South Bucks Midweek Cycling Newsletter - September 2024

A special screening of James Erskine’s acclaimed documentary about doomed Italian cycling star Marco Pantani, with an intro and Q&A by Matt Rendell, on whose book the film is based.

After winning the 1998 Tour de France cycle race, Marco Pantani was the biggest name in Italian sport, a national icon, loved by all sections of society – but within six years, he was dead.

Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist tells the story of a great champion and his rapid demise, asking whether such an eccentric loner ever stood a chance in the face of the malign forces within professional cycling and Italian society.

We are delighted to have ITV Tour de France commentator and author Matt Rendell joining us to introduce the screening. The film is based on Matt’s book The Death of Marco Pantani and Matt is known as one of the best-placed and most insightful observers of professional cycling of the last 30 years. There will be also a chance to ask Matt questions after the screening.

You may have used the Midweek Locations map on our website to find a starting place or a cafe, but did you know that you can save them in your GPS device to navigate to them?  The instructions below assume that you are using a PC and have a Garmin GPS; I expect you can do the same on other devices, so if you succeed, please let me know.

• Click on the link below to take you to the map on our website
• Click on the Share and Download icon on the LHS of the map.
• Click on the gpx icon in the window that opens.
• A small file called "south_bucks_midweek_cycling.gpx" will be downloaded to the Downloads folder on your PC; highlight and copy it.
• Connect your Garmin to your PC using a cable from a USB port.
• When the Garmin is detected as a Memory device, open the Garmin folder, then the New Files folder within that.
• Paste the copied file into the New Files folder
• Disconnect the Garmin from the PC.

When next you turn on your Garmin, it will read the south_bucks_midweek_cycling.gpx file, decide that it is a set of locations rather than a route and add those locations to the Saved Locations in your Garmin.  They will appear on the map on your Garmin labelled with their names.  If you want to navigate to one of them, use Search>Saved Locations to see them listed and select the one you want.

Cycle Care seeks a part time (or possibly full time)
mechanic/technician to run our busy Workshop and fit
in with our friendly, enthusiastic small team.
Must be experienced/knowledgeable in these key areas:
Bleeding disc brakes
Fitting/setting up Shimano Di2 & SRAM eTap AXS
Doing Tubeless tyre conversions
Fitting dropper seat posts
Servicing & repairing all types of bikes
We offer a flexible 5 day working week, 28 days holiday
(including bank holidays) and a competitive salary
depending on experience plus staff pricing. A pro-rata
package can be tailored to a part time position which
might suit someone looking to have a career change or
semi-retirement.
Apply directly to Simon on 01494 447908 or email him
at: [email protected]

My tour in the Douro valley in northern Portugal involved a lot of steep climbs and descents.  The heat generated by braking on long fast descents turned my front disc from silver to straw coloured, like motorcycle exhaust pipes often do. It made me think about the amount of kinetic energy involved.  As those who studied physics or engineering know kinetic energy = 0.5mv^2.  If we assume that the rider plus bike plus luggage weighs 95 kg and the speed before braking is 50 km/h and the bike stops in 8 seconds that means that nearly 15kW has to be dissipated!  This ignores lots of factors, like wind resistance, not all of the energy goes into the front disc and the disc is still very hot when you have stopped so the heat is lost over a longer period of time.  It makes you think though doesn't it!  Maybe I am wrong and the better mathematicians amongst you can put me straight.

I spent eight days cycling in the Douro Valley in northern Portugal in June 2024 with two friends.  We flew to Porto with our bikes in boxes and had a taxi transfer to our first (and last) hotel twenty minutes’ drive away.  While we waited for our room to be available, we went to a nearby bakery café for croissants and coffee.  When we came to pay we thought there was a mistake; five coffees and various cakes and croissants came to 10.50 Euros!  But no, good coffee was 1 Euro, an experience repeated in villages and towns throughout our trip.

See the attachment below if you want to read more and see a few pictures.