the sun finally started shining and we were greeted with clear skies. There was a lovely eastern tailwind for the next 15 or so miles with us averaging in the mid 20′s.

My route mapping skills let us down just before Gainsborough, with us stumbling upon a dirt path which was riddled with potholes, thankfully it was dry so did not cause much of a problem. If it were wet, I would of cried.

Before we entered Scunthorpe, we decided to stop off at a pub and have fish and chips because it was only £3.50. This was a bad idea with us having to wait a hour before our food even appeared. When it did finally emerge from the abyss, it tasted like cardboard and was un-edible. I managed to eat half of it then left shortly afterwards.

Whilst we had been waiting for food, it had started raining. It was a huge mistake stopping so early and whilst it was still sunny. It was still a good 20 miles until we reached the Humber Bridge which would mark the 2/3 point in the ride.

As we entered the outskirts of Scunthorpe we were greeted with a lovely view of industrial factories all over the place, unlike the picturesque countryside views from the previous 60 miles. We were glad when we got out of that hell hole and back into the countryside. As we summited the climb out of Scunthorpe, we caught our first glimpse of the Humber Bridge which gave us a little boost.

Sadly the view was a tease and the bridge never seemed to get closer. We pushed on for another 10 miles and finally reached the bottom of the bridge. The view which we had was worth riding up here on it’s own. I don’t think the picture which my iPhone camera took quite does the view justice.

The amount of hard work which went into building the 5th longest single span bridge in the world really strikes you as you stand at the bottom of the ramp up. The walkway on the side was about 10 ft wide, but I still had the fear that the 4 ft railings on my left hand side weren’t high enough to stop me plunging into the muddy water below should I crash.

Although the cycle route to get onto the bridge was very well thought out, on the opposite side it was a different story. It took us about 30 minutes to just get back on track. This was mainly caused by the duel carriageway which we planned on riding on being banned for cyclists. This meant a mile walk on an off road cycle path was in order, not ideal.

The plan was to cycle along the A619 all the way to Scarborough which is pretty lumpy, especially towards the end with 3 category 3 climbs over a 5 mile stretch. We managed 3 miles on this road, then stopped off at Aldi to grab some haribo.

At this point, it was still chucking it down with rain, and we were still 35 miles away. We decided that we’d push on anyway in hope of it stopping soon. Things only got worse a few miles after when my rear wheel decided it would like to get a puncture. In the soaking wet and exposed to the wind I had to change a tube, not the best of situations.

Just after I finished repairing the puncture, the rain finally took it’s toll on my Garmin, which decided it would not want to show me the route anymore. So not only were we wet and cold now, we were also lost.

About 20 miles away from Scarborough it was starting to get dark and it was impossible to ride more than 20ft close to each other due to the amount of surface water which was on the road. My rear light had become flooded, and so had my feet and gloves. A bus shelter called our names, so we sought refuge in it. We had done more than 100 miles at this point so there was still some feeling of achievement, but I was a tad disappointed we didn’t do the whole ride.

If we thought the day couldn’t get any worse, the phone number Jacob had for his parents was not working. I tried phoning my parents, who offered to drive all the way up if we couldn’t find our way back on track. We were freezing cold, so we went and knocked on the first door we could see. Thankfully someone answered, who also turned out to be a cyclist. He offered us a lift in his 4×4 to Scarborough, and we accepted.

Saturday was a nicer day weather wise. I did about 20 easy miles to loosen up my legs. The main feature of this ride was a cobbled climb off the seafront which I later found out was 12-15% all the way up for 300 meters. Quite a climb.

For the past month or so now, I’ve been injured, I experience sharp knee pain after cycling and my knee swells. I’m receiving treatment from a physio and progress feels like it’s being made but for now, my cycling is limited by it and racing is a definite no-no in the foreseeable future.

On to happier news and the other reason I don’t have much time any more, I have a proper job now! After a couple of years of freelance web developing I’ve finally landed a position that will become permanent after I finish college in June. Right now, I’m working part time in between college, so I’m juggling a lot, with little cycling, but hopefully i’ll start balancing it well and have more time for velostage again.

Speaking of which, Rate My Bike has suffered some downtime recently and I’ve taken it off completely, I’ll begin rebuilding with some new features very soon and release version two very soon. What started as a weekend project has quickly turned into something much bigger and I’m happy for it to do this. It was received well by people and used by a lot of people. I apologise for the down time.

That’s just about it for this update, I’m off to stretch my leg some more and watch ‘Road to Roubaix’ in preparation for this weekend. Any bets on the winner? Hope you all have a good easter and get time to put your feet up  and catch Roubaix on the ‘tele.

- Adam

Ok, so this isn’t exactly a velodrome, but it sure as hell would be fun to ride around it. I bet you are wondering what on earth it is. It is a hydroelectric power plant in Slovenia. It is usually full with water generating energy, but when it is empty it enables some Slovenian fixed wheel cyclists to go mental inside it. The standard velodrome has a track length of 250 meters, this has a length of around 2000 meters. When you are at the bottom of the bowl, it will mean that you will have be 50 meters to get to the lip of the bowl. Some mathematician can calculate the angle of banking, but I can tell you that it’s bloody steep! Anyway, here are some more photos courtesy of keki & subtilen

For a moment, put yourself in the shoes of a professional cyclist. You have the lightest bike that you can legally ride, and you cannot lose anymore weight due to having no fat. So how do you lose weight?  Simple, change your bones to carbon fibre. According to cyclismas this is exactly what Fabian Cancellera has done following his crash in the Tour De Flanders and breaking his collarbone in 4 different places. Below is the article which can be found here.

5.4 million SFr. operation could save Cancellara’s Roubaix dream

New procedure carried out in Switzerland after Flanders crash

Swiss fans and RadioShack-Nissan team supporters distraught at the apparent end of Fabian Cancellara’s Classics season for 2012 have been given a glimmer of hope after scientists and medical doctors have suggested that they might be able to salvage his ambition of winning Paris-Roubaix.

The double winner of the race came down heavily in the feed zone of Sunday’s Ronde van Vlaanderen Classic, fracturing his right collarbone in four places and putting an immediate end to his race.

The team announced afterwards that he would travel back to Switzerland to undergo an operation in Basel.

Details were initially scarce about the operation that was carried out Sunday evening, but it was presumed that it would be the standard procedure to pin the breaks, helping the bone to sit in the correct position as the fragments knit back together.

A standard fracture normally takes several weeks to heal, although Italian rider Filippo Pozzato was able to push that to the extreme when he returned to racing just nine days after falling in the Tour of Qatar. His injury was, however, not as severe as that experienced by Cancellara on Sunday, thus leading to a widespread resignation that the Roubaix dream was over until 2013.

Fortunately, that may not necessarily be the case. An overheard conversation between RadioShack-Nissan personnel after the race suggested that something unusual was to take place. While they refused to comment, several phone calls to Switzerland saw this writer receive confirmation Sunday evening of a revolutionary procedure which was used for the first time in professional cycling.

Essentially, Cancellara’s shattered collarbone has been removed and replaced with a match taken from a cadaver.

While it is difficult to ensure the clavicles are completely identical, Swiss scientists – who spoke on condition of anonymity – said that they had fused carbon fibre mouldings to the replacement bone, thus mirroring the original shape.

“This ensures a perfect fit, meaning there will be minimal disruption,” explained one of the scientists. “We can rebuild him. We have the biotechnology. Cancellara’s own ligaments have been used to hold the structure in place, and will result in a very quick recovery.”

Dr. Steven Austin, the surgeon who oversaw the procedure, said that the recovery time was expected to only be ‘three to four days,’ much faster than would be normally expected for an injury of that nature.

Pressed as to the cost of the procedure, he was tightlipped, but said that the team and its sponsors had told him they considered it absolutely imperative that the rider be present for Paris-Roubaix.

A separate medical expert who is familiar with the revolutionary procedure said that the cost could be as high as 5.4 million Swiss Francs.*

It’s a staggeringly large amount but, with the sales of Trek’s recently-launched Domane frame depending on a Cancellara victory, those sponsors are understood to be willing to cover all costs.

* Approximately $6,000, 000 US dollars

I’m not convinced that this article is legitimate, mainly due to the fact that I can’t see it being reported anywhere else. You would of thought if it were fake though that they would of posted this article on April 1st, not the second. I guess we will never know ;(