Thursday 25 February 2010

Scotland!

Well that was a long two days just to sample a Scottish Breakfast!

We left yesterday morning at 4am hoping to get in a ride at Ae forest before heading to Aberfoyle. Just across the Scottish boarder is when the world turned white and pulling up into Ae's carkpark the thought of getting out of a warm van and into the wet, slushy sleet was not a popular one!

We carried on North with the motorway reduced to one lane, briefly held up by an Artic that had jack-knifed into the central barrier. Pulling into Aberfoyle was a bit of a surprise. There wasn't that much snow about and I thought we'd got away with it and the event could go ahead. That was until we tried to drive up Dukes Pass. Just after the David Marshal Lodge, the event venue, is a sign that states the road is not gritted or cleared in bad weather which, as it turned out, is correct. Within about 200mtrs the road was white and impassable especially in a long wheel base Mercedes van! We met a Police 4x4 coming the other way and were informed that they had just closed the Pass from the other side and were going down to close it from Aberfoyle. As the road was pretty treacherous at this point we had no choice but to reverse down to the DML.



So the decision was made to see what Thursday held. Waking up this morning to an inch of snow on the van wasn't a good omen! The weather forecast was for snow all day and even more for Friday with temperatures not going above 0 degC until next week and therefore no chance of a thaw. The Dukes Pass features twice on the road ride and is instrumental for getting emergency access to the routes and drink station for the off road ride. It was therefore decided to call it a day.

Everyone who entered the ride will get a full refund, but due to the volume of people this might take a week or so.

Really sorry about this but your safety is always our first concerned.

Next year we'll be back in the Summer :-)

Dean

Scotland Event Cancelled

The weather hasn't improved and with more heavy snow forecast for the next few days we've had to make the decision to cancel this weekend's event that was due to run at the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park in Stirling.

Both the Saturday MTB ride and the Sunday road sportive are cancelled

The Duke's Pass road that runs through QE Forest Park is closed which has been a big factor in deciding that it's just not safe or practical to try and run the event.


If you pre-entered and have already paid we'll be in touch once Dean get's back from Scotland.

Wednesday 24 February 2010

IMPORTANT - Scotland Event Update

Dean, Keith and Tony arrived up in Scotland today to start getting for the weekend only to be greeted by lots of snow and closed roads.

We'll make a decision tomorrow but with more snow forecast for the rest of the week there's a fair chance that we'll have to cancel. Whilst it can be fun to get out and ride in the snow the road conditions are going to make it difficult to get to and from the event centre or for us to be able to get out to assist riders if needed.

Updates will be posted here so check back later if you were thinking of attending the event.

Wednesday 17 February 2010

TCR Rider Times

Saturday Off Road - Rider Times

Sunday Road Sportive - Rider Times

Friday 12 February 2010

IMPORTANT - The best laid plans........

I have just been approached be a local Bike club about a clash with our route on Sundays Road Ride. They have a Time Trial that uses the same route as us along a country road and at a time in the morning when the main bulk of our riders will be going through. As they only use 3 roads it's a bit difficult for them to change their route, so we'll be changing ours. We still use a portion of their route but in the opposite direction on a main road, so shouldn't cause any problems.

The upshot of this is that the GPX routes will change. I have to do these now and send them to Mark, but as time is getting on I can't see them being published until tomorrow. Look for Version 2.

The maps will also need to be changed, but as we have already printed off 300, I will post up a master map at the start so you can change yours if you want. Don't forget, the maps are only a back up anyway as the whole route is fully marked.

Thanks for your understanding
Dean

Gpx files

Hi all,
Just a reminder that we do not publish GPX files until we have ridden the route. This is on Thursday for the Road and Friday for the Off road and is typically about 7pm.

This is so that they are correct! I remember when Keith (and he remembers this well) came across a new road in Milton Keynes which meant that about a third of the route had to be changed. I redid the map and drove it out to him. If we'd already published the gpx files, people would have turned up with the wrong routes, we'd have had to do extra work re-saving routes and then re-publishing them.

They will go up, just bear with us!

Tomorrows will be up as soon as Mark gets home, has a shower and turns on the computer.

JUST SPOKE TO MARK, HE'S RUNNING A BIT LATE, FILES SHOULD BE UP 8-9PM, SORRY.
Thanks
Dean

Thursday 11 February 2010

TCR on the day

A guide to what's happening at the TCR show as far as we're concerned.

Location.
We're just to the left of the main entrance, outside by the white gates. As you drive/cycle up towards Sandown Park you'll be able to see our Green marquees.

Toilets will be open from 8am. If you use these after the ride to get changed, please try not to spray dirt everywhere!

If you have a joint entry to the show, we will have wristbands at the start. If you want to buy a joint entry on the day it will be £15 and can only be purchased with a ride in the morning.

As Sandown has a restaurant and Cafe, we wont be doing hot food after the event. If you don't fancy anything there, the high street is two minutes away.

There will be secure bike parking provided by the TCR show.

A bike wash will be available.

Sunday/Road ride.
There is a running race taking place on Sunday morning that passes close to us , please keep the marked circuit clear at all times.

Thanks
Dean

Brrr, it's chilly...

We've out today putting up course markings ready for the TCR road ride on Sunday and it's been pretty chilly. I think it was about 1 degree when we set out this morning but on the positive side the sun has been out, the roads are pretty much dry and there's no snow (at least not yet anyway).

We will be keeping an eye on the weather over the next few days as the forecast has mentioned the South East maybe in for a bit more snow but at the moment everything is looking good.

If you are coming to ride on Sunday, the route heads out towards Leith Hill and Holmbury St Mary so you can expect a few climbs to help keep you warm.

One word of caution, a few pot holes seemed to have developed over the winter, most of them are pretty obvious but just something to be aware of if you're following in a group and can't see the road ahead. ( Just like to add that there is the odd bit of ice as well, Tends to be in wooded areas, so keep your eyes peeled. Dean)

GPX files are now available to download, you should find the links over on the right hand side of the page.

Tuesday 9 February 2010

TCR show this weekend

Currently looking to the skies, fingers crossed.

More updates soon...

Ta
Dean

Friday 5 February 2010

Position Available

It's with regret that I have to announce that one of the team is departing the ranks. Most of the Ride It guys are part time and some work their main job around our schedule. Unfortunately this has become too much for Debs as her "real" work has grown recently and shows no sign of slowing down. So for her own sanity and to actually get time off she's decided to step down.

This does, however, create a position available with us. The basic bones of the job are, 6 days a month (2 days one weekend, 4 days on another), all travelling, food and accommodation paid whilst on the job. You should be confident with talking to customers, like early starts, be able to cycle a bike a reasonable distance (although this is not critical) and work within a tight, friendly team.

The job is advertised here:-

www.evanscycles.com/help/jobs

as Event Assistant.

Debs will be hanging around until her replacement is appointed, so please pat her on the back for 2 years of graft, helping Ride It become the success it is.

Ta
Dean

Tuesday 2 February 2010

Rochdale times

Are here -
www.evanscycles.com/ride-it/rider-times

Ta
Dean

Rochdale Rider Times

Links to the rider times below -


Road Sportive Times

As Dean has mentioned in the post below there were a few issues with the timing so any queries drop Dean an e-mail at dean.stacey at evanscycles dot com.

Monday 1 February 2010

Rochdale and Times

Hi.

Just a quick thanks to everyone who braved the cold weather this weekend and turned up to the Rochdale ride. After listening to the weather forecast, especially for Sunday, it was great to see a constant stream of cars turning into the carpark.

As it was, Saturday turned into a perfect cycling day for the off road ride, clear skies, little wind and reasonable temperature. It's a shame that we had to change our routes due to the drifts of snow on the hills, if we could have got you higher, the views would have been spectacular! As it was, the condition of the route was completely different from the previous day anyway. Keith said the crust on the snow was thicker on Saturday which meant it was more rideable, the big footsteps you might have seen were from him falling through, sometimes to his waist, whilst putting out the course on Friday!

Sunday started in the fog. I'd been out in the morning to check the course, and as you're aware, did a bit of re-routing. This was justified by two long black lines in the white frost, ending at a huge stone fence post, someone hadn't got off to a great start that morning. Anyway, whilst jumping in and out of the van in the dark and frost, removing and realigning signs, I missed one. This sent a few riders left and up a hill. I'm sorry about that, I think I parked the van in front of it when changing the other signs so didn't see it. The route took riders high into the countryside and depending on the time of day/how long you were out, the weather changed from thick fog to clear sunshine and fantastic views. The constant report from riders though was that it was cold!


Times.
Right, confession time. There were some problems with Pre-entries on both days this weekend, with many of you turning up and not being entered. That was totally my fault. I receive a spread sheet with all the entries on it sorted by the date you entered, which I then auto-sort it into which rides everyone is doing. At this point I failed to select rider names and thus randomly assigned everyone different day/ride lengths. I sat down last night, worked out what I've done and then looked at the spreadsheets. It's going to take some sorting out! I will work on this tonight and try and get these up tomorrow. All done, should be appearing soon/tomorrow.

Sorry about this. The good news is that this shouldn't happen in the near future as we're going electronic. We have a new timing system and are scratching our heads at the moment trying to plug things together and get in all working.

Cheers
Dean