The Rivington 100 (115) and Singapore

Well it happened again, my optimism of being able to drive to south wales do the Dragon and back in the same day was unfounded. I was hoping to be sharing this experience with one or two of the others but it wasn't to be. The decision was influenced by my pending departure to Singapore the following Tuesday, time at home was at a premium and the discovery of a local 100miler, the Rivington 100.

I decided to ride from home to the start at Horwich to lengthen the miles by 10 at each end giving me 120m and 3,500m in the day. I met up with Frosty at 07:30 at registration and at 08:00 we were off. There were about 80 in the event, this was the first time it had been run, my guess is that it will increase in popularity in years to come it is a great course, never flat. We soon got ourselves near the front, despite my bike throwing the chain every time I dropped to the 34T chainring, my hands were soon black, by 50m I was thinking we'll be done in 6h 15m or so. By 60m we passed Slaidburn and started the climb over the back of Waddington Fell, then the trouble started.

Frosty's new bike Trek 5.5 SRAM Force decided to jam the chain between the large cassette ring and the spokes, this happened on a 12% ascent, the chain was twisted through 90 degrees over 4 links. A kind lady in a nearby house lent us some tools to attempt repair. We managed to get the chain out, twisted it back to almost straight but it kept jumping given the tight tolerances between the cassette rings. We got over Waddington Fell into Clitheroe and decided to cut the 4 bent links out of the chain. This worked well over the Nick-0-Pendle into Sabden then after Whalley Frosty had terminal failure, the right chain-stay broke and when carbon members fail they fail in style. Frosty's ride was over. We still had 30 miles to go so I set off to alert the pick-up service the idea being to get back to the start and pick Frosty up in his car.

These 30 miles were tortuous alone, near the back of the field, lost all motivation. I got back with a 105 miles on the clock in 6h 35m thoroughly cheesed-off but not as cheesed-off as Frosty.

So that was it, all the UK riding over, it was now time to pack the bike for the Etape, strange as it may sound, because I wouldn't be around for the pick up just before the event and to pack the bike I was taking to Singapore.

I travelled Tuesday night with Lufthansa via Frankfurt to arrive Singapore Wednesday evening. The transfer at Frankfurt was only 30 minutes and I just knew my bags wouldn't make it... and they didn't ! My bike did, although as I pointed out to the Chinese lady at Changi airport I couldn't wear a bike... After some ho-haa they gave me SNG$300 (£140) for clothes and essentials, so after I'd checked in with my bike, visited my new office to say hello, had dinner with my new boss, still in yesterday's clothes, of I went to Marks and Spencers. I thought the money they gave me would more than suffice but it all got spent. The baggage arrived at 20:30 the following evening, I opened the case and shot off to the hotel gym, that was 3 days with no CV exercise.

I spent a little time trying to sort out where to ride and found a colleague on one of our projects who is a keen cyclist. So Friday evening I assembled the bike to find the rear wheel damaged, broken spoke. Bloody baggage handlers !! So Saturday, in between finding a house to live in and schools for my children, I got the wheel fixed. Cycling is big here in Singapore (SNG), on a Saturday and Sunday morning from 05:30 till 09:30 there are literally hundreds of cyclists on the roads. No hastle from motorists at all. The riding is incredibly fast. My first outing was only 47miles but with an average of 19.6mph. This last weekend 27th - 27th June 2009 the average lifted to 20.6mph. Some of this is group, but inconsistent group riding.

Decided to join a club called Anza Cycling, who ride strict big group discipline stuff, should be interesting ! The last hard rides this weekend and then the taper, this riding in 30 degrees should have done some good, I hope......