Cold. Wet. Windy.
Pick 1 – Good weather!
Pick 2 – Fair weather.
Pick 3 – UK weather.
Cycle
Back to the park. Richmond Park :)
Rags is a BITS Pilani alumna , and this last weekend was their annual run – students and alumni of BITS run a distance (usually 5K) wherever in the world they are. She decided to run on Saturday, instead of Sunday like everyone else, and I and Chewie decided to pile on. Since I was bored with running on The Mount, and Wimbledon Common and Frensham Ponds were expected to be boggy, we decided to run in our old favourite haunt – the ever so beautiful, Richmond Park.
Priyank, apparently the only other BITS alumnus in the London region crazy enough to run on an autumn morning joined us, as did our friends the A’s.
The run plan was simple. We start from Roehampton gate cafe. Everyone runs whatever distance, route, speed they’re comfortable with. We meet before the start and, if possible, at the end. And Chewie runs with me.
Aruna planned to run the small loop, clockwise, via White lodge, c 5K, and Priyank decided on the same route.
Ashish ran the outer loop, clockwise – brave enough to take on the Broomfield hill early on – totalling little over 10K.
I was planning to run 15K – the outer loop anti-clockwise, and the small loop via White lodge.
Rags had planned the longest run – 15 to 20K including at least one full outer loop, anti-clockwise.
The sun was out, temperatures were mild, wind non-existent. It was beautiful weather for end November, we were in beautiful Richmond Park, and everyone wanted to get started.
Rags started off first, considering she was planning to take the longest – she’d warned me I’d have to wait up to an hour for hour. I’d barely started changing out of my driving clothes when she took off. The A’s and Priyank started off next, while I stretched. After a bit of stretching, warming up walks, Chewie’s morning poo, and a return to the car to get my knee band, I and Chewie started off as well… a usual 18 mins after Rags.
The 1st km or so was easy, warmup jog, with a handful of stops as Chewie stopped to stay sm-ello to fello quadrupeds – dogs, squirrels, rabbits. Thankfully, no deer yet. That 1st 1.2Km was also what it took for my brain to warm up and tell me that the watch was still on bike mode. Stop. Reset. Change Mode. Start.
Started again, paused again (many, many times) for Chewie’s sm-ellos, but still managed a good pace. Sawyer’s Hill didn’t feel as much of a hill as it feels on the bike. Richmond Gate went past quickly. Met some lovely mutts near Pembroke Lodge, including a beautiful 18mo Great Dane. Wondered if I could borrow her for some of the hillier trail runs.
Running down from Pembroke Lodge towards the Ham gate intersection, saw Priyank running towards me. He was either way lost, or decided to take the longer route. I was hoping for ‘chose the longer route’. He was lost. He’d missed the left turn at Robinhood gate, following Ashish up Broomfield hill, taking a shortcut through the Coronation plantation, had reached me. Asked him to join me.
Wanting to get Priyank back via the shortest, simplest, easiest route, decided to take the left off Ham intersection. Dropped him near Spankers Hill car park with directions to get down to the Robinhood Gate, and take the left trail back to Roehampton gate. Crossed my fingers and headed left, down the beautiful Pen ponds.
This was a big positive from helping him out. Instead of running the not-so-interesting small loop, I could now run the trail from Spankers, via Pen Ponds to Richmond Gate, and then back on the outer loop.
Chewie met, and played with a young Border terrier near the ponds, while I cursed myself for not carrying the phone. The views towards, both across the ponds as well as towards White lodge, were amazing. Across the ponds, halfway up the Sawyer’s Hill climb, Chewie was off lead again, trying to catch a beautiful, young, greyhound, while I trundled up to the top. Play done, Chewie was back on the lead (disheartened at never having gotten even close to catching), and we headed back on the outer loop.
Aside: I think I saw Smernicki running in the opposite direction as we approached the Pembroke lodge. Wasn’t sure, so didn’t bother him. Confirmed later, on Twitter, that it was indeed him. More importantly, he too was running with his dog (which I missed), so Chewie would’ve loved to say smello as well. Next time.
Took a quick break at the Pembroke lodge. A gel, some water, unsuccessfully coaxing Chewie to drink some water, throwing some cold water on Chewie’s head to bug him, Chewie getting fawning attention from a couple of ladies. And we were off.
The so far uneventful run was just about to change.
Despite running for almost an hour, we still hadn’t seen a single deer in the park. It ended now. Just as I was picking the pace up on the long steady descent towards Ham intersection, out of the bushes on the right came sprinting a couple of (what Aruna called) cow-sized deer on our either side. Another dozen paused just a few metres away on seeing Chewie – making up their mind on which way to go. A herd of deer trampling me wasn’t what I’d considered when I was thinking about the risk of running with Chewie in the park. We stopped. Rather I stopped, and Chewie started pulling. The deer, better than me, made up their mind quickly, and ran past us in two groups – ahead and behind – chased shortly by 2 whippets (I think). Good luck, to whoever owns those whippets, getting them back.
If you see a spike in my HR chart for the run, it isn’t a climb, or a sprint. It’s those deer.
Deer past, a couple of ladies calmed, we continued on the run. Ham Gate. Kingston Gate. F*%%^ing Dark Hill. Lovely descent of Broomfield hill.
After crossing the Robinhood gate, I took the boggy path next to Beverly brook, so Chewie could enjoy the water. Bad choice. Waiting near the water was an (otherwise lovely) local staffie who was determined to own the stream. Barely had he started jumping around in the brook that she attacked him and pushed him out of the water. He hasn’t run back to me as fast even when I’ve got a sausage dripping in salmon oil.
Took him another couple of hundred meters before he got comfortable, and went back in the water. Never really enjoyed it though. I don’t like that staffie! :/
As we approached the cafe, the watch was reading 15.5Km, so I took a small extra jog towards the Roehampton gate just to make sure I got over the 10 mile mark – 16.15Km.
The A’s were waiting at the car for us, having finished long back. Priyank had already left. Rags finished soon after, having run her 16K, but bugged at me for running more than her, again. Chewie was so knackered by now that he curled up and dozed off on the parking tarmac while we stretched and changed. The warm sun must’ve been helping him as well.
Changed, and stretched, we moved to the cafe for lunch in the bright sunshine. Lovely atmosphere, not so lovely food. For the prices. I made up for it by admiring some of the really special bikes around – both steel and carbon. Don’t think the others even cared – all of them had done distance PBs: Rags 16K (prev 13K), Aruna ~8K (prev ~7K), Ashish 11K (prev 10K).
Quick drive back, and cold showers later, it was time to head out to the Guildford high street for Saturday shopping (and loitering).
The Sunday Ride
Sunday came, as it always does, and it was time to head out for the ride. Important matters were to be dealt with before that, though. Went to Surrey Sports Park to sign up for annual membership, making use of their Black Friday discounts, and then to Harris + Hoole for coffee and a light brunch. Add to these a late wake up, and it was already half past 2 by the time I left for my ride.
The plan was to do the usual route (a.k.a. last weekend’s route) with the addition of Staple lane. The intent was also to ride 60K+. Sadly, adding 5K of Staple lane (2.5K each way), didn’t take the previous total of 50 to the desired 60. Result was a discovery of route back via Godalming & Farncombe, in pitch darkness!
Still, it was better than last weekend’s ride – no constant rain, no floods, a lot more returned hellos from fellow cyclists, seeing an MTB’r ride up St. Martha with his dog on lead running alongside, and the steady climb of Staple lane. The country lanes were still covered in mud and grime, but that isn’t going to change anytime till next summer (at best), so no point even considering that as a factor anymore.
The only really bad bit of the ride came when I hit 2 deep potholes on the way into Shamley Green from Blackheath, in the dark. It’s a tricky section of single-lane road with mud and potholes leaving just a single, winding clear path through. Additionally, it comes at the bottom of a small descent. 2 powerful lights, and a decent memory of the road helped me negotiate almost all the potholes and the mud patches, but forgot about these last two, and got the jolt of my life. Had to stop immediately after to check if the wheels were still true, and the fork wasn’t cracked. Thankfully, the only disturbed bit (other than me) was one of the rear lights, which was dangling from its loop. Fixed it, and carried onwards. Crisis averted.
Reached home tired, mostly from previous day’s run, and cold. Got the usual scolding from Rags about riding after dark, and the flood of licks from Chewie for coming back to play with him. Another cold shower, and it was time to cook :)
Looking forward
I’m running the Hogs Back Race coming Sunday (mainly for the medal). This means the weekend schedule of long runs on Saturday, and bike rides on Sunday will be disturbed. I’ve already attended a 1 hour, quad-killer spin class this week, and ridden a 45K bike ride, so the ride wouldn’t be such a big loss. Still, thinking of going for a 20-something Km ride after the run, if the legs have any energy left.
It’s been a hectic 1.5 months since I started kicking up the training schedule, so planning to take the training down a notch next week. 2 easy runs, instead of 1 easy and 1 tempo run. No mid-week bike ride, but will still go for the spin class. Monday evening swim, and 2 full rest days. Will decide next weekend’s plans based on how the legs feel on Friday.
Till next update (hopefully with a photo of the interesting medal I’m running 12K this Sunday for),
Cheers!
Run in just enough to not freeze, ride in all that’s needed to stay toasty warm.
I recently noticed the contrast between my dressing philosophy for running and cycling in winter.
For running, I try to wear as little as possible to just keep me from freezing (for lack of a better description).
The goal is to dress up to not feel too hot even at the peak of my run.
I’d rather feel a bit cold at the start – easily remedied by a good warm up before heading out,
than feel too hot during the run – unable to remove any layers, or unwilling to carry them tied around.
For cycling, I attempt to wear as much as possible to feel mildly warm the moment I set out (and potentially sweating inside the house).
The goal here is to dress up for the worst – fast, chilly descents, rather than for warm uphill efforts.
I’d rather feel a bit hot on the ascents – remedied by opening the jersey zipper a bit more,
than freeze my core on the descents – with no more layers handy to cover up.
2 reasons for the difference in approach:
- The difference in speeds and effort – my cycling speeds (affecting windchill) are 2-4x the running speeds, while the effort (approximated by HR) is usually similar, or lower. Thus, while the body is producing similar amount of heat, it’s facing a lot more cooling effect.
- The range of distance – most runs don’t take me too far from home and civilisation, thus always leaving me the option of returning and layering up if things get too bad. Even a 30-mile bike ride may have me an hour from home at times – too far to leave most things to chance. Thus, the conservative dressing.
This conservatism also comes up in other ways too – the only thing I carry on most sub-20K runs is the house key. No phone, wallet, or cash. On all my bike rides, except commute, I carry the saddle bag with tools and spare tubes, phone, wallet, keys, at least one energy gel, a spare light, and water bottles.
Continue reading “Run in just enough to not freeze, ride in all that’s needed to stay toasty warm.”
Mud and flood weekend 1
It was the a truly autumnal weekend – persistent rain, chill in the air, muddy trails, flooding on the roads, and return of Human Race’s trail run series. It was also the weekend I decided to move into 2nd gear with my preps for next year’s run and ride fiesta.
After our move to Guildford last October, I started taking Chewie along for my runs. Couldn’t let all the trails of Mount/Hogs-Back behind our backyard go waste, after all. As we graduated from our slow, me-pestering-him-to-stop-jumping-at-me runs to the still slow, him-giving-me-the-look-asking-me-to-keep-up runs, Raghi suggested that we try out a canicross trail run. That was the start, last autumn, of our trail running events.
Over the winter, Raghi felt left out, so did the C25K course herself (thanks Laura!), and got hooked into running. Come autumn, she’d registered, before us, for the Human Race’s trail run series. All 3 of them! brave girl
Not wanting to let her get all the mud fun alone, Chewie and I too registered for Wildman, which we’d missed last year after I got a back spasm the week before.
Mud & Flood, Part 1 – Wildman
Saturday morning. Temperature was mild, for time of the year. Rain was inconsistent, but enough had fallen over the preceding weeks to leave lots of bogs and floods all over the course. Spirits were high, except in Chewie, who was wondering why on earth were we out in the soggy woods this early on Saturday morning. That was till he saw the dozens of other dogs, and smelled the sausages being grilled.
Rags started her 10K with the big group of humans 20 mins before Chewie started dragging me around the course. That’s how most of our runs are – 2K of him dragging me while I attempt to stay on my feet, 4-5K of him running just comfortably ahead of me, 2-5K of him running next to me, and thereafter me dragging, cajoling, carrying him to the finish. Thankfully, we caught Raghi before the finish, and Chewie decided he wanted to run with her. Running with them slowed me down while I escorted them both to the finish, but with Chewie gone to the finish with her, I was free to run the final 5K loop at my own pace :)
The first 10K loop was easier than what I remember my last run – Iceman – to be. It still had climbs, and loads of mud / bogs, but it also had long sections of flat and false-flat tracks. Running on the not-so-flat terrain of the mount had me well prepared for that, and I could pace myself comfortably through it. The 2nd 5K loop was more like what I remember the trail runs to be. Still not as crazy as the 2nd loop at Iceman, but a lot more frequent climbs, narrow, muddy paths, and the beloved water hazard! Boy, would Chewie have loved the water hazard, had he still be running with me. Raghi, might have had to swim across ;)
The story of 1st loop was – start fast, leaving behind a lot of fellow canicrossers, followed by a long steady leg of keeping a comfortable pace, ending with a slow-ing finish where many of those canicrossers, and a whole horde of fast duathletes overtook us. The 2nd loop, on the other hand, was a lot more even – me overtaking a decent number of tail-enders from the non-canicross 15K runners. Last year, I was the tail-ender. This year, I was running past a few of them. Experience definitely counts in this trail running malarkey ;)
The run finished, just as it’d started – fast. Felt good to still have spare energy in the legs after the run. The plans for a sub-1:50 HM at Wokingham are looking good :)
After a tiny bit of stretching, and drinking a couple of bottles of water + VitaCoco (each!), it was time to head for the final trail running ritual – Sausages!
Rags and I got ours with the bun, ketchup and mayo on top, while Chewie got his clean. 10K in the mud, warm sausage in the stomach – he was ready to sleep for rest of the day.
Mud & Flood, Part Deux – The Rain Ride
While Chewie and Rags decided to take the Sunday off, to recover from their first trail run of the season, I had miles to go before I could sle…
Training for Fred Whitton 2015 means, I’ve got to (learn to love to) ride in all weathers. This Sunday, it meant a 50K ride in non-stop rain, on roads that were either flooded, or layered with mud. Or both.
My wuss’ plan as I headed out was an easy 25K ride: Home – Compton – Wonersh – Black Heath – St. Martha – Compton – Home.
Once on the road, I discovered an unexpected side-benefit of riding in crappy weather on Sunday afternoons – no traffic on the roads!
The ride plan soon changed into: Home – Compton – Wonersh – Black Heath (from Wonersh) – Shamley Green – Framley Green – Shere – Up Coombe Lane – Down Coombe Lane – Albury – Up Guildford Lane – Down St. Martha – Black Heath (from Chilworth) – Wonersh – Compton – Home.
3 easy climbs turned into 6, and then some. However, there wasn’t one moment when I didn’t enjoy the ride.
Not when, in the middle of a descent I was suddenly faced with a 50m long, flooded section of a single-track road. The car on the other side patiently waited for me to slowly, and carefully ride across the middle.
Not when, climbing hard out-of-the-saddle, I take a corner to see the whole road covered in an inch-thick layer of mud. My skills staying upright almost convinced me to take up cyclocross.
Not even when, the mountain biker standing around at St. Martha – first other cyclist I saw on the whole ride – didn’t return my hello!
Not when the boy racer overtook me dangerously closely while I was climbing up Guildford Ln. It helped that the car behind him kept his respectful distance and waited for me to slow down into a passing place, and then thanked me for giving him space.
And definitely not the innumerable times when the chain refused to shift into the large chainring. Even stopped and did it by hand a couple of times.
It helped that while it was wet, the temperatures weren’t really low – hovering in low double digits for most of my ride. Climbing half a dozen hills also meant that the body got enough opportunity to keep the boiler running, and keep me warm.
While on the ride, I realised how much I love running-riding-hiking in wet, mildly-cold weather. On the other hand, for a fella who grew up in 45°C heat, I wither surprisingly fast in even 28°C summers we have here.
I wonder if I’ll still love these wet rides once the temperature drops into low single digits, and the wind starts howling? Getting the miles in then could make-or-break my FW2015 plans.
And, that was the first mud, flood, and fun weekend of the autumn. Time to gird up for the next one.
PS
When I say experience counts in trail running, I mean it. Last year, like most leading-edge runners and most newbies, I was trying to run up every hill, sprint down every descent, and reaching the finish crawling on all fours. Lesson learnt. This year, I was walking up (as fast as I could) most of those short-steep climbs, jogging up the long-steady ones, and using all the saved energy to put in a much better time on the remaining 80% of the course.
Rags, on the other hand, despite my advice, was running up all the climbs. Or as many as she could, and then shattering to pieces on top of each one, unable to use the descents or flats to get anywhere.
The other bit where experience helped was in communication with Chewie. Last year, he used to pull me up-hill, down-hill, off-trail, on-trail, and then just sit up once knackered, demanding to be carried home.
Running, and walking, together over the year has helped us both get a few bits drilled out. He pulls uphill, on command, and goes downhill gently, on command. When he starts getting tired, instead of pulling himself to collapse, he starts running an easier pace – my pace. He also has a lot more stamina, so that helps too.
Where he still hasn’t changed is in his urge to run as fast as possible on the start, to keep up with (or be) the first dog on the course. Frankly, I don’t mind that part in him one bit :)
That, and our shared love of hot dogs!
Fred Whitton 2014 – In Numbers
With 10 major climbs, including the gear-shattering Honister and Hardknott passes, almost 4000m of climbing, and 180km of beautiful lake country roads, Fred Whitton is the hardest cycle sportive in the UK. To add to the route, the early May date practically guarantees an (un?)healthy mix of constant rain, strong winds and cold weather.
I had registered for, and won, a ballot entry for the 2014 event, but chickened out had to pull out because of logistical+financial reasons.
While checking if registrations for FW2015 had opened yet, I came across the results data from 2014 event. Here’s a quick look at those numbers.
(Data source: http://www.fredwhittonchallenge.co.uk/2014-results/)
Time & Speed Distribution
Average time taken to finish the course was 8 hours 51 mins (avg speed: 20.69 km/h), close to the median of times taken at 8 hours 49 min (median speed was 20.4 km/h).
The fastest rider flew around in a time of just 6 hours 8 mins, with an average speed of 29.35 km/h.
The slowest rider bravely hung on to finish in a time of 13 hours 28 mins, averaging 13.37 km/h.
The surprising bit for me here was that more than 80% of the riders finished in under 10 hours. Must be some light and fast riders taking on this challenge!
My planned time of 11 hours would’ve put me in the bottom 5% of finishers. If I’d finished at all.
Segments
Looking at the three segments, the first one, from Grasmere to Braithwaite had the most climbing – 1607m – including the Kirkstone, Honister, and Newlands passes.
Segment 2 started with Whinlatter Pass, but the only other key climb on it was the smallest of them all – Cold Fell. In total climbing (725m) and ascent-ratio (17.26m/km), it sure looks like the easiest segment.
Segment 3 looks mostly flat but comes at end of a long day. And has the hardest climb of them all – the Hardknott pass! Combined with an ascent of Wrynose, this gives this segment 947m of climbing with the highest ascent-ratio at 18.94 m/km. That ascent ratio doesn’t matter much (as visible on profile graph) since all of it is clustered in those 2 climbs with flat miles before and after.
My assumption was that the 2nd section would be the fastest, with 1st and 3rd close together in avg speed. There was a surprise in the results:
The fastest segment was the first, the hilliest one – averaging 22.61 km/h.
The middle segment, the supposedly easiest one, was the slowest of the three – averaging just 18.10 km/h!! Experienced Fred Whitton riders warn about this segment all the time. The timing results showed the warnings were not off!
In fact, there were just 63 riders, out of 1738 finishers, who were faster in the 2nd segment than either of the other two. 96%+ riders were slowest in the middle segment!
Age Group & Gender
The data also helpfully provides the age group & gender of riders. So, next looking at the participation ratios, and speeds across these divides.
As with most cycle sportives around the country, an overwhelming majority of participants in this sportive as well are men.
Surprisingly, the M40-59 age group outnumbers the M20-39 AG. I had expected it to be the other way around. For women, the rate declines with age (though the numbers are too small to be taken as a trend).
Comparing speeds, the fastest group is, as expected, M20-39, though M40-49 isn’t far behind. Those two AGs also constituted ~73% of riders, thus pushing the average speed to above 20km/h, despite all other AGs being slower than that mark.
Standout performers for me were 4 tandem finishers – faster than 3 other AGs despite lugging 2 people’s weight and those heavy bikes around. They mustn’t have ridden them the way some couples do, right? #freeriding
Average speed for female riders was more than 2km/h slower than that for males. However, the slowest rider defied both gender and age stereotypes – it was someone from M50-59 AG.
Mountain goats
We also have timing data for the Newlands pass climb. The easiest thing to do with this is to calculate VAMs (using a roughly estimated vertical ascent of 210m).
Average VAM was 989 Vm/h (median: 985.66 Vm/h). Fastest climber had a Vm/h comparable to a top pro at 1,521 Vm/h, while the slowest climber (apart from me, if I’d ridden) went at 448.6 Vm/h. Both were from the M40-49 AG.
Stretching the reality a bit further, and comparing the VAMs to those of professional cyclists, we have:
- 2 riders who’d rank in top 20 of an average TdF mountain stage,
- 38 who’d finish in the peloton on that stage,
- 392 who’d finish in the grupetto, and
- 1331 who’d get relegated for finishing outside the time cut-off :)
This wayward classification is based on these estimates.
Wherever you rank on that VAM calculation, I’m sure the long descent into the beautiful Newlands valley made the pain worth it!
Ups and Downs
That’s how it’s been since spring, my favourite activity period, ended and a sordid (though beautiful) summer started.
Finished Ronde in better time than last year, despite getting beaten by @julykatrae to the line. Up.
Moved my Fred Whitton entry to 2015 after stumbling badly on the logistics bit. Down.
Didn’t go for a ride, apart from commutes, for almost 3 months. Down.
Gained almost 4 kilos, almost all around the waist. Down.
Running re-started well in late April, building up to consecutive weekends of 13 mile+ runs in late June. Up.
Running mileage reached 100km in June, a best for me. Up.
Might’ve increased the mileage too fast. Got a nasty ITB injury in left knee, and old left hamstring injury cropped up again. Down.
Almost zero running in 2nd half of July. Down.
Returned to lycra-clad bike riding with 3 consecutive brick sessions. Up.
Avg speeds, climbing speeds have improved despite the break. Up.
Returned to the pool, after 8 months, with two swims in 3 days. Up.
All parts of the upper torso hurting after just 2 swims. Bad, yet good!
Successful, swim-run brick involving uphill run from home to pool. Up.
Now, looking forward to 2 weeks of hiking in Scotland coming up. Quite scared of it, actually. The munros are higher, and steeper than our usual hills in Lake District. And we’ve both been concentrating on running and cycling this year, so climbing legs may not be there.
A bit concerned about how my 2yo Chewie might take the longer, steeper hikes. Though, I think he may come back from them fresher than we would :) :(
What makes cycles so frightening to people?
That’s what makes bikes so frightening: we prefer the devil we know, even when it’s infinitely more bloodthirsty than the one we don’t.
Efficient.
This year I’ve ridden the fewest rides, of last 3 years, before de Ronde (Tour Of Flanders) sportive. Yet, I’ve also climbed the most vertical metres.
Advantage of living in the Surrey hills.
Ready.
de Ronde: The Favourites
While walking Chewie, my thoughts moved ahead to the upcoming annual trip to Flanders for de Ronde. It was more of an imaginary scenario playing out than thoughts, and here’s how it went:
I’m at the Eurostar-EU immigration counter and the officer opposite me is giving me suspicious looks.
Officer: Sir, I see you’ve visited Belgium this same time of the year for 3 years now. May I know the purpose of this visit?
Me: It’s for a cycling event, Tour of Flanders, that happens this time of the year, every year, in Belgium.
Officer (smiling faintly, but suspiciously): Oh, you’re heading for de Ronde? I might be coming to watch it too. Who do you think is going to win it this year?
Me (smiling a bit more): Well, that depends on where you are from.
Officer: Very well, let’s say I’m from Flanders.
Me: In that case, the finishing order would be…
1. Boonen (Flemish)
2. Cancellara (popular, non-Flemish favourite)
3. Tepstra (Dutch, outside favourite, riding for a Belgian team, probably 2nd in line after Boonen)
4. Kwiatkowski (listening a bit to my heart)
5. Chavanel (perennial outside bet)Officer: Interesting! Now, let’s say I was from Wallonia.
Me: In that case, the finishing order would be…
1. Gilbert (a Walloon, doesn’t matter if he actually rides or saves his legs for the Ardennes classics!)
2. Cancellara (not Flemish)
3. Chavanel (French, and perennial outside bet)
4. Kwiatkowski (listening a bit to my heart)
5. Tepstra (Dutch, outside favourite, riding for a Belgian team)
6. Boonen (Flemish)Officer: Ok. What if I was an ordinary fella from … *checks my passport* … India?
Me: In that case, the finishing order would be…
1. Sachin Tendulkar (God, and, in India, always wins everything!)
2. Lance Armstrong (probably the most well-known cyclist in non-cycling circles in India. Doesn’t matter that he isn’t riding)
3. Pele (we’re already into the backup list of non-cricket int’l sports people)
4. Maradona (still in the list)
5. Messi (getting to end of the list)
6. Virat Kohli (if you must have another name, I hear he might just be the next cricketing demi-god)Officer: C’mon! Tell me who do you want really to be in that finishing order?
Me: In that case, the finishing order would be…
1. Cancellara (personal favourite, heart and head)
2. Boonen (2nd personal favourite, plus I want to see a duel between Spartacus and Tommeke)
3. Kwiatkowski (personal favourite from the young bloods, and in not too bad a shape)
4. Tepstra (Dutch, outside favourite, riding for a Belgian team, probably 2nd in line after Boonen)
5. Chavanel (perennial outside bet at Flanders)
6. not-Sagan (anyone whose name is not Peter Sagan)Officer (smiling again): I’ll take that list! Have a good trip, and see you on the Paterberg! *stamps passport*
Wallpaper I like – for my room & my website
If you’ve got space, money, and taste, get some of this awesome wallpaper at Ginger & French.