I must be mad. But then we all knew that ;). Still, this wasn’t even a sportive, and I was still up at 4:45am and heading out into the darkness by 5:30am. The only thing that got a decent night’s sleep was my bike, all tucked up in the back of the car! But since the Tour of Pembrokeshire is run by my friend Peter, and he had asked me to come down to do the Prologue ride, who was I to say no? Plus he’d arranged for me to do it on a Bianchi Infinito test bike, and it would be rude to say no to that too, now wouldn’t it? ;).
Actually, odd though it may sound, that was the part of the day that was worrying me most! I’ve done the Tour of Pembrokeshire twice, in 2012 and 2013, albeit extremely slowly. I know how hilly it is. But I know that, on my bike, I can do it. But on an unfamiliar bike, with a different set up, different gearing (Campag not Shimano), and probably less of those gears too? *gulp*. I have to admit that I was half hoping that it wouldn’t fit me at all and that I’d end up riding my bike instead, which at least I’m more than familiar with. But faint heart never won fair sportive, so I was prepared to MTFU and at least give it a go.
It was an uneventful drive, although with a surprising amount of other road traffic for that time of morning. HQ for the Prologue was in Newport. No, not that Newport, the one much further away that you’ve never heard of. Let’s just say it involves a bridge and around three hours driving. It’s just as well the satnav did the last section cross country as zooming down a dark and featureless motorway was sending me back to sleep and the wiggly country lanes woke me up a bit. Once there I found Llys Meddyg almost by accident, and no, I can’t pronounce it either. It’s a very nice restaurant with rooms which was not just HQ for the ride but also home for the night – six hours driving in one day not having appealed all that much.
I was, as ever, a little early. However one of the few people I came across was Dan, from Bianchi, who was just starting to unload and set up bikes. Chances are that one of them was due to be mine, right? So we had a chat, and I left him with my woefully outclassed Cube, to transfer my well worn saddle and pedals across to my shiny new 50cm toy and set it up so I could test it out a bit first. And btw, that’s pretty much all the spec details I can give you at the mo, though Dan is going to email me more at some point. What can I say, I leave bike geeking to the boys ;). As far as I was concerned it was light and pwerty *grin*.
(Dan has informed me that apparently it was a 2014 Bianchi Infinito CV with Campagnolo Chorus 11 Speed. The standard bike is supplied with Fulcrum Racing Quattro wheels and the RRP would be £4200. However, my bike had been upgraded with Fulcrum Racing Speed XLR Tubulars which would bump the RRP up to £7100. Blimey!)
Slowly men in lycra gathered. And even one other woman – hi Suze! We drank coffee. And faffed. Well, at least I did. Not too much of the coffee mind, it being a bib tights day! 😉 I couldn’t decide what else to wear though. It wasn’t as cold as I has expected, but I also knew it wouldn’t be fast and flat, it would be hilly and hot and then chilly and down. Luckily I hadn’t brought too many options with me so it really boiled down to winter hat vs birthday Buff, winter gloves vs mitts & overgloves. Should you care, I went with the latter choice in both instances.
Time to see if the Infinito fitted, and worked, and if I was up to riding it. Dan handed it over, without looking unduly worried that I was going to trash it which was impressive considering how out of my league it clearly was! I carefully negotiated the riders milling around the car park to get to the road, having no wish to risk making an idiot of myself in front of an audience. I went down the main road and back and it seemed to work. The Campag changing was different, though not impossible, but the saddle felt a bit low, so Dan rectified this and I did the same again. Better. It appeared that I could ride the thing on the flat at least, and I wasn’t going to head out far enough off to find a hill just to find out how that would work. That could wait. Hey, I can always walk up hills, right?
All set then. Peter organised the 25 or so riders into groups. Fast or first, medium ish, and then us – being the slow group. Well, Jim and the fast lot all looked kinda serious and I know better than to mess with that kind of testosterone! After a little longer getting all the riders ready – which is a bit like juggling jelly, or possibly more appropriately herding cats – 15 or so of us headed finally off around 9:30am. The Prologue route was set to be around 45 miles, taking in some of the climbs from the main event, as well as some more unfamiliar bits, to give us a taste of the real thing. 45 miles and 4,900 feet of climbing!
As we set off I was not feeling great, but had to remind myself that it was a cold day, on a new bike,, and that we were going up hill almost straight away – so it was taking me a while to warm up. So I hung in there, chatted away, discussed my very expensive steed, with wheels that cost more than my entire bike, with various other riders including some other lucky test riders, and waited for things to get better. Which they did. Our group spread out quite a lot, and regrouped a lot, giving me time to catch my breath from time to time. Eventually we stopped being quite so Group and ended up as two groups which, somewhat pleasingly, put me in fast/slow rather than slow/slow. Gratifying, in a very shallow way ;). There was one really long climb that didn’t bother me too much, but the first really big hill, that I recall from the main route where it comes around 42 miles in and killed me last year, was Moylegrove. It’s wiggly, goes on for quite some time, and is also quite steep. I ran out of gears fairly early on, unsurprisingly, but I just sat down and pushed up in my usual way, and although it was bl**dy hard work, I did make it up. Which was what my PMA needed. If that was once of the worse hills, which I knew it was, me and the Infinito were going to get by :).
Which pretty much set the scene for the rest of the ride, with Tom leading the way (he’s the skinny fast looking one in blue). Country lanes, ups, and downs. Group riding for a while, spread out on the hills, drop me off the back. Regroup at the top. Then repeat. This works quite well if you’re me – as I get to pootle away at my own speed, admire the scenery, reach the top, and then get company again when I’m suffering less!
I had the odd problem changing gear under load, maybe because I didn’t always get the switching right. User error? The chain came off twice, I had to climb one, luckily short, steep hill totally out of the saddle in the lowest top ring gear, and one I had to stop altogether and spin the pedals manually to get it to change down. But hey, teething problems? See – gear, cogs, teeth…? ;). Nonetheless I made it up the hills, even the last killer one. I wish there had been some more flat though. Not for the usual reasons though. I wanted to play with the toy more! On the few occasions when we got the chance, the odd stupid hurtling sprint was WAY fun. I don’t know if it was the wheels, or the bike, but man, it was responsive. Kick off, and it kicked off! I’m thinking that given some decent flat or a sprint finish, that bike and I could kick some serious arse! And downhill? Also very, very good. 45.4mph good :D. I was a bit more cautious than I would be on my bike though, just because I wasn’t sure how it would handle, or corner, or brake, and I didn’t want to find anything out the hard way! Apparently braking on carbon rims is different? It certainly seemed to stop more than ok though (which I’m very keen on!), but with a bit of a whine on slowing, and the occasional squeal when really called into play. I was warned it would be a problem in the wet, but it wasn’t, so it wasn’t. The inside gear levers were tricky for my little hands to change when down on the drops, and having them there under the thumbs when riding normally felt a bit weird, but I guess you get used to that. On top of that I did get quite a lot of road noise through the bars sometimes, but I think that’s probably more a wheel thing?
Yes, yes, I know, this is the least technical review of a bike that you’ve ever read. But man, if there was any way I could get my hands on one permanently, albeit with normal wheels that don’t get blown sideways in the wind, then I so would! Anyone want to buy my soul so that I can afford one? ;).
Talk about a great way to spend a morning. Four hours of riding a fabulous bike around lovely scenery in good company? Definitely worth the three hour drive and the early start. The only downside was having to give back my new toy afterwards! *sob*. So I spent the rest of the afternoon/evening debriefing with other lycra fetishists and drowning my sorrow in white wine. Which also wasn’t entirely unpleasant *grin*. However, whatever you’re going to be riding it on, if you’re after a lovely sportive to do next year – well organised, challenging, with stunning scenery, and more…put this one in your diary now and sign up before it sells out!
Cycling time: 3:18 hrs.
Distance: 43.7 miles.
Avs: 13.2 mph.
