This weekend I had entered the Epic Cycles Spring Challenge so this gave us the opportunity to stay with friends nearer the venue than home. A reasonable day at home on Saturday morning teased me into preparing the Look 585 in readiness. Packed & away we went after an early lunch. After a cuppa on arrival at our friends & we loaded his bike into the car as it was starting to drizzle. We spent the next few hours catching up & eating & drinking along with other friends that came over for dinner.
After a pleasant evening we retired but lo’ & behold when I stirred in the night I thought I heard light rain, you know what it's like, strange bed, strange surroundings! When it was time to rise the first thing I did was look out of the window & sure enough it was wet, wet, wet! I hate riding in the wet at the best of times, oh well!
As we set off it had stopped raining & the forecast was for the weather to improve. By the time we'd arrived at Epic Cycles, signed on & readied ourselves it was just about beginning to brighten up. Although we were ready in time we elected to skip setting off with the first group & headed up the second group. It wasn’t long before we were passed tho’. I’d not been feeling great yesterday & I had several aches from starting some different exercises last week with a personal trainer. I was soon riding on my own & decided that I would just take it easy & not push too hard as one of the aches was my hamstrings, & I knew there was a lot of climbing to come. I probably spent an hour & a half pretty much on my own, passing a few riders & being passed by several then I found myself with a couple of guys at a similar pace for maybe 20km. Then I realised where we were & that the climb of Ankerdine Hill was rapidly approaching. This was the major climb of the day, not overly long but signposted as 17%, so it’s pretty steep. There were several riders on the ascent as we’d just passed some temporary traffic lights on the A44 which had caused a bit of bunching. I seemed to pass several on the way up the climb where there were several spectators near the top giving encouragement & once over the top I had that feeling of ‘push on it’s not far to the finish now’. So I kept pushing on the descent of Ankerdine but it wasn't too long before we turned & hit the climb up to Clifton upon Teme, a longer climb then Ankerdine, but thankfully the gradient isn't as severe. I was finally starting to feel a bit stronger & more confident & managed to pass a few more riders on this climb & pulled clear of the guys I'd been with before Ankerdine. Once over the top the breeze was into my face, 'd'oh! & I was to be on my own to the finish.
I was working to 80km as I thought it was a 50mile ride but it turned out to be 55miles, this meat I was starting to feel it a bit by the time I got back for tea & cakes. My mate had got back about 15mins before me & was relaxing with his tea & cake already.
After the ride both the bike & I were very dirty, so it's a major clean up for the bike tomorrow. Looking at the data the ascent per kilometre was very high, nearly 40% mote per km than last week. I also feel that despite the wet & mucky conditions of these lanes, the surface below on many of the lanes used was in poor condition.
