Warning, boring sportive report coming up
First of two 100 mile Sportives for the year yesterday. I was riding with a couple of people from work and after being told that we would all be losing our jobs earlier in the week we didn't really feel like it. Still, with the event all paid up we thought what the hell and went into it physically sort of ready but a bit mentally drained.
Stood on Great Yarmouth seafront for the start the wind was howling in and it was bitter with the wind chill. After our last 100 mile where we lost a rider at 75 miles we'd already decided that slow and steady was the order of the day and that we'd stick together to make sure all three of us made it over the line. We also decided not to skip any stops which meant two drink stops, lunch then a further two drink stops before the finish.
First stint we saw an average of just 14.2 mph but we'd set out to start off steady. By the second stop that average was 15.0 and by lunch 15.6. At lunch we were feeling OK then it was straight into an uphill slog and arrow straight road into the wind. Time to sort the men from the boys
I got on the front for the nasty slog but kept dropping the other two. I couldn't hear a thing with the wind howling so all I could do was keep it steady and keep checking over my shoulder. Coming through a tree lined section a huge dead branch dropped out of a tree to my right! Just the smallest of twigs actually hit me, the rest broke up and went in my spokes and under my wheels! Luckily it was obviously long dead and had just been hanging there and it broke up rather than flinging me off my bike! Luckily I'd accidentally pulled a bit of a gap over the other two or it could have been nasty!
Really horrid section that made me realise just how counter productive shared cycle paths are. We were instructed to keep on the road but the fact that there was a footpath to our left put the drivers into rage mode. Dangerous overtakes, leaning on the horn and shouts of "USE THE CYCLE LANE" were the order of the day. I'm not sure if any of them stopped to think what happens when 100's of cyclists doing 15 mph+ come up against someone walking their dog on a narrow path but, hey, it's got a bike stencilled on it so we were all in the wrong. The next stop signalled the start of the quiet lanes again and a check of the average speed showed we'd dropped to 15.4.
We then managed to miss the last drink stop. We saw two signs saying "Drink stop coming up" but never actually saw the stop! The final stretch back to the coast was a grind. I led the last 20 miles or so to try and cut a path for the other two guys and to manage the pace when not going into the wind to try and help the guys manage their energy levels and make it back. We picked up a couple of other riders who were struggling who asked if they could tag on to us which we were happy to oblige with but they dropped off soon after. Any thoughts of pace went out of the window and we were in survival mode by that point! Final moving average ended up at 14.9 mph but critically we'd all made it.
Checking out some other riders via Strava stalking it seems that a lot of people cut the ride short. I can't blame them to be honest but personally, I'm glad we stayed the course!
My club has just moved from woeful Garmin Connect at last which saves manually recreating them in Strava!
