Beacon RCC Skegness 500km Club Run Saturday 6th July 2019 06.00am

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ballintrane
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Beacon RCC Skegness 500km Club Run Saturday 6th July 2019 06.00am

Post by ballintrane » 20 Aug 2018 10:51

Following on from this years 400km club run as promised we will undertake a 500km in 24hrs or less club ride to Skegness(The Las Vegas of the east coast).

Potential stops :-

75km Hugglescote/Coalville - Cafe/Shops
115km Melton Mowbray - Cafes/Shops
167km Sleaford - Cafe's
244km Skegness - Fish and Chips(Train station)
337km Bourne - Co-op(Before 11pm)
354km Stamford - 24hr Petrol Station
392km Tugby - Vince Tennant Portable Cafe
444km Bedworth - 24hr Petrol Station
450km Corley - 24hr Motorway Services

The only real bailout option is Skegness or if anyone wants to ride there with us and catch the train back you're more than welcome.

https://www.facebook.com/events/246970492814044/

https://www.facebook.com/events/300909613845940/

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28288619
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ballintrane
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Re: Beacon RCC Skegness 500km Club Run Saturday 6th July 2019 06.00am

Post by ballintrane » 19 Feb 2019 14:32

In preparation for this ride and also Nick Shenton's 300km ride i will be doing two 200km club rides in May.

Sunday 5th May 2019 at 07:45am start to Towcester.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/29290508?beta=false

Sunday 26th May 2019 at 07:45am start to Leominister/Malvern
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/29290506?beta=false

More details nearer the time.
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Rod Goodfellow
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Re: Beacon RCC Skegness 500km Club Run Saturday 6th July 2019 06.00am

Post by Rod Goodfellow » 19 Feb 2019 17:23

Training for the Mersey Roads 24hr TT?

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ballintrane
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Re: Beacon RCC Skegness 500km Club Run Saturday 6th July 2019 06.00am

Post by ballintrane » 16 May 2019 14:12

Just a quick note about a new additional stop at 392 km in Tugby(Fox and Hounds pub car park).Thanks to Vincent Tennant and more especially his better half who will be meeting us with fresh supplies and god forbid if any one wanted to bail out a lift home(but that would be frowned upon😠).
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ballintrane
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Re: Beacon RCC Skegness 500km Club Run Saturday 6th July 2019 06.00am

Post by ballintrane » 19 Jun 2019 17:13

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WorcsPhil
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Re: Beacon RCC Skegness 500km Club Run Saturday 6th July 2019 06.00am

Post by WorcsPhil » 08 Jul 2019 11:46

A big thanks to Paul Johnson for organising an epic day out to Skegness, the Naples of Lincolnshire, at the weekend. Yes, a 500kms ride is not to be sniffed at, and amazingly TEN people were at the Black Horse on Saturday morning, where less that 5 were expected. Some were prepared for arctic winters, laden like packhorses preparing for a month-long expedition across the Serengeti, whereas, Vince had nothing. One water bottle, summer kit, no bags, no lights. Cyclists carry more on their 4kms commute.

Anyway, we set off at 6:10 ten minutes late which immediately put Paul into a bad mood, and whistled across the suburbs of Solihull on quiet roads at that time in the morning. Into the countryside, and the rider banter picked up as the day warmed up. As usual, Paul had selected only the finest eating establishments in the Midlands at which to stop. Not.

Our first stop at Coalville after 77kms was a sandwich shop who opened the vast rear garden for us to luxuriate amongst the peacocks, but in reality was a 6ft by 3ft alleyway next to the bins, but the food was good and plentiful and filled a gap...Onwards as a well-run machine of ten and the road flattened out almost as if we were in Lincolnshire. Stopping at Melton Mowbray for a pork pie briefly before our main stop at Sleaford. Refreshed again and it was a 80kms section across the vast flatlands and into Skegness, christened SkegVegas for the day. All the way up, we had been telling Alberto, that Skeggie was indeed like Santorini and prepare to be amazed, but we couldn't see the sea because of the plethora of amusement centres and shell-suits, and to be honest none of us could be bothered to cycle the 100 yards through the takeaway joints to see the sea, only to be under-whelmed, so we left telling Alberto that he should take his family there for a week to truly understand the delights...but before we left, we all had to have a big dollop of fish, chips and mushy peas each...wonderful.

After Skeggie, we had over 100kms of flatlands, where the altitude didn't rise above 15m above sea level. This kept the pace high, and by the time we got to the Co-op at Bourne (337kms), we were averaging 29.5kph. Here, we sang Happy Birthday to an emotional Paul, and I urge you to watch the facebook video clip of this moment, there won't be a dry eye in the house. Now, it was getting dusk, and the Rutland hills began almost as soon as we left Bourne. I don't know what it is about cycling in the dark, but you think you're rattling along at a good clip, but you're not, so the pace dropped considerably. Luckily, Jon Williams kept the mood high by turning on his hidden Bluetooth speaker for a rock medley which helped as the miles kicked in...I'll forever treasure four of us singing Free Fallin' by Tom Petty at midnight as we trudged into Tugby (392kms). Here at Tugby, Vince's partner, Clare was waiting in their van, with spare bags, and food, a welcome sight indeed.

On the run in to Tugby, Nick Shenton began to struggle due to sleep deprivation, losing concentration and energy, so made the completely right decision to abandon there and take advantage of a van ride home...here, Simon Woodward also slept in his bivvy bag, so 8 of us carried on into the early hours, urged on by the thumping rock music from Jon's speaker... "it's a long way to the top, if you wanna rock n' roll..."

The last 100kms was tough, we all suffered with tiredness and fatigue, even the ever-optimist Paul began to look sullen, offering phrases such as "I don't f*****g care!" when asked what time we are likely to get back, but after a coffee stop at an abandoned Corley Service station (450kms) at 03:20, where we were the only people there, we moved on to the last section of 50kms as the dawn chorus accompanied the Rolling Stones and the warmth of the day began to warm our hearts.

So the 8 of us finished together at around 6am. What a day it was, extreme tiredness, extreme flatness, a smattering of chavviness, and plenty of belly laughs normally at the expense of one of us! I keep banging on about what a great club this is in that no matter how silly the cycling suggestion, people support you...ten people for a ride like this is daft, and it was great that it contained both super-distance people such as Simon Woodward and the ginger randonneurs to people like Alberto, where this was over 200kms further that he'd ever ridden before. Simply fantastic work, Alberto, I know you found the last 100kms desperately tough, but so did we all, perhaps we just hid it better...except Paul, who didn't hide his utter disdain for all-things cycling between 2-6am.

So thanks to all who made this a wonderful day that will live long in the memory....and will we do it again next year? Hhhhmmmm!

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ballintrane
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Re: Beacon RCC Skegness 500km Club Run Saturday 6th July 2019 06.00am

Post by ballintrane » 08 Jul 2019 12:20

You summed it up perfectly Phil i have no more to add apart from thanks to everyone who came along on this stupid idea i had for a 500km ride.As for next year err.........................No!! :D
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Re: Beacon RCC Skegness 500km Club Run Saturday 6th July 2019 06.00am

Post by Andy W » 08 Jul 2019 13:07

As always a superb right up of the day Phil from start to finish,
And a massive thanks to Paul for organizing it and for what can only be said as an amazing day out with a group of crazy group of likeminded friends and in years to come I'll look back and think WHY lol.
VIVA SKEGG VEGAS

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George
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Re: Beacon RCC Skegness 500km Club Run Saturday 6th July 2019 06.00am

Post by George » 09 Jul 2019 14:39

Many congratulations to all concerned!

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Re: Beacon RCC Skegness 500km Club Run Saturday 6th July 2019 06.00am

Post by martin mc » 09 Jul 2019 19:49

Just to say what a fab day out it was but riding through the night was extremely tough. At the end I was very tired. Well done Paul for organising it & thanks to everyone for the company on the day.

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Neil Compton
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Re: Beacon RCC Skegness 500km Club Run Saturday 6th July 2019 06.00am

Post by Neil Compton » 10 Jul 2019 16:15

Well done all and there was me thinking that the ride we did a few years ago to Weston-Super-Mare and back, was mad.

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Alberto Recchioni
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Re: Beacon RCC Skegness 500km Club Run Saturday 6th July 2019 06.00am

Post by Alberto Recchioni » 11 Jul 2019 09:23

It takes me a bit to recover both mentally and physically from what we did but here we are.

Skegness 500 has been one of the most hard-stupid-beautiful-optimistic-sadic cycling things I have done in my life.
But I am glad Paul put down the idea and I am glad to have done it with such reckless adventurers.

I am not able to recall all the bits of this venture, as Phil did, but I clearly remember that Friday night I've got a fever (37.8 C that for a man is considered extreme :P), wake up at 4 AM with shaking legs but the mind was good. So, let's go.
The hardest part has been the first 80k before the cafe. When arrived, I was already broken in pieces while the rest of troop was delighted to have a "torpedo" (isn't the name of the panini you had??).
I've got resuscitated by a coke and a hot tea and km by km I felt better up to Skegness. When arrived in Skegvegas, I was amazed by the heterogeneity of the population, by the flashing lights from the shops and by the amazing and powerful music everywhere.
When I have asked to the lieutenant marshal Johson: "paul, can we have a go to see the sea?" Paul kindly replied (while eating a pile of 25 cm height of fish&chips&somethinggreen) "no, it's **** xxx yards far from the roundabout!". I thought it was legit after 254km to avoid this additional effort.

Then what I recall the most is the night and the early set of the day where with innumerable efforts Phil and Martin (my angels :D ) keep me alive. My last 100 km can be described like when in 1999, I was trying to connect to the internet with my 56k modem in a remote village of the Apennines. Connection On - Connection Lost - Connection On - Connection Lost and etc.

However, one thing it's clear. Martin is not a human being but more probably some sort of pre-Martian villager landed in Alvechurch a while ago. I didn't see him drafting/wheelsucking anyone in 502 km, I never see him tired, battered, broken or without a smile in his face. He was always in the back, covering the troop all the way up&down to Skeggy. With one of my "look behind" he was sprinting to bring me back in the group (or at least not more than 200m far from it). I can't count the sprints he has done in the back in the last 100 km....probably 50? The initial communication between me and Martin was: "Alberto are you ok?" followed by my answers that has progressively transformed from "Martin, thanks, I am ok" to "Martin, I am tired" to "I am shit" to a lot of Italian bad words (Now, I think he's Italian dictionary allows him to survive safely at least in one of the worst district of Naples).
Again, thank you very much Martin.


well, it's done.

Thanks again troop.

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