11th October 2009

I got up at my normal work time :-(

Had breakfast, packed all the goodies in a goody bag, and wheeled the bike out of the house and across the road and waited for David Else to pick me up...I didn't have to wait long...

I took the front and rear wheel out of the bike and laid the frame down in the boot of his car, then we were off :-)

We got to Brokenhurst College at 7:30...Apparently according to the pre event newsletter, the event wasn't open until 7:45....It lied!

The we had to sign in...they said signing it would start until 8:15...They lied! (I went to the registration area at 8:am and was able to queue and sign in at 8) - Interestingly there was no queue for people signing in on the day!!!

After signing in we trundled over to the start line...and then we were off! (At 8:10....they said the rides started at 8:30....hmmmm perhaps the event timings were a bit of?)

Much to our amazement (and slight concern) we were in the first group to set off...The initial pace was reasonably moderate, with Dave and myself hanging onto the rear wheel at the back of the pack, just ticking over :-)

At 5 miles or so two guys picked up the pace, slotted in front, then slowed down (Must have been the head wind?)

At 7 miles or so we dropped a few, and a single guy in a red was storming off, I mentioned to Dave that I could catch him without sprinting, so I did :-) and Dave sat comfortably on my back wheel...

Eventually the guy got a bit peeved at towing us along :-( and I found myself in front...

For the next 40 miles it continued like this.....on the flat and downhill I towed Dave and the guy in red along (At a bloody good pace I must add), and on the inclines they gave me a wheel to chase! (It turned out that I just about caught them back up again after the hill then they allowed me to take the lead again!)

At 50 miles (ish) we were joined by another group of 3 or 4? That were stonking along at 1 to 2 mph faster, Dave wanted to tag along with them, but I obviously would have died on the hills!
I said to him I was happy to plod along by myself so the group split...well I started on my own!

The pace for me obviously slowed a little (I wasn't going to blat along and struggle to keep up on hills) So I dropped back to trying to maintain a 17-18 mph speed (I wanted to finish in under 6 hours).

I had been munching a Jaffa Cake every 10 miles, but I did feel a little depleted by the first 50 miles, so at 60 miles I glugged a Torq energy gel.

I was expecting to find the 3rd food stop at 60 miles...but there it wasn't! They had moved it to the 75 mile point..By then I had ran out of fluids so I stopped and topped up!

I was a little surprised when I took a swig a couple of miles down the road to find that it was just plain water.....

At 80 miles I glugged a second Torq energy gel.... And I started to speed up again :-)

Then 100 miles came...and went! (I thought the ride was 100 miles????) at 103.42 miles I arrived back at the start/finish, according to the Garmin the ride time was 5 hours 56 minutes and 20 seconds....The official time was 5 hours 59 minutes :-) Under 6 hours :-) The route can be found here...

The head winds on the return stretches where VERY bad! I was on the drops overtaking people at a little over 12 mph.

It was a good day out (Thanks Dave) The event was well organised, even if the timings were a bit bizarre, the food stations were at strange distances (But the 75 miles worked out ok for me!). It was strange that there was no free food at the end (That IS the most important time to eat)

I am looking forwards to seeing the event photos...I didn't have the time or the inclination to take my own photos today.