I did the Endura Trek Lionheart last year, and enjoyed the route so much I wanted to do it again this year.  Well how many sportives do you know that start in a safari park? 😉  It has the added advantage of not being that far from here, so the alarm was set for a positively lazy 5:40am, and I actually woke up at 5:35am, thus avoiding that wrenched from the depths of sleep feeling.  Great start :).

GB picked me up at 6:20, a little earlier than planned, but what with the necessity to be inside the venue before 8:00am, it seemed like a good idea.  Unsurprisingly when I looked out of my window it was foggy, but I’m pleased to say that it cleared up fairly quickly, and, added bonus to late starting, it was also daylight as we loaded up his car.  He drove, and I wittered, fuelled by caffeine, painkillers, and nerves.  Poor GB ;).  It’s almost not far away enough to adjust to what it is that you’re about to do and get into the right frame of mind though…as before you know it, you’ve joined the queue of cars down the long drive into Longleat.

Parking is copious, free, and marshalled.  You park on the grass, but there’s gravel road in between, which minimises the puncture risk and the length of time your cleats are walking over wet grass.  I hate starting a ride with wet feet, doesn’t everyone?

marshalls managing the car park

First things first, coffee related priorities…especially has having been sent the helmet tag and bike numbers in advance there was no need to register.  I know moaning about toilets at events is one of my bugbears, but with 1200 entrants, I’m thinking 9 portable toilets may well not be enough?

queue for the toilets

However should you, as is usually the case at sportives, be tempted to go water a tree – they were very keen to remind you that this was not acceptable and, to be fair, pretty much everyone was doing as they were told, probably to avoid being thrown to the lions! 😉  The toilets may have been busy, but they were still sufficiently equipped, if smelly, so it could have been, as is often the case, worse!

Essentials done and it was time to get back to the car and start the serious business of faffing.  Having checked at least 3 weather forecasts before leaving, which were guaranteed not to agree with each other, the layering options were endless.  I went with longs, l/s jersey, winter jersey, winter hat, winter collar, mitts + over gloves, woolie boolies + overshoes, and gilet.  The saddle bag got winter gloves and a Buff just in case.  This was on the basis that the gilet, over gloves, and winter hat could be way more easily removed than a superfluous base layer.  Time to join the queue for the start, with a brief hiatus as I returned to the car having forgotten the phone that was supposed to Strava for me.  Doh!  Back again to join up with GB and Kevin, and where we also conveniently found George and Simon, which was nice.

GB, thrilled at having his photo taken 😉

Kevin, ready to go.

George and Simon resplendent in Tor 2000 kit 🙂

Getting closer to the start…

Right.  A quick rider briefing, and it was time to be on our way.  After the apocryphal and exemplary Mad March Hare, setting off and it not being pouring with rain meant we were already ahead of the game.  The surprisingly lumpy loop inside the estate and the long climb out up the drive meant that the chill started to wear off pretty quickly.  The first couple of hours of riding were fairly flat on quiet country roads.  It was a bit hairy up until the route split as there was a wide range of bikes, rider abilities, and rider experience.  Quite a lot were clearly not used to riding in groups, or in company, so it was every man for him/herself when it came to spotting road obstacles and keeping an eye out for traffic.

The route split took a lot of people by surprise.  It was at a marshalled crossroads, about 18 miles in.  The “100 mile straight on”, “100 km right” signs were down on the left hand side across the junction.  If you didn’t hear the marshalls shouting, and arrived amongst a lot of riders, or were following wheels, it was easily missed, and I already know of quite a few people who ended up accidentally doing the shorter route, and not realising until it was far far far too late!   Ooops…  Luckily this didn’t apply to us.  George and Simon were already behind us, but they made it ok.  Kevin was ahead but had likewise spotted it, as did we.  Thank goodness!  So, onwards and upwards, amongst a thinned out crowd of possibly slightly more experienced riders, which made it easier to relax into the ride.

photos taken on the move are not always in focus 😉

It’s a miracle I manage to learn anything at all these days, because my brain is clearly full of sportive routes I’ve ridden, and 80/90s song lyrics.  It’s amazing how much you remember from years past.  Having done this event before, when the bizarrely located italianate church hove into view once more, I knew I was about to reach the first food stop – about 30 miles in.

I love it when food stops are in village halls (or similar) because I get to go to the toilet in civilised fashion, and don’t have to watch lycra clad men lined up by the side of the road doing their thing.  Much nicer I’m sure you’ll agree :).

As you can see there was quite a spread laid on and it was proving very popular.  Considering my current eating issues I had to give it a miss, resorting to the gluten-free bar I was trialling, and more importantly, the next dose of combined painkillers, since there was no way I was letting them run out!  I also stashed the gilet and took the over-gloves off, both of which went in the saddle bag, and replaced the winter hat with a Buff – all as per the plan :).  In case you were wondering, that would be a plan coming together ;).

Back on the road again.  Life got a little bit lumpier for the next section, with some longer climbs, the use of some more major roads, and a couple of beautiful descents.  Shame a good descent is nearly always ruined by a junction at the bottom!  A lot of them were well marked with “Caution” signs, but the first one for the A303, although well marshalled at the bottom, could have been better marked, and the second one (also to the A303) somewhat later on came as a nasty shock.  Good thing I have new brake pads!  To be fair they got us on and off the A303 first time around, which is where the traffic is worst, very efficiently and with a smile and some banter – which is always nice 🙂

For scenic interest, along the way I tried to capture the chalk military symbols at Fovant, with limited success, but if it sparks your interest, you can see more here.

country roads, scenic views

There was a nice climb up from the A303, where I actually got teased by another rider for being a typical woman talking going uphill.  Don’t think that’s ever happened before.  It made me feel all capable *grin*.  I had a brief chat with a rider wearing my Etape jersey, but who seems to have found it a whole heap easier than I did, so I’m not sure he’s as deserving of it as me ;).  Jealous, moi? 😉  Right, 50 miles in now, time for the second food stop.

I bumped into one of my twitter friends here, who was riding as one of the Strada Cycles team, one of whom had been in front of us in the toilet queue and whom we’d chatted to.  It’s a small world after all, right?  It’s weird meeting twitter folk – it’s hard to recognise each other in person at the best of times, let alone when clad in lyrca and hiding under a helmet.  Hello Rob 🙂

decisions, decisions…

The foodstop came with food, toilets, and mechanical assistance.  Oh, and sunshine 🙂  What more do you want?  Time to take the winter collar off and stash it in a convenient pocket.

Not long after the foodstop came one of my favourite parts of the ride, which I was quite looking forward to.  Welcome to Stourhead.  Scenic, pretty, and not as crowded as it can be.  I stopped to take this photo, and had a brief chat with a couple of elderly gentleman who were enjoying watching the cyclists going through and reminiscing about when they used to do the same.  I think a lady (ok, something approximating that) in lycra on a bike was a welcome novelty for them.  I hope that’s me one day, full of happy cycling memories, but I also hope I’ll still be riding then :).

There’s an up and down through a forest section after this, which I enjoyed more last year.  This year the roads were covered in mud and a bit hazardous, especially on descents.  Luckily it was almost devoid of cars, as I was frequently on the wrong (but drier) side of the road!  After the final climb out of the valley there’s a beautiful long stretch along a ridge with awesome views before another glorious descent, and it sure does make a change after all the recent fog to actually be able to see the views!

The forest and GB.

There were three foodstops on this route which I like because it helps me mentally break the ride up into more easily manageable parts.  Especially important as I knew the worst climbs of the day were in the last quarter!  The third stop is interestingly located, about 74 miles in, halfway up quite a steep hill.  Last year I nearly failed to unclip on arrival so I wasn’t going to let that happen this year, and unclipped well in advance!  Nothing like ending up on the floor in front of an amused, though possibly sympathetic audience, to ruin your sang froid ;).

They even had coffee inside, and since the temperature had dropped a little, something warm and with a bit of a kick went down a treat.  The cakes looked lovely too, if you’re not me, and the staff both inside and out were very friendly and cheerful :).  I stuck the winter collar on again, even though I knew hills were looming, because the clouds were ooming.  And if you don’t know the verb to oom, it’s a lot like to bode.  As in bode ill, or look ominous.  Enlightened now? 😉

Can’t hang around all day though right?  Time to get the last, and most anticipated section, over and done with.  I did have to walk a little way up the hill to a marginally flatter bit to make sure I got on my bike, got going, and stayed upright though!  3 miles down the road comes the King Alfred’s Tower climb which, last year, I had to stop on twice.  Rain was threatening, the road was damp and not clean, and I seemed to have blanked out the details of the climb altogether.  Worse still they were timing it this year, which, should you look later, will probably show how lamentable my time was.  Sod the time though…because I got up in one go!  I didn’t walk.  I didn’t even stop.  I puffed my way up, leaving lesser mortals in my wake…though to be fair since I did indeed sound like a steam train they certainly heard me coming!  Somewhere with the top in sight I could feel my front wheel lifting in that slightly heart stopping way…*shudder*.  So I leant forward, redistributed my weight, crossed a few mental fingers, and kept going.  If there hadn’t been an audience I’d have been whooping when I made it over the top, but there was, so I settled for telling GB (who’s climbed it several times easily) how proud of myself I was *grin*,  Go me!

early in the climb

My achievement helped motivate my legs for a while, which was good as they were starting to flag a little and I knew there were two big climbs to come.  They were indeed large, and hard work, but at least I knew what I was letting myself in for.  Again with the forewarned is forearmed.  Massive kudos to the two long haired guys on fixies who we’d leap-frogged a couple of times, and who came back and overtook me going up these – chapeaux!  GB gets faster when he’s tired, on the basis that that way he’ll get it over and done with faster.  I’ll have you know that this is quite exasperating when I don’t!  He decided enough was enough and he needed to get back and dropped me like a stone, leaving me with Kevin who had luckily dropped back to join us, having overtaken us at my last drug top-up stop.  Well finishing a sportive on your own isn’t a lot of fun, so company was good :).  The last few miles included an extra very busy car laden loop where, as a steady stream of slowly climbing riders, we held up the traffic a treat – man I bet we were popular!  There was entirely too much last minute climbing, and we also finished by going down the (admittedly enjoyable) drive, rather than down last year’s glorious sprint finish straight.  I kinda hope they bring that back for future years.

I finished, though what with my Strava phone having given up the ghost, and my cycling computer being a tad unreliable these days, my stats are slightly cobbled together from my figures, GBs and Kevin’s Strava ride.

Cycling time: 6:10 hrs
Distance: 103 miles
AVS: 15.6 mph.
ODO: 12647 miles

I think my official time will be around 7:00hrs which, as an 18-39 female, will give me a silver time.  ‘Rah!  Last year it was 6 miles shorter, took me 15 minutes longer, and I weighed more than a stone and a half more.  A lot can change in a year no? – and this year definitely felt faster :).

We headed for the event village where free hot drinks and food were available, toons were playing, and if I had the money I could probably have bought a Trek.  The Lionheart beer nearly called my name before I remembered that beer currently disagrees with me….so I was saved from myself 😉

resting bikes

We may not have stuck together like glue, but we started together and finished together, complete with medals to prove it.

GB and medal

a smiley happy Kevin 🙂

Sadly the very lovely looking free five bean hotpot didn’t stand a snowflake in hell’s chance of agreeing with me, so I had to give that a miss too.  Having had free coffee, which was most needed and very welcome, I forgot that I could have had superlative coffee from the fabulous Claud the Butler as I did last year.  (I’m biased I think, because my first decent bike was a Claud Butler *grin*).

Time to head ’em up and move ’em out…aka head for home.  It is Mothers’ Day after all, and last I checked I qualified as one of those.  A hot bath, roast dinner, dry cava and chocolates were awaiting me…and I needed all three :).

Things I have learnt today.  I can still ride 100 miles.  Though I hurt now and will hurt more tomorrow.  Mostly in my shoulders and arms though – weird!  If I eat enough potatoes and gluten-free pasta in the days beforehand, stick to gluten-free bars on the day, and drink plenty of lemon tea Nuun, I can ride 100 miles without bonking or making my insides hurt more than they do already.  Result!  Roll on the rest of the season – I need more miles and more hills under my belt :).  Oh, and one thing more?  103 miles and camera makes for a very long blog entry! *grin*.

UPDATE: official time is 6:59:47 which is indeed a SILVER :D.

The sanity of the cyclist is frequently debatable…

At 5:15am this morning, GB texted me to say was I awake, was I keen, and were we doing it anyway?  This makes more sense when you consider that it was already raining, all of 5C, and not forecast to be any better where we were going.  In fact the forecast for B47 6AJ included a not inconsiderable wind that was due to change direction halfway through the ride (yes, headwind all day) and the possibility of snow, whichever weather website I used – and believe me I have a whole range of those at my fingertips.  Despite all of this, I replied in the affirmative 3 times :).  Clearly I was awake, and I was caffeine fuelled keen, and not going back to bed anytime soon, so we might as well be doing it anyway, right?  Besides this was to be my first event riding and writing for Cyclosport, it was my first “proper” sportive of the season, I’ve done it three times before and it’s become my annual season starter, and I’d paid for it!  So even if weather related bailing was the kind of thing I do, which it isn’t, it so wasn’t going to happen today.

The same cannot be said for around 250 of the 500 people signed up to do the event.  Not so much DNF as DNA.  Bunch of lightweights the lot of you ;).  Having said that…

It rained on us all the way up the M5.  It was raining when we parked in the large field next to the shed building that was HQ.  It rained as we trudged across the long wet grass to sign in, which took no time at all.  Over more muddy grass to use the portable loos – two of which were set aside for females, which was much appreciated.  Back to the car to stand in the rain assembling bikes, attaching numbers, faffing around deciding on layers.  GB told me, quite rightly, to stop faffing and put on as much as I could.  As is frequently the case, he was right, and I should have paid more attention.  I did put on more than I was going to, but as it turns out, not as much as I could have or should have.

The view of the weather at the start.

Back to HQ to meet up with the BW, and another trip through the grass and mud to the toilet – darn that morning coffee.  This had the unfortunate side effect of meaning that my feet were soaked through already – from the bottom up – not a good start.  The BW finally arrived.  In shorts, having lost one of his legwarmers yesterday…  I refrained from the urge to tell him that this was a somewhat debatable decision, since he has one mother already, and I have my own children to tell off!  But still…!

Cyclists hiding in the HQ and putting off heading out into the weather for as long as possible!

Cyclists gathering at the start line.

Time to get going as we were already wet and cold and not getting any warmer hanging around.  Numbers and start times were noted down by the organisation and we were on our way.  Oh man it was cold out there!  It was clearly going to take longer than the usual twenty minutes to warm up…  In fact the closest I came to warm was the first hill of any note about 12km/8miles in.  I think I pulled my zip down a couple of inches, from whence it went back up again pretty darn quickly as soon as I reached the top!   And that was it for sartorial adjustment for the day really.  The rain continued.  The cold wind blew.  There was more and more standing water to deal with.  Lots of concentrating and trying to avoid hidden potholes.  The BW hared off (pun intended), presumably trying to keep warm, whilst those of us who are definitely older, and possibly wiser, flew along as best we could in a more measured fashion.  Us tortoises turned him into a Hare for real when we reeled him in and passed him before Willersey.  To be fair he looked in a pretty bad way, cold and done in.

The first big hill of the day came about 59km/37 miles in.  Having been getting slowly more and more cold, I’d almost been looking forward to it, as I was hoping it would warm me up a bit.  It’s a big long fairly steep constant climb up Saintbury Hill.  To emphasise how cold and wintery it was, we did this in the snow.  Yes.  It snowed.  In fact visibility became severely restricted due to the amount of the falling white stuff.  Add some wind to that and it was a bit like going into hyperspace!  (Those of you of a certain age know exactly what I mean and don’t pretend you aren’t/don’t!).  And don’t let anyone ever tell you that snowflakes are soft fluffy things.  Not when you’re cycling into them they’re not!    I think that’s a first for me – a sportive in the snow.  Limited novelty value it has to be said.  Quite a lot of people resorted, for whatever reason, to walking up the hill which, if I could have felt my feet, might have been attractive.  But I was feeling as stubborn as ever, and actually went up it pretty well and definitely with less zig-zagging than last year.    Sadly due to the being wet already, and the snow, and the wind, it really didn’t warm me up much.  After a bit more climbing we reached the small feed station in a layby on the right hand side, well stocked with bananas, flapjacks and free SIS gels…though hot coffee would have been more welcome ;).  I ate some of what turned out to be a very nice uncoated orange Zipvit energy bar that I had, and swopped my soaking wet gloves for drier ones from my saddle bag.  It was neither the time nor place for hanging around, and although we waited for the BW there was no sign of him, so we headed off on our way again.  (I gather he gave in to the powers that be (aka his Dad in support car behind) and called it a day at around the 60 mile mark).

that’s a snow cloud and the flying white bits are snow!

Looks nice out there doesn’t it? 😉

There was another similar climb, albeit a little shorter, about 7 miles later, which also went well.  Descents were less fun than they might have been due to the need to pay attention to the road, and brake in the wet.  I was clearly getting colder and colder…I hadn’t had feet for hours, and my hands were well on the way to joining them wherever they were, even in the drier gloves.  It always amazes me how much cold parts of your anatomy can hurt!  Braking when your hands aren’t all there is…interesting.  About 90 mins from the end, after a rather dangerous crossing of the A46, we stopped to grab some more food, and I nearly fell over trying to stand up on feet that I didn’t have anymore!  As we ate I realised I had actually started shivering, and we headed off pdq.  I don’t think my body has ever been that cold on a bike, let alone tried shivering whilst riding one, and it’s a very weird feeling.  It’s trying to do all the things required to propel you along, and to shiver at the same time, which does odd things to your stomach muscles.  Which, considering the current state of my insides and the fact that today the painkillers dismally failed to work, is not a nice thing.

Like it or not, life got a little slower.  When you can only feel 10% of your hands, gear changes are not a spontaneous thing.  They are planned in advance and frequently attempted several times!  Braking is a cautious thing, just in case…  I was so cold that my brain stopped working properly for a while and I was tad worried that I was just going to stop functioning altogether and end up in some ungainly heap on the floor wondering how I’d gotten there!  Luckily this didn’t happen.  Even though by now the rain had stopped, this was way beyond too little too late.  The temperature may have gone up a degree or so, GB was now ahead of me blazing a trail for me to follow, and however we did it, we got back to the start in one piece.  Two pieces? ;).  It turns out a lot of those who had turned up hadn’t made it all the way round – DNFs.  There’s a rumour that I was the first woman home!  Not sure that’s ever happened before!  *grin*.  Go me!

I had a quick chat with Paul Prince, who organises it, whilst drinking my soup.  It being the fourth year of the Mad March Hare, it’s come a long way, though I kinda miss the Easter Bunny costume he wore first time around 😉  The new venue is a great improvement and there are plans to expand the event in the future.  Due to the poor turnout this year they may keep the route the same for next year though, since it’ll still be new to a lot of people!  The organisation had all gone really smoothly, and I can personally vouch for the homemade vegetable soup – very yummy 🙂  It’s still much cheaper to enter than a lot of the sportives out there and is extremely good value for money.  Well you can’t blame the organisers for the weather, now can you?!

Even with warm food on the inside, I couldn’t stop shivering, and it was getting worse and worse.  I’ve never had that reaction before, but then I don’t think I’ve ever been so cold and so wet on the bike for so long!  Time to get back to the car, get sorted, and head to the nearest services to get changed into dry clothes somewhere warm, and drink a large caramel macchiato.  Even so it took quite a while longer down the M5 for the shaking to finally stop.  Hypothermia anyone?

And as we went South for winter, as could have been predicted, the skies cleared…typical.

Roadworks and sun on the M5.

Cycling time: 5:05 hrs
Distance: 78 miles with 1100 metres of climbing
AVS: 15.4 mph.
ODO: 12347 miles

Ish.  GB says I’m over recording.  Anyway…  In retrospect, with the infamous 20:20 hindsight I should have warn my thermal tights under my longs, and a different combo of jersey/jackets, but even so, I think that might only have delayed the loss of extremities, not prevented it.  Until I got proper cold I was doing really well, and even once frozen, my legs and the engine were feeling pretty good – just distracted by pain and hindered by lack of functionality!  I don’t think I can have been said to enjoyed it, other than in masochistic fashion, but we turned up, we did it, and we are once again officially badass *grin*.  First sportive of the season – done 🙂

Hoping for blue skies next time…

UPDATE:

My official time is 5:22.  Looks like 179 riders finished, and I’m around 48th.  Not bad 🙂  Spare a thought for those poor hardy souls who were out there for hours more – longest time recorded is 8:07!

Also – the official Cyclosport review is now up  – about which I’m very excited and very proud.  Lots of people have said very nice things about it too.  Very cool indeed :).

In my new role as commuter I was in London yesterday, meeting up with the Cyclosport crew for the first time.  We spent a couple of hours in the Porterhouse sorting out who’s doing what next year.  It’s one of my favourite pubs, so sitting there on medication and unable to drink was a tad galling…  But hey, they did a very nice curried vegetable soup, so that was compensatory.  It was really nice to meet everyone – put faces to twitter accounts etc – and it’s always nice to hang out with cyclists who are as obsessed as I am.  Safety in numbers, birds of a feather flocking together, etc ;).

Here’s what 2012 currently, and provisionally (entries have to be sorted for some of them), holds for me – and I’ll be editing it as the year goes on:

• Winter Mini Sportive – Sunday 12th February
• Mad March Hare – Sunday 4th March
• Endura Lionheart – Sunday 18th March
• The Joker Sportive – Sunday 1st April
• Wiggle New Forest – Saturday 14th April
• Mario Cippolini Gran Fondo – Sunday 22nd April
• Forest of Dean Classic Somerset Hills Gran Fondo – Sunday 6th May
• Tour of Pembrokeshire – Saturday 12th May
• Black Rat Bristol Sportive – Sunday 20th May – NEW
• Wheel Heroes – Sunday 27th May
• Wiggle Magnificat – Sunday 3rd June
• Wiggle Dragon Ride (medio corto) – Sunday 10th June – NEW
• Great Western Sportive – Sunday 17th June
• Dartmoor Classic – Sunday 24th June
• Maratona dles Dolomites – Sunday 1st July
• Great Weston Ride – Sunday 15th July
• Tour of the Cotswolds – Sunday 22nd July
• Sodbury Sportive – Sunday 19th August
• Etape Cymru – Sunday 9th September
• Cheddar Cyclosportive – Sunday 16th September
• Bristol Belter – Sunday 23rd September
• Wiggle New Forest – Saturday 6th October
• Exmoor Beast – Sunday 28th October
• Wiggle Devils Punchbowl – Sunday 4th November

Now all I have to do is get myself well again and start training.  Easy right? 😉  *grin*.

There’s a end of season party – I like parties.  Hosted by the sportive website Cyclosport – which I use all the time to plan my events.  It’s in Twickenham – L2P Kevin lives up there, which takes care of somewhere to crash.  What’s more it includes a group ride, food, drink, and Stephen Roche.  As check lists go for an event, you don’t get much better, so this one was ticking all the boxes.  I bought myself one of the limited number of tickets available to the public, and that’s what I spent the day doing yesterday.

It was a totally awesome day.  Again, weather-wise, October came up trumps, with glorious unseasonal sunshine.  100 or so people gathered at the Alexander Pope pub in the chilly sunshine – a mix of cyclists, people from the cycling industry, and celebs such as Stephen Roche & Yanto Barker amongst others.  The plan was to split into 2 main groups for a 39 mile loop into the Surrey countryside, up Box Hill, and back again.  Having overdone it on the white wine the night before I was feeling properly ropey, and wasn’t entirely sure that breakfast was going to stay where I’d put it.  However back when I was drinking, cycling always proved to be the best hangover cure out there, so I figured I’d just MTFU and hope that that was the case this time around too.  Since the 1st group was advertised as being around 26kph, I figured I could probably cope with that, so Kevin and I set off with them at little after 10:30am, in a group of 30 or 40 riders, including Mr Roche et al.

Well I think I should report them to the Trading Standards people for false advertising, since from the get-go the group was off on one, and taking no prisoners!  We’re talking those kph being more like mph.  Having a group that size hurtling along, through Saturday morning traffic, on urban roads, was kinda scarey for me – being a country bumpkin as I am.  Traffic, road furniture, potholes, all obstacles to be negotiated without being able to see them coming!  For most of the way out we were fairly near the front of the group and I had to kick arse to keep up.  Luckily it was mostly flat, and there was a fair bit of stopping and starting, or I would have been totally doomed, as this certainly wasn’t a group that slowed down for anything, including hills.  On a couple of inclines I dropped back a bit, only to be literally pushed from behind, which is the kind of thing that usually drives me nuts…but I swallowed my pride and let them get on with it, since the pace was so fast that getting back on to the group could be tricky.  I ended up at the back for a little while, but was mostly somewhere in the middle, trying to do my best, and sucking wheels as necessary!  In a group of testosterone-fuelled competitive lycra clad MAMILs I turned out to be the only girl, which came as a bit of a surprise as some of the other girls who’d been around at the start looked like they knew what they were doing, and I’d kinda presumed that some of them would have been in this group too, but no.  Ah well, added novelty value etc, right?  I was, yet again, grateful to my Etape jersey for giving me that little mental boost, not to mention bragging rights, and a certain degree of kudos.  In a group of people like this, you know you don’t have to explain what the Etape du Tour is!

I’d like to tell you the scenery was stunning but I was way too busy paying attention to where I was going, keeping up, and what was going on to notice really.  I can tell you the weather remained glorious though – you can’t complain at sun and shorts and short sleeves in the middle of October.  Shame it wasn’t like that last weekend, but such is life.  The goal of the day was Box Hill which, unsurprisingly, I’d heard of.  I was a bit worried about it, fear of the unknown and all that, and there was no way I was going to be keeping up going up.  However there was an agreement to all regroup at the top, which meant I could go up it at my own pace, whilst Kevin kept me company.  And it was fine.  It’s really no big deal at all.  It’s not very steep, Shipham is far worse, and I guess it goes on for a mile or so with the odd switchback, while getting shallower all the while, so you’re not even in bottom gear, you’re getting faster, and then there you are at the top.  Done.  Easy peasy, as these things go, though admittedly probably better done without the hangover.  Definitely not an Alpe though ;).  Having looked at the photos since, I see that the group spread out quite a long way going up rather than arriving at the top en masse, which is nice to know, even though I was assured at the time that they hadn’t been hanging around long anyway.  From there it was basically downhill back to the start.  Well downhill or flat.  Shortly after we headed off again one poor guy had a rear puncture, and then another one (which is why you should check the inside of your tyre and not just replace the inner tube!), which Stephen changed, cool as a cucumber, at impressive speed.  Then we were off again, flying along, all the way back to the pub.  By this time the hangover was a thing of the past, I was no longer having to work so hard to keep up, and it was just awesome.  I chatted to some lovely folk, one of whom turned out to be Matt Stephens from Sigma Sport, which was kinda cool, and shows the kind of company I was keeping.  And keeping up with!  I can say that I’ve been on a ride like that and not been dropped – go me!  What a fantastic way to spend a Saturday morning :).

Cycling time: 2:13 hrs
Distance: 39.77 miles.
Avs: 17.9 mph
ODO: 10582 miles

(Kevin and I nearing the top of Box Hill)

Apparently being a girl and keeping up with Group 1, as it was known, was not unimpressive, and I’m really proud of myself for acquitting myself respectably.  It’s a good thing I’ve gotten faster lately!  After a quick shower and change, since a girl cannot spend all day in sweaty lycra, it was back to the pub to spend the rest of the day eating, drinking, and talking about cycling to cycling people.  A darn fine way to spend a day 🙂 .  I met a whole range of fab and interesting people, and also had a long chat with the main man himself later in the evening.  His achievements are legendary and mine are not, but on one level we, and the majority of the other people there, are the same.  We love being out on our bikes :).

On the networking front, I actually met people who have heard of the cycling mayor – mostly, but not all, courtesy of my Etape Cymru blog last week – which was surreal but very cool.  If you were one of them – hi! *waves*.  I mean I know I write this blog, and I know there are people out there who read it, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually met any of them like that before :).  In the meantime I also carefully avoided the wattbike challenge, since I’ve no idea what my power-weight ratio is, but I’m thinking that after a meal that included Bailey’s cheesecake and a few drinks, I possibly wouldn’t have been on form *grin*.  The day turned into evening, as the numbers thinned out, and the discovery that the pub had Young’s Double Chocolate Stout on draft meant that I was pretty much guaranteed the hangover that I woke up with this morning.  Shame there wasn’t another awesome ride around with which to chase it away :).

I think I need to put the 2012 party down on my event list for next year…Adam and the Cyclosport crew put a lot of work into putting together a great day, and I’m really glad I went :).