Only a short ride this morning but 8.30am and 3 riders turned up at my house. Temp was just above freezing so I was prepared. 4 layer day for me with wicking vest- short sleeve jersey- The assos winter long sleeve and a windproof over the top. I was tossing up between the Knickers or the tights and went for the tights. then the winter gloves- ski mask and booties. It was still cold but I was called a woose by the other 3----till about 1/2 mile in and the others decided I had made the right choice.

Several reasons for the ride today. Son-in-Law wanted to find out how long it would take him to cycle into his new job and that is going to be 45 minutes. Then it was off to the Eastbourne 1/2 marathon to see the local bike clubs stand at the event. Sorry but I thought we were going back to it so didn't worry about pics at this stage but a few top end road bikes on show. Including a couple of race Cervellos and a several Giant TCR's in various versions.

What they also had were 3 Watt Bikes. Upright bike with displays and Bells and lights and the idea was to do 1,000metres as a time trial and it showed the number of watts you generated . The other 3 had a race and the fit rider did not win. Mike is fit and generated 401 watts in 2 mins 7 seconds. Ross was 397 watts in 2mins 1 second but the winner out of the 3 was Martyn- the heavy tall overweight lump in 1 min 54secs and 450 watts. Just shows who has the overrall speed from a cold start. I do have a video of this and will post later.

From there it was down for a coffee and breakfast - just to get out of the wind. Temp was still around freezing but an Easterly from Siberia at around 15mph was taking all body heat away. Different route back and it was mainly on main roads. Although there was a cycle track for the 3 ft from the kerb-it is surprising how many cars were getting very close to us.

So only 30 miles covered at a leisurely pace and the other 3 were brass monkeys by the time we got back- Thanks to my foresight- Or Wooseness- I stayed nice and warm but would have prefered to lose a layer or two with the slopes we took in after breakfast. Just glad to get out and do the first sensible ride of the year.

All hail the wuss!

I am 100% down with appropriate layering. I see nothing noble about shivering for several hours just to show you can take it. After all, isn't wisdom supposed to be one of the benefits of being 50+?

Lets see if this worked--Seems to but this is the 3 lads on the Watt bikes.
From right to left it is Ross- Martyn- Mike.

The times I gave in the initial posting are wrong and you can see that by the attachment of Martyns summary.

Sorry about the vid being at 90deg for the first part- just something for me to remember for next time.

And the Blue bike you see in the background is Ross's boss's Time trial bike. Hot from a 25 mile TT earlier in the morning that I presume he didn't win as he wasn't crowing about it

Ross got the results from the Watt meter trial today. They split the results into two with Road riders and Non Riders. As we do not belong to a club or race- our 3 were classed as Non Riders. Martyn was way out on top of the Non riders and would have done well with the road riders. Ross came 5th. and Mike 6th. In fact we are now being chased to join the club from the results as the 3 Non- Riders showed up several of the club racers.

Luckilly- The woose's dragged me off to the cafe to get warm before I could have a go so I can't tell you how low down I would have come.