This was my first ever cycling sportive and quite an experience it was too. The plan had been to race it with my training buddy and triathlon mentor Adrian but too much work, too little training, two man-colds, a howling gale and pishing rain meant it was to be a training ride and no chances were to be taken.
We left Harpenden at 6am with the rain pelting down and the trees virtually horizontal. There was a moment when I considered suggesting we forget it but I let that slip!
We arrived in Thame at 7am, registered had a coffee and got ourselves ready. The weather was miserable. Grey, wet, windy and cold. We tried to stave off the inevitable but eventually we set off at 7.51.
Testosterone kicked in and we decided to try an average 18mph to the first hill which was at mile 8 or so. All would have been well if we hadn't got lost after 2 miles. It didn't bode well that a sign was gone from a key junction. I did not fancy getting lost in Oxfordshire.
Back on route we were in the mix of a group of 10 riders. Adrian and I were setting the pace, 1 mile each at the front. After 3 each we thought somebody else might fancy it. Bad news it was a girl. She started well but then dropped from 18 to 15mph in a blink and nearly wiped me out in the process.
That was it, I sat up. We let the 8 get ahead, regrouped and decided to just maintain our own pace and be anti social.
The first hill was the most brutal. It was quite long, not too steep but it was lowest gear and a bit of standing.
From then we were on fire and just kept the pace and effort steady. We passed the group of 8 at a feed station and were determined to stay ahead. There were folk with punctures everywhere. Seriously never seen anything like it.
Before mile 20 we saw a serious casualty. On a downhill stretch a lad had hit a Land Rover head on. He was on the ground with a large number of riders and drivers in attendance. We couldn't help so slowly moved on, again taking stock and agreeing no chances to be taken. A few minutes on and the ambulance passed. The post race report is that he has a few broken bones and is in hospital but hopefully he'll make a full recovery.
The weather was turning better. The rain had stopped, the sun was peeping through but road conditions and the wind made it fairly treacherous. Then at mile 23 disaster. There were punctures everywhere and having rode our luck I was pierced! It was a good pit stop though. I got the tyres on and off, Adrian passed the tube and gassed up with a CO2 canister. Quick as a flash we were off.
I was feeling pretty strong and on a long climb out of Henley-on-Thames dropped Adrian. After a mile or so I decided to sit up and take it easy just in case he'd had a problem but he was soon on my wheel, the he was passed and then I had to chase him all the way home!
After a brief rest stop we hit the road for the final 15 miles. I was a goner. Adrian was dragging me along but I just couldn't maintain his pace. We stopped to help a rider who was walking with his bike and had no mobile signal but even that few minutes didn't help me and I told Adrian to press on and we'd meet at the end.
I was finished. So I eased off, had a gel and a good drink and allowed the heart rate to drop to Z1. It took 3 miles but after that I picked up again and managed to finish with a reasonable effort.
All in all a challenging day. My ride time was just over 4 hours Garmin, Adrian finished 5 minutes ahead and was buzzing.
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