LondonSkaters Speed Team - Speed Skating & Rollerblading Club in London

Xia · Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Posts: 874 Location: Geneva (Suisse)

As spotted on serpentine forum:
http://www.serpentineroad.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=97377#97377

link to the event:
http://www.cycla29.org/

Could we organise a club trip? It's probably only 90 minutes away from the shuttle. Hotels are cheap in France. It would make for an outstanding session out.
ALex

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5914

I'm interested, if it is only on weekend days. I noticed you are planning to go over by car, well a high probability. Can I book a slot please?

Xia · Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Posts: 874 Location: Geneva (Suisse)

yep it will be week end.
Alex

merten · Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 1:39 pm Subject:

I might be interested - mostly depending on cost and travel times.
Can you give me some more details on your planning - pm me if you don't want it to be public.
Merten

Tom · Joined: 16 Aug 2004 Posts: 482 Location: Holland Park

I'd also be interested. I read somewhere that people were doing the 120km bike ride on skates......

Xia · Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Posts: 874 Location: Geneva (Suisse)

as posted on serpentine road:

as stated before, there is are high (85%) chance of me going by car.
Which means I will have 2 seats available.
The plan is to leave late morning on saturday (south london), sleep over in a cheap french hotel (have a nice meal) and come back on sunday evening.

Splitting for the fare is only on a voluntary basis (ie I don't care if you pay or not, but you will have to pay for the hotel room =P ).

I will give priorities to LSST members if there are too many volunteers.

Alex

Xia · Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Posts: 874 Location: Geneva (Suisse)

Time to report on our weekend in France.
The actors: Cat on a bike, Vlasta, Rick, Patrick and me (Alex)
Our target: 85km of premium grade motorway tarmac.
Our scene: 9 degrees with a western wind of aprox 20-40 km/h

Part one, from km 144 to km 187.
The short of it: that's it, allready there?
The long:
- Yippie massive 2km 6% downhill at full speed, that is untill Rick overtake me all tucked in at crazy speeds. That was FAST!
- Plenty of bikes around us, but only doing 45 km as all the skaters where too late to leave with the proper bike peloton, the line of fast skaters disapeared after 400 meters.
- Rick going faster on downhills and flat, me catching up in the up parts.
- Patrick tucked in, behind Vlasta!
- Plenty of food at the 1/4 mark and long rest.
- second part of the first leg was a bit more empty. Only skaters and cyclist on the way back, but none of them acknowleging us, or even talking, must be hard.
- Flying on the last 12km, finished them really quikcly.
- With all our stop still managed the first 43km in 2 hours. Something is seriously fishy here.... my best marathon time is 2hours and I'm feeling freshish....

Part two from km 187 to km 144 (and then 142 where the car was parked)
The short of it: OUCH!
The long:
- after another quick refreshment back we go.
- km 144.3 ah ah! it's uphill and windy
- km 144.1 we are not moving, OMG this is going to be hard
- Rick summed it up perfectly there and then, the first half was the warm up, now we skate!
- I manage to tuck in behind the lasts bikes for a few km then blow up, Rick and Cat manage just a tad longer. I can still see them in the long straights of what is now a desolated mortorway.
- Still windy, and now I'm counting each 100 meters, not the kilometers. It's that bad.
- I can feel cramps coming. Not good still 30 km to go
- Rick is now also running out of Gaz as I'm slowly reeling him in.
- Rick, Cat and me are together again at 3/4 refreshment stop, but we skip it.
- Rick stop for a while, I keep going, that is untill a cramp in my left calve. Can't put my leg on the floor so I fall. Ouch. Luckily Cat is around to help me stretch the leg. Rick reach me and stop then leave me to be on his lonely way. I will only see him in the car a few hours later
- After enough rest I start again, carefull not to strain too much my muscle as both tights are on the verge of cramping and so is my left calve.
- I'm slow, really slow. by now, the skaters that left 4 hours after me for the 45km are overtaking me. Still I want to finish.
- 8 km from the end, the recovery bus stop and tell me that I'm the last one of the 85km and should board it. Vlasta and Patrick are safely tucked in inside. I waved them on, I want to finish! As long as I can stand, I will skate.
- Down hill on the way back, I ask Cat to slow me down as I'm scared of cramping at 45km/h
- Cat leave me, as she can't take my slow skating any more.
- I keep going, on the uphill, I find another lost skater, Alain. It turn out to be soemone I was in contact via email before the skate. Funny coincidence. His legs gave out but that was after doing 120km and then starting again for more....
- Both of us reach the end (I guess second time for him). It took me 5h30 or something like that, I'm not sure anymore. It was a long time to be struggling on skates.
- Everyone is proud of their achievement. Skating on that day was something special. Really tough, I will do it again, don't know about the others.

Alex

Mikey-two-Names · Joined: 24 Feb 2004 Posts: 4108

Nice writeup Alex, thanks for taking the effort I enjoyed reading that.

Duracell · Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 12:52 pm Subject:

Yeah, cheers Xia!
Always nice to read about skate trips... Smile

You doing the A2A?
Sunday, October 9th, 2005 - 87 miles Very Happy

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5914

Mikey-two-Names · Joined: 24 Feb 2004 Posts: 4108

No, it's all hills, almost no flat apparently. And 10m of rough road that makes much of London look smooth.

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5914

Mikey-two-Names · Joined: 24 Feb 2004 Posts: 4108

Easy tiger, I know you didn't mention hills. I was just saying it will not be easy even if it is all downwind

Xia · Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Posts: 874 Location: Geneva (Suisse)

I don't know if I can do the A2A but would like to try it once if I have the chance.
To further Ricks comments about downWIND, on a 4% downHILL we had to keep skating, other wise the wind was stoping us...
Alex

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5914

It pushed me up a few hills too. I was only tired from the first on on the way out but I was tired on all the downhills except the last one on the way back. Goo d chance for Alex and I to put our windsurfing/sailing experience to good use....sort of.