Evans Ride It! North Downs

Yesterday was the second of this year’s events – one of the Evans Ride It! series, around the North Downs.  One of my L2P pals, Jon, lives nearby so I went up the night before to save myself a hideously early start on the day.  Just as well as I managed to get lost en route…which would have had me in a panic if I’d done it on the day!  See, I’m just useless if there aren’t big black arrows on a luminous background pointing me on my way…*grin*

We were up and out on the road by 7.30am as it was a 5 mile ride to the start in Chobham.  Not for us the chaos of trying to find car parking, oh no.  We arrived cool as cucumbers (it was a tad chilly) all ready to go – after the inevitable queue for registration of course.  At least there were no queues for the Ladies – which always makes a pleasant change from the usual run of things 😉

We met up with various other folk at the start, timing chips were strapped to ankles, and we headed off a little after 8:30am.  The chill took my fingers and feet away, though my fingers returned once I’d warmed up.  My feet didn’t come back until the sun came out in the afternoon but hey, who needs feet?  And they didn’t hurt so it wasn’t really a problem 🙂

It was, it has to be said, not the world’s most exciting sportive – either by way of terrain or scenery.  Couldn’t see the views for the trees really.  There were a couple of hills but nowt too drastic.  It was one of those routes that seem to be mainly designed to show you how the other half lives.  Let me tell you, some of the property around there? blimey!  The sort of houses where it takes measurable time to cycle past the frontages.  Presumably so you have enough time to admire the tennis court/garden/pond/stables/feel suitably jealous* (*delete as appropriate).

There were some nostalgic bits along the route for me as I used to live in that area, and I particularly enjoyed cycling past the Hogs Back Brewery – happy memories 🙂  Sadly I had no room for carry out. and neither of my bottles were empty *grin*.   That’s because I was a good girl and ate and drank every 20 minutes the whole way through, and kept the bottles topped up – pat me on the back.

We stopped a few time – water stops, toilet stops, pink pill stops – and there was a fair degree of chatting, so we weren’t pushing it.  The worst element of the ride was that we spent the first half of it with the wind behind us…which meant, inevitably, that the last half was going back into it.  There was also quite a lot of downs on the way out that we didn’t really notice until they turned into ups on the way back!  Jon and I stayed together until about 90 minutes from the end when we got separated, and I just wanted to push on and get back.  The last hour or so seemed to drag on for ages.  I was trying to get my average speed back up from 14.9mph to 15 but failed dismally as it just seemed to be lots of long slow drags up into the wind.  Try as I did to compensate the rest of the time, my speedo was just not having it…

Cycling time: 5:46:03
Distance: 85.4 miles
Avs: 14.7 mph
ODO: 3856 miles

I’m a tad disappointed with the average speed – it really should have been 15mph+ as it really wasn’t that hilly.  Even the weather was fairly kind, barring the wind, as the sun came out in the afternoon and I’d pretty much gotten my kit spot on.  So, maybe a “could do better” is required.  Who’d a thought it?  Me – complaining about not being challenged enough and wanting to go faster?! *grin*.  Don’t worry – it won’t happen again 😉

Including the 5 mile trip there and back – that makes 95 miles ridden yesterday.  Not a bad day’s work I guess.  I didn’t eat when I got in, just drank coffee while I waited for Jon, so I felt a bit off on the way back to his place.  However I felt fine as soon as I was off the bike.  And the weird thing is that I’m really not feeling it today either.  I’m not knackered, my body feels fine, even my usual ouchy bits are no ouchier than usual.  Which, I guess, bodes well for the Dragon 🙂

UPDATE: official time is in at 6:03:41, so all those little stops only added up to 17 minutes or so, which is less than I would have thought.