Okay. So, definitely the hardest ride I've done yet. Actually, up to the 250 mile point me and uv were discussing how we were far less ruined than when we did the unsupported 209 mile ride.... Then, what happened..happened
First off was the weather. Predicted horrendous rain and winds were super accurate. As was the announcer at the start - "It's forecast as being rain and 20mph headwinds on the trip down towards London - but that's only for the first 200 miles or so". It was really beyond anything I've ridden in before (and I've ridden in some horrendous conditions). Constant rain, flooded roads, headwinds so strong that even early in when 8+ riders deep back in the peleton you could feel it. Then there was the side wind in the exposed areas too. Riding at a 45 degree angle was the norm. From what I've heard the quickest riders were 2 hours behind those on previous years due to how horrendous it was. Similarly, only about 50% of riders actually completed
Then the pace. We made the somewhat rookie mistake of thinking it wouldn't be a big deal to start off "wherever" in the 9:00 group - which meant near the very back. It took almost an hour to catch up to the lead group and myself and uv burnt a ton of matches bridging gaps (and with a huge amount of those attempts being foiled by red lights at the last minute). Pace was kept pretty damn fast throughout with the lead group. The pace riders were absolute monsters and although they kept things doable most of us in the lead group were pretty much on the edge from the third segment onward.
So... the route. Mostly A roads as you'd expect. Not my favourite way to ride, especially in ropey conditions but at least the large amount of riders helped us kind of control the roads.
And...the riders. I saw tons of very dodgy manoeuvres early on but around stage 3 the pace rider really picked things up for 20 miles and made everyone cry a bit
This had the advantage of really breaking up the 22 and 24 hour pace groups and essentially left only the more experienced riders in a peleton of 20-30. Things got a lot safer after that.
So, that was the background I guess. The whole thing was pretty damn hard with all the weather and such factored in. Sleep deprivation certainly didn't help as we went into the early hours of the morning. Actually quite a lot easier to deal with than I remembered (from my more "rum" days of youth
) but it wasn't really until today that I felt normal again after.
A few things were quite annoying: Main one was the utter ********* that screwed up the fast group on the penultimate leg. The pace riders both dropped off to deal with punctures - they left instructions with the remaining riders on the front to not go too crazy...which they then ignored and promptly went at absolutely ludicrous speeds. The pace riders couldn't get back on and me and uv only managed to hold on for 35 or so of the 50 miles. Others in the group fell off at various times before and after us too. The gimps that did this and essentially ruined the whole thing were then told to make their own way to the end (which they did, and managed a decent time ahead of us..so yeah, they were strong riders..just utter gimps). None of us realised this was going on at the time btw - just when we arrived at the final rest stop to find the weird atmosphere and post-drama discussion.
Final results for me and uv were reasonable - better than expected but far below the top 15 we were due to finish in right up until 5 miles before the end of the ride - where one of our group's RD exploded and we waited for 30 minutes whilst he failed to get his bike going a few times then eventually shortened the chain so he could ride it single speed. It was pretty gutting to see two large groups go past us whilst we were waiting but...none of us were the kind of **** person that would leave someone behind in that situation so...it happened. Still wish that it hadn't happened of course but a final result of 58 and a 23.5 hour finishing time isn't too shabby (in reality this should've been just under 23 hours):
http://newcastle2london.livetrail.net/coureur.php?rech=Cartwright
Oh yes, Garmins..how cack they were. Mine turned off twice and lost big swathes of the recording. uv's died right before the last stage and deleted his ride. Utter cack. So, my recording is missing about 4 miles (and 50 miles of it is just a straight line rather than the actual route but...cba fixing it). Many others had similar issues.
So, glad to have done it. Hated doing it
Recording dodgy but still nice to have a big number next to longest ride:
https://www.strava.com/activities/683353714
If anyone fancies belatedly sponsoring me it's here:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/David-Crying-On-A-Bike or you could even sponsor uv, as long as he doesn't end up getting more than me
:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/IanBaron300
Yeah, I'm a bit concerned about those. Hopefully it won't be too bad.. :s
