MUCKERS French Adventure Race Night. 27/07/23
Rouvy Route used: Col du Chaussy (St-Jean) | France | 11.85 miles | 3425ft climbing
Route 3 from the French Challenge
36 Registered | 23 finishers | 4 DNF | 9 DNS
Tactics Tactics Tactics! What to do when the route has a few miles of flat, almost downhill before the proper climb begins! flat out at the beginning to make up as much distance while you can or hold back so you are strong on the climb??
All that really matters to some though is this is finally the last of the French Hill climbs (if you’ve followed the Muckers Schedule) and that’s the best feeling ever!
After being left off the podium on Tuesdays climb, I think todays winner “karel_sousek” was on a mission! finishing in a superb 53 minutes and a nice 33 seconds in front of the super strong “JoseCostaRonda” who made a nice return to the Muckers races for a silver finish!
We then get a great surprise in 3rd with new Muckers Worldwide team rider “Berty-Bassett6” getting this done in under 60 minutes and getting the Bronze! Welcome to the team and i hope you enjoy the races!
Fellow Brit “robbiedoo” gets a very nice 4th place today, with “Tuden” in a very out of sorts 5th place and only just in front of the 2nd Muckers Worldwide rider in the top 10 “MikeHagen” in 6th. 7th comes the 3rd Brit in the top 10 “srichards” then the 3rd and last Mucker in the top 10 “kin_kwan” with a superb ride to 8th place.
last2 deserved mentions go to “transberg” in a safe 9th place and 10th place to the strong German rider “Loki1972” who held off 4 Muckers Worldwide riders in claiming the final mention!
Well done to everyone else who finished! this was a tough climb and i hope you did as well as you hoped!
See you all on Tuesday for the Start of the “Down Under” challenge championship! Don’t miss the first race and the chance to get the points on the board nice and early!
Just the usual endings: ( over explained as per usual though…..)
if you’ve raced on a Muckers race, you now have the right to use Muckers Worldwide as your team name, if you so wish
if you want to join us then that’s amazing on its own, but if you want to join the WhatsApp group chat with some fellow Muckers then drop me a message with your mobile and I’ll add you and you can either sit back and just watch the chat, or jump in whenever you like. there’s about 20 of us on there now and tonight we all actively encouraged our fellow Mucker “Swifty” up this climb tonight and to catch and pass a rider just before the line! 6 of us actually got together in Belgium earlier this month to ride in the real world together and we hope to get together again next year it was that successful!
And finally, thank you to those of you that have purchased some merchandise! This is what will keep the site going, no subscriptions or charges, just buy something😉. And, remember Muckers, if you think of anything we should be selling, just drop us a message or a comment and we will get right on it. We love any suggestions.
| # | Cat. | User | Age | Team | Racetime | GAP | AV,mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Men |  karel_sousek | 40-49 | CK Vinohradské Šlapky | 0:53:24.5 | 13.31 | |
| 2 | Men |  JoseCostaRonda | 40-49 | G. D. A Ronda | 0:53:58.1 | 0:00:33.6 | 13.17 |
| 3 | Men |  Berty-Bassett6 | 50-59 | Muckers Worldwide | 0:58:39.3 | 0:05:14.8 | 12.12 |
| 4 | Men | robbiedoo | 50-59 | Eastbourne Rovers CC | 0:59:31.5 | 0:06:06.9 | 11.94 |
| 5 | Men |  Tuden | 40-49 | Flø Garage Cycling | 1:00:47.7 | 0:07:23.2 | 11.69 |
| 6 | Men |  MikeHagen | 60+ | Muckers Worldwide | 1:01:01.5 | 0:07:36.1 | 11.65 |
| 7 | Men | srichards | 40-49 | 1:04:10.1 | 0:10:45.6 | 11.08 | |
| 8 | Men | kin_kwan | 40-49 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:05:45.2 | 0:12:20.7 | 10.81 |
| 9 | Men | tranberg | 30-39 | CK GOG | 1:06:14.6 | 0:12:50.3 | 10.73 |
| 10 | Men |  Loki1972 | 50-59 | 1:07:09.5 | 0:13:44.1 | 10.59 | |
| 11 | Men | Chak | 50-59 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:09:04.7 | 0:15:40.2 | 10.29 |
| 12 | Men |  Svard | 50-59 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:10:31.4 | 0:17:06.8 | 10.08 |
| 13 | Men |  SwissChris69 | 50-59 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:12:30.7 | 0:19:06.2 | 9.8 |
| 14 | Men | uffzynda | 50-59 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:14:51.2 | 0:21:26.7 | 9.5 |
| 15 | Men |  Squalo_delle_Alpi | 40-49 | Shark Attack | 1:16:34.3 | 0:23:09.8 | 9.28 |
| 16 | Men | Mucker1974 | 40-49 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:19:23.7 | 0:25:59.1 | 8.95 |
| 17 | Men |  Andy_UP | 40-49 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:25:36.9 | 0:32:12.4 | 8.3 |
| 18 | Men | DolphWader | 50-59 | MTB Crash Boys | 1:26:51.9 | 0:33:27.3 | 8.18 |
| 19 | Men | Mick_Michel | 40-49 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:31:11.3 | 0:37:46.8 | 7.8 |
| 20 | Men |  stelviobound | 60+ | 1:31:47.3 | 0:38:22.8 | 7.75 | |
| 21 | Men | gkientzy | 60+ | 1:35:01.7 | 0:41:37.2 | 7.48 | |
| 22 | Men | Swifty | 40-49 | Muckers Worldwide | 1:36:32.5 | 0:43:07.1 | 7.36 |
| 23 | Men | mossboss | 40-49 | Late Shift | 2:14:17.6 | 1:20:52.5 | 5.29 |
| dnf | Men |  jakimati | 50-59 | Pegate Ahi | dnf | – | |
| dnf | Men |  wielkiblekit | 40-49 | dnf | – | ||
| dnf | Men | Arco69 | 50-59 | dnf | – | ||
| dnf | Men | mrump | 50-59 | Cycle for Hope | dnf | – |
I decided flat out start and was soon in a trio with Chak and MikeHagen in 5th/6th and 7th. Stayed in this group till the bottom of the climb then tried to get into a comfortable zone for the climb and aim for a 90 minute finish which I worked out as +6mph speed and nothing below! One by one riders came past me ( not one said hello!) until i was in 20th and no more threats from behind. kept the speed over 6mph and knew if I just kept this up, I was on for smashing the 90 minute target. 3 riders quit so I was 17th and then I caught and passed Andy_UP, who had passed me at the bottom of the hill, and who had obviously bonked, and considering this was his first ride back after his vacation, I’m not suddenly thinking it was a full on equal fitness/competitive move. But it was still nice that I could maintain the effort on the whole climb and catch, pass and then hold him off. Got to the top in under 80 minutes and was very happy with the effort and pace.
well done to be under 80 minutes. Good job to be with Chak and Mike to the bottom of the hill. Rouvy should have a hand-waving option on the avatar. LoL
Dear Neil, in the shop you can’t add products that could be used for our indoor competitions??? Like light shirts, cuffs or sweatband always branded Muckers 😜
That’s an excellent idea! we will look into it over the next few days. Thank you!
After Tourmalet on Tuesday, is there anything left for Chaussy on Thursday? The downhill 5.5 km to the base of the climb was glitched for me: the video, avatars, nearby list, and drafting bar were all out of sync, and I could only tell where I was by watching the nearby panel. Spent most of the time (I think!) pulling Mucker mates Chak and Neil to the base of the climb, so that was fine. Suddenly saw Berty-Bassett6 just ahead when starting up the switchbacks at Montvernier, and set off chasing after him. I had some foolish idea that I could do 4.0 W/kg all the way up. Actually did that the first third of the climb, by then Robbiedoo had caught and passed me (huh? what was he drinking?), but we’d both caught up to Tuden (did he have too much for supper?). I faded a bit over the last half of the climb, and/or Tuden asserted himself and pulled away, but at least I stayed safely ahead of srichards who’d caught me on Tuesday. All-in-all, very, very pleased with the two races this week. And, others have said this and I want to pipe in, many thanks to Neil for organizing the Mucker races.
Another climb, I must climb 10,000m+ for the month of July. I couldn’t catch up with the fast group during the flat section, I was #16 at the bottom of the hill. Just rode at my pace and was able to catch up one by one. It was a great motivation to chase down the person in front. “tranberg” was the tough one to catch and distance. Managed to hold the 30 seconds gap at the finish line. Very pleased with the #8 finish.
I was pleased to see you pop up on the Nearby list not far behind me. You did very well!
Well that was a surprise ! The graphics were out for me as well at the beginning and I had been messing with settings so thought it was user error again ! Glad it wasn’t just me ! Didn’t really know what was happening until bottom of the climb where I caught myself up , being a newbie I didn’t recognise some of the names so didn’t know what to expect , I am beginning to recognise some that I know will catch , trample and leave battered given half the chance so I was just trying my best to hold a small gap from the people nipping at my heels , kinda glad hrm wasn’t working as I think there’s a good chance I disobeyed doctors orders as well as common logic ! Really enjoyed it again thank you –
Another nice uphill race, this time I said to myself I’ll push harder than usual on the flat section and then we’ll do the climb as it comes… in fact, in the first section between the staggered video and the descent, I enjoyed the feeling of being in 8th place, but I knew I was going to abruptly wake up from this dream. Beautiful climb, trying to find the right feeling. When I saw SwissChris69, uffzynda and Andy Up behind me, I already knew that I had to suffer and I couldn’t hold on to them. To my surprise after a few km, Andy Up had perhaps run out of fuel and so I went to bite him, and when I saw Neil in the mirrors shortly after, I had to try to see his moves, because I already know he could attack me. In the end a good 15th and excellent second uphill challenge 💪.
A mention also to wielkiblekit… you drove me crazy, you looked like Udini, you appeared and disappeared in front of me…. see you next challenge 🤙
Apologies for not being able to join you all in the final leg of the French challenge. Unfortunately, I had to accompany my wife to the gym, which seemed rather unnecessary. I had already completed the challenge the day before, and it was quite challenging. Congratulations to everyone who participated, conquering the 3500 climb at nearly 4W/KG is no easy feat. Anyway, I’ll be back and ready to race with you all next week.
I had a great training week with the hills of Flanders with the Muckers, then a 1 week vacation with a lot of standing and walking and no bike, so I did not know what to expect. I wanted to ride at 90% of my FTP and see how long I could hold, as some sort of a test. After an half an hour I was empty, after an hour I started to get sick. The bad feeling didn’t go away by sleeping, so I think something was already brewing. Heal_UP hopefully by the start of the championship.
Mountain goats race again. Better prepared than on Tue and after tasty “livers” lunch i knew i could do better. No Simon and Nelson, but Tuden who went on early breakaway after start. Following Costa, until we got to the climb. Positions switched, Costa leading with 80m ahead of me and Tuden. Like on Tue i focused on pace, but with doing ~10w more i started closing gap step by step. Finally Costa caught. Very tiny difference, but i was able to hold pace till the end. More than happy! Thanks organizers and all brave one’s who joined!
All well done, congratulations. Tour de France is taking place virtually here! 😉
After the “hard” (too many in a row) training days of last week, I wasn’t able to perform to my full potential [insert lame excuse]. Like at the Col de Tourmalet on Tuesday, I virtually collapsed uphill 🥵, giving others the chance to overtake [other lame excuse]. It was again a brilliant race night and I feel honoured to see so many enthusiastic professionals on my TV screen! Impressive, most impressive! But you are not a Jedi yet. 😂. By the way, it won’t last so long anymore until Rouvy will promote me to “Professional” (rank 48 now).
See you next time, hopefully hopefully I’ll be recovered by then 🤕.
After 3 weeks of holiday in the Alps and a lot of cycling, I was pretty optimistic that I was in good shape (whatever that means 😉 ); even though I’m not really a mountain goat and the course scared me a bit.
Already on the descent it was strange. I had no chance of holding on to the rear wheel of my usual rivals. When it came to the climb, I thought: ‘OK, nothing’s going to work today. My watts were down and my pulse was at the limit. Something was wrong. Then an idea. Power meter not properly calibrated? So I quickly recalibrated: watts and heart rate were back to what I expected. But all the others were already far away…
I decided to ride anyway. It was a tough climb, but somehow also a cool one. I managed to overtake two teammates on the way up. In the end it was a great training session.
I’m sure the next race will be better for me and without any technical difficulties… hopefully 😉