15 minute read
OCD cyclo climbing report 2019
OCD cyclo climbing 2019
2019 was perhaps overshadowed by politics, but dispite this many members went out into the mountains and enjoyed some fine cols. Some were at home in the UK, many went to France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Majorca and the Canaries. More unusually, two cycled in Greece, and one headed to Portugal. Some riders have an advantage, Harald Eichmeier lives in southern Germany and can hardly leave his house without claiming a col. Paul Harrison spends much of his time in Corsica, an area some members know well – Raid Corsica is recommended. Peter Baker racked up a massive claim spending more than four months touring the Alps, including Mont Ventoux three times. Jeff Rowell started slowly with a few British cols years ago, like some of our current members, but after he retired, he took on a new lease of life, claiming many hard cols like the Col d’Izoard… I have not the space to do him justice.
Advertisement
The total col height claimed this year is more than a hundred times the elevation of the South Col of Everest (7,906m) and I can assure you no-one has ever even thought of taking a bike over it.
On the other hand, some long-term members have, sadly, suffered illness and injury, and had to cut back on cycling. I wish them well, and look forward to their claims for 2020.
In 2019, 12 members achieved a new rank. Certificates will be posted out shortly.
2019 brought a new challenge – how to handle e-bikes? AUK voted to accept riders with e-bikes on calendar events, and the website FAQ says “Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycles (EAPCs) may be ridden in Brevet Populaire (BP) events, but they are not eligible for validation.” I encourage all riders to enjoy the mountains, but OCD claims (like AUK points) are really a reward for effort. Perhaps there should be a separate category, to encourage e-bike riders to go further and higher.
A few riders have mentioned the book Cols and Passes of the British Isles by Graham Robb. Although I respect this as a fine work by a dedicated man, I should point out that Graham is an acclaimed historian and biographer, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Although I recognise that he is a cyclist, I feel he is writing more from the literary viewpoint. I OCD CLAIMS SUMMARY FOR 2019
Name AUK No RANK, date Lifetime 2019 total 2018 2018 total 2017 ABBATT Fred 6086 Honourable 19 533784 8590 524994 105102 419892 ACLAND Ken 5752 Officer 14 167053 2472 164581 31442 ALDRED Mark 14956 Officer 05 235078 10071 225007 35967 189040 ALLAN Douglas 11101 Honorable 16 568573 21520 547053 ANDERSON Alan 6938 Member 19 51603 318 51285 1216 49069 ANDERSON Fraser 16690 4936 318 4618 1216 3406 BAKER Peter 6594 Commander 19 157743 118509 BATE Ben 11108 Honourable 19 572209 27030 545179 44463 500716 BRABBIN Thomas 12364 120152 36169 83983 37735 46248 DALE Peter 6186 Commander 19 219271 20292 198979 11682 187297 DAMPER Bob 14064 Commander 15 293632 13251 280381 15379 265002 DONALDSON Bob 13904 48011 15639 32372 32372 EICHMEIER Harald 11156 Venerable 11 1788517 91959 1696558 98544 1608014 FOX Tom 1066 Commander 19 120423 11209 109214 GRACE Steve 13959 Officer 19 144770 19937 124833 62541 62292 HARRISON Paul 11181 Venerable 09 1567645 61499 1506146 64052 1442094 HICKS Nigel 15978 18343 9305 9038 9038 HODGES Chris 18478 12717 2495 10222 10222 HOOD Andrew 1842 Member 1289373 10605 67386 JOYNSON Dave 11203 Venerable 03 1295886 6513 1289373 10605 1278768 LAVERICK Martin 2411 Officer 19 142216 142216 LISTER Terry 2526 Commander 15 296052 13044 283808 22238 261570 MORRISON Dave 12405 Officer 16 140610 4492 136118 5775 130343 NEILSON David 15714 5158 1133 NELSON Martin 16781 24367 24367 PINTO Mark 5743 Commander 19 122495 24439 98056 9389 88667 PRESLAND Kevin 740 Commander 13 573384 55489 517895 80155 437740 PRINGLE Laura 2451 41550 16082 25468 11714 13754 ROWELL Jeff 16975 Officer 19 140543 48113 92430 20802 71628 SMITH Andy 6190 Honourable 19 594415 69350 525065 44605 480460 SMITH Mike 15387 3266 835 2431 VENES Richard 1118 Commander 19 201081 28395 172805 28571 144234 WADDINGTON Ivan 46 Commander 05 359639 8057 351582 22148 329434 WATERTON Robert 11283 Honorable 07 791223 3524 787699 33696 754003 WATERTON Helen 11282 Honorable 08 809382 5705 803687 33696 769991 WATTS Bob 1870 Honorable 16 713355 18405 694950 55773 639177
think that he is working on his own definition of a col or a pas, which does not quite match the OCD or Cent Cols Club definition. I came to the conclusion that this book is really no help to OCD cyclists – cols need to be organised as blocks between the major valleys, rather than by county or country. Robbs book is fun, and interesting, but I would not recommend it as a source for identifying OCD cols.
Finally, please note that the cutoff for publication in Arrivée is 20 January 2021. It would help if you could make one claim for each year, and to send it around the end of December, or first week in January.
We recently featured Julia Freeman’s gruelling Race around the Netherlands, where she suffered frost injuries and hypothermia. Here, the accomplished endurance rider gives us the benefit of her experience on how best to cope with the season’s worst… Cold comforts 10 tips to keep you warm on a winter’s ride
WHEN THE CLOCKS GO BACK, most cyclists put the bike in the shed, hang up the helmet, and spend the winter pursuing warmer indoor activities. Slogging away in the cold and wet isn’t exactly fun, but winter cycling can bring some of the most rewarding and beautiful rides – from a clear starlit night, filled with constellations you don’t normally see, to riding through the dawn as the mists rise upon the fields around you. Some of my fondest cycling memories are from the depths of winter. With rewarding challenges like the Randonneur Round the Year and Strava’s Festive 500 to encourage you to venture out into the cold, shorter days and colder temperatures don’t need to stop you enjoying cycling throughout the year
To help you with your first steps into winter cycling adventures, here are my ten tips for enjoying cold weather riding:
1 STAY DRY This may sound obvious, but I’m not just talking about keeping the rain out. When we exercise we sweat, the sweat collects in our clothes, then when we stop this moisture cools us down, making it harder to get warm again. Water conducts heat 25 times better than air. Keeping dry is the first step to keeping warm.
The first instinct for many is to wrap up nice and warm, keeping the cold at bay, but the ideal is to dress just warm enough to not be sweating too much. This may mean that for the first 10 to 15 minutes of your ride you feel rather chilly, but as you get going you warm up just nicely.
This can also mean not getting into your cycling clothing until the last moment, so you don’t start the ride with some sweat already in your clothes – this is especially true if you’re wearing very thick socks. Prep your bike, then get dressed in your cycle gear and get out the door.
Carrying a spare base layer to change into at a control midway can also dramatically improve comfort, and they don’t take up much space in your bag.
2 EXTREMITIES SOLUTIONS As the body cools, it diverts blood flow from the extremities to the core to maintain body temperature. This can make it hard to keep hands, feet, and your face warm. Having proper gloves that are warm enough, but not so warm your hands are sweating, as well as socks and overshoes can be the difference between enjoying a ride, and it feeling like torture. In really cold temperatures the thick gloves needed to keep the hands warm can be cumbersome if you have to do anything involving fine motor control, like fixing a flat or other mechanical. I like to carry some very thin wool liner gloves, these allow me to take the big gloves off for short periods when I need fine motor control.
No matter how hard you try to keep your hands from sweating, you will get some moisture in your gloves, for this reason whenever you take them off, don’t put them down, put them inside your jersey; here your body heat will keep them warm and it’ll be a lot more comfortable when you put them back on again. I like to carry extra socks, so that I can change into warm dry socks about halfway into a ride, happy feet make for happy riding. In really cold conditions I wear a Cold Avenger Face mask; this keeps my face warm, as well as pre-warming, and moistening the air I breathe. This reduces the stress the cold air puts on the lungs. Looks weird, but worth it for the improved breathing. Just take it off before you go into the post office...
3 DRINK MORE WATER Dehydration is something we associate with riding in hot weather, not when there is frost on the ground. When you can see your breath, what you’re seeing is your body losing moisture. So don’t forget to drink.
But be careful with drinking water that is near to freezing; squirting cold water into your body requires your body to put energy into heating it up. It can be worth considering insulated water bottles for the winter months.
As well as drinking, don’t forget to eat, but consider that the foods you may enjoy in warmer weather may be harder to eat when it’s floating around freezing out. A Mars Bar quickly becomes an inedible brick when left in your food bag for a couple of hours in the cold. You can warm some foods up by sticking them inside your jersey for a few minutes before eating. Just don’t do this with a Mars Bar and forget about it for 50km – that’s just messy.
4 TYRED SOLUTIONS The lovely, fast, slick tyres you’ve been running all summer start to show some
❝The Cold Avenger… Just take it off before going into the post office
❞
48 weaknesses in the winter. Wet conditions will increase the chances of punctures, and the cold temperatures will make the rubber stiffer and less grippy.
Many tyre manufacturers make bike tyres especially for cold weather conditions. I have four sets of tyres I use depending on conditions. From Continental GP5000s in the summer, through to Continental GP Four Seasons in the cold, damp conditions of autumn/ spring. When it’s really cold, but not too icy, I have continental top contact winters. Finally when there is ice and snow, and I want a real challenge, I break out the Schwalbe Marathon Winter studded tyres. These have hundreds of tungsten carbide studs that grip the ice, as well as a tread suitable for light snow. It’s great fun cycling with confidence past everyone slipping and sliding on normal tyres. Just be aware that when using studded tyres they need to be run in for about 40km of non-icy conditions first, and you may find your tyres are fine for cycling across that patch of black ice, but if you stop and put your foot down, your foot isn’t. I have some mini crampons (Kahtoola nanospikes) that I wear over my shoes so that I can get grip on the ice. Just remember to take the spikes off before you walk on that nice hardwood floor.
You can even get studded tyres for the Brompton, though they tend to scratch the paintwork when folded so some protection for the frame is required.
Swapping tyres around for each ride to match the conditions is a right faff, so I like to have a spare set of wheels with the studded tyres on, and then one of the other sets on the bike. When the snow begins to fall I can then just swap wheels in a couple of minutes.
In the UK winter, the freeze/thaw nature of the weather can make ruts form in the ice/snow that can lead to tramlining (when the wheel sticks in the rut and you can’t steer it). Practice in these conditions when you get the chance so you know how to handle yourself when you come across them.
5 PLAN YOUR RIDE, AND RIDE YOU PLAN Most local councils will publish maps of which roads are gritted and ploughed in bad weather. Use these to help plot ice-free and clear routes; just bear in mind that they tend to be main roads, the nice, quiet country lanes tend not to attract the ice-clearing operations, not a problem with the right tyres.
Once you have a plan for your ride, let someone know where you are going, and when you intend to be back. If you have lost it on an icy corner in the middle of nowhere with no phone signal, it increases the chance someone can find you. I carry an iridium tracker on my bike for this purpose. If I have an accident, people know where to start looking. ❝ … It’s great fun cycling with confidence past everyone slipping and sliding on normal tyres
❞
6 CHECK THE WEATHER FORECAST Check what the weather is going to do. It may be beautiful blue skies, if a bit chilly now, but in a few hours’ time rain falling on those cold roads will turn to ice. I had this happen on an Audax in Belgium last year. I had to take bigger ice-free main roads as the back roads the Audax followed were just too dangerous.
If you are doing DIY rides, consider planning multiple rides in different directions, then choosing closer to the time once the wind direction is clearer. I have a few 200km routes planned ready to go, listed as “easterly 200”, “westerly 200” for instance, so I can pick which way to ride the route to take advantage of a good wind.
7 HOW ILLUMINATING Even if you think you can do your ride entirely in day light, don’t forget lights. You may be slower than expected, or a mechanical may hold you up. Always take lights with you.
Under UK law when cycling in poor visibility (night and fog), your bike should have a front white light, a red rear light, a rear red reflector, and reflectors on the pedals. That is the minimum you need on your bike to be legal. The decision on whether to carry additional lights or wear additional reflective material is left to each individual.
Note that if cycling abroad, other jurisdictions may have other requirements, though in theory you just need to meet the requirements of the Vienna Convention if you’re a tourist. It is worth carrying a small headtorch to use if you need to fix a mechanical.
8 CHARGE! All the batteries in your lights, your GPS, even your phone, perform less well when the temperature drops. That GPS that lasts all day in summer, may need a top up to survive the same length of time when the mercury drops. Furthermore when they are cold, they don’t charge as well. Warming your GPS up for a couple of minutes in your jersey before you put it on charge can improve things a bit.
For lights that take individual cells, non-rechargeable lithium batteries have the best performance in low temperatures. I use these in my batterypowered rear lights. There’s not much you can do about this one, other than knowing it may happen, making sure you have an extra battery pack and the ability to recharge your devices at controls/stops.
9 BIKE The low mess, super-efficient dry lubes you’ve been using all summer won’t last the first of the autumn rains. It’s worth splashing out on a quality wet lube designed for cold conditions. Re-applied after every wet ride, this should keep your drive train running smoothly.
Don’t forget to check the lubrication of other parts of the bike; riding through deep water can easily wash the grease out of bearings.
In really cold conditions the grease used in most bike parts starts to gel and
❞
stop lubricating. The lube used by Shimano, Son, and SP gels at around minus 20C. It will become more viscous as it approaches this temperature. The only manufacturer that has openly declared that their grease works to lower temperatures is Hope, who use a grease rated to minus 50C. If you’re cycling at temperatures where grease gelling is likely to be a problem, you probably are riding beyond the scope of this article.
When washing your bike, be careful where the water goes. A couple of winters ago, I cycled to work to find my colleagues that normally cycle had had to walk. Turns out they had a bit of water (from rain), in their brake cables, and their brakes were frozen.
10 DISCRETION IS THE BETTER PART OF VALOUR Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. If the weather conditions really are bad, consider if it’s a better idea to shelve your plans and do the ride another day. Risking it and breaking your arm on ice in January can ruin the rest of the cycling year. Winter cycling can be amazing, but there’s no reason to take needless risk.
If you do opt to forgo a ride, that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy winter cycling vicariously. Books such as Dare to Do by Sarah Outen, A Siberian Winter’s Tale by Helen Lloyd, and What Goes Around by Emily Chappell, are great reads curled up next to a warm fire.
❞
