Almost a year ago Guy expressed his concerns at the growing levels of inactivity and obesity in UK school-age children as well as the lack of organized outdoor sporting events for young people. Guy established a Community Interest Company called ConceptX to address this, with the aim of organizing outdoor activities specifically for under 18s. I share Guys concerns and therefore jumped at the idea of cycling Coast-to-Coast to raise money for these events. I had high hopes of being able to drum up a strong University of Bristol Cycling Club contingent, however one by one they dropped and unfortunately I was the sole survivor who made it to the start line in Whitehaven.
0 Comments
If the previous two days of riding were anything to go by, (Alpe d’Huez, Col de la Morte & Col d’Ornon) then today was going to be tough. With two days in the legs, it was even more of a struggle to rouse our fatigued bodies from the comfort of our beds and in true UOBCC style our aim to be up and on the road by 10am was an ambitious one. Porridge, croissants and a combination of nutella, jam and cheeses on baguettes were stuffed inside our greedy stomachs in desperate preparation for the intimidating day looming ahead. Eventually we ran out of excuses to postpone the inevitable pain any longer. So a full 45mins behind schedule we rolled out from Pourchery down the 2km 10% road we were beginning to loathe, and into Bourg d’Oisan to meet Hattie and new recruit to the team, Theo. The label of “new recruit” in this instance is very misleading, because, even though Theo is not part of any cycling club, he was by far the best climber in the group (probably thanks to having been based in the region for the previous year as he studied in Grenoble and as we met up with him he was spending the summer living in Bourg d’Oisan as a cycling tour guide). Luckily for us he plans to quit rowing and join UOBCC this coming September! Watch out for UOBCC at BUCS hill climb. How do you comprehend 40km of ascent? A minor miscommunication yesterday lead half the group to believe that the Col de la Morte was only 5km long instead of the brutal 11km of 8% gradient to the summit. After the suffering endured in those final 6km where I passed a couple of my mates who had burnt out at 8km begging for the top to be 200m round the corner, everyone ensured they had a good idea of what we would actually be tackling today to avoid being caught out again; that said, even with the profile in front of us it was very difficult to comprehend 40km of uphill riding. There is something distinctly unnatural about starting at 700m elevation and knowing you’ve got to find some winding road to climb 2000m up into the air to reach the top. Why would a road go that high?
Between Bourg d’Oisan and the start of the uphill section there is a flat well tarmacked road that we hurtled along in a pace line of 7 UOBCC riders with Theo immediately showing his strength by leading for most of the 5km section. Rounding the bend at Le Clapier the climbing begins. There was very little to test the legs in the first 10km with the rolling road only rising 300m up to Barrage du Chambon (3% avg). The split in the group came as a 6% incline combined with the first tunnel of the trip resulting in Hattie being distanced slightly and Tom, Mat and Henry all needing to stop to fiddle with their lights for some reason, which held them up for an inordinately long time. This left me holding on to Theo’s wheel and Hattie in no man’s land. All too often when I'm asked "what did you do today" I'm stumped as to how to respond. Sometimes days go by where I can't recall doing anything of note. For instance, today I didn't leave the confines of the house and spent the majority of the dreary day sat on my lazy arse. The most productive task of the day was replying to an email that informed me I will be charged a fine of £5 + VAT for failing to pay my rent on time. This was a rather unexpected shock for me, especially as I spend a fair amount of time surfing and contributing to the money saving expert forums and consider myself to be pretty money savvy compared to the average student (I'm known by my housemates as the freebie king). Thanks to student finance, I most certainly have enough money in my account to pay for rent. Woah wait a minute... So that just makes me a plonker for not coughing up on time. Right? Wrong! Check out this snippet from an email I received from the property agents back in March:
To me, that clearly states that they confirm a standing order has been set up, therefore I should have nothing to worry about... See how I'm confused why there's a problem. By this point I'd tripled checked my bank account to ensure I truly hadn't paid and wasn't midway through being conned out of my money. I think I've set the scene for how bafled I was when I opened the email, firstly to see that the only message was a tirse direction to the 'letter attachment', why they bothered making an atfachment rather than just writing what needed to be said in a standard email is beyond me, and after all that effort they didn't even let me know how I could pay what was outstanding. Unbelievable. Anyway, to cut a really short story that got excessively dragged out into a long ramble that could continue well into the night due to my extremely boring, unproductive day, (breathe), I replied with a very formal response that prompted a civilised reply and the revoking of the late rent fine. I'm glad that's all sorted. Hopefully the standing order will work next month. You can bet your bottom dollar I'll be keeping an eye on my statement come the 1st September. The rest of my day played out in a very similar manner. Dull, disengaging and monotonous. Or some other words that basically say I was very very bored. It goes without saying that I was within wifi range at all times as a requirement to feed my obsession with my new phone. I may have to put it on the time out step for a few hours tomorrow so I can unwind. So there we have it. A dull day, topped off with a gubbing on one of my top matched betting bookie accounts midway through rolling over a £100 bonus. Goodness knows where I stand now. It's a real shame since the bonuses proved particularly profitable compared to many other books. Life goes on. Let's see what tomorrow brings. Any more cliches to round off? |