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 :).