10th April 2010

Got up at 4:30 am....put on short sleeve top with arm warmers and my light wind proof top and cycling trousers over shorts...It was only 4 degrees but the forecast was for it to be a scorcher mid afternoon :-)

We made it to the Watermoor Hall in Cirencester for 5:45 for the 6 am start, thankfully my leg was feeling 'normal' :-)

I picked up my Brevet card and at 6 am I was off....and as is normal for me I was off at the front :-)
It was Dark...I didn't want to put the back-light on the Garmin as power was going to be an issue as it was so I pedalled along with John he was doing the 300k on a fixie!

The sun started to rise pretty darn quickly and soon enough we were in some fantastic Gloucestershire countryside :-)

There were a lot of deer in the fields and it was a wonderful morning, if not a little chilly! I was really quite pleased I had the trousers and sleeves on..there were some people in shorts and short sleeve tops....

The first control was at the Tudor Rose tea rooms at Alcester (41 miles)...It was just about starting to get warm, but was far to soon for me to need nourishment so I got my card stamped and set straight on...

The next stage from Alcester to Atherstone was really interesting for me.....I did a training ride with Nathan and Joy in 2008, and this stage revisited some of the same roads. The control was at Winnie's Cafe (78 miles) I had a lovely cuppa and a round of Beans on Toast, I also took the opportunity to take off the wind-proof top, arm warmers and cycling trousers....I was in summer gear :-)

It seemed no time at all and the first 100 miles had been and gone :-) now the work began! The terrain was pretty flat on stage 3 Atherstone to Daventry...it was also pretty damn boring....As quick as the 100 was the 21 to the control seemed to drag....I also took a wrong turn and got lost in a Daventry housing estate :-(

Finally I made it to the control ...Roso Cafe (121 miles) and I had another cuppa and another round of Beans on toast...

I was warned that the next stage Daventry to Tackley had a killer climb as you leave Daventry.....well it was steep but it certainly wasn't a killer....This time the control was a pub....so I promised myself a cider and a pudding....it was also a reasonably short stage (34 miles).

It didn't seem to take too long to get to the control, but I welcomed the rest from the bike!

After the refreshing stop it was back on the road for the final leg..Tackley to Cirencester (36 miles), in many ways this was the toughest leg...1) it was new distance territory for me, 2) The place names were familiar to me but were dauntingly still a long way from home and I could place how far away they are from Cirencester! 3) My leg was starting to hurt :-( -But I wasn't going to give up in the last 30 miles!

Funny thing is that the last 35 miles was my fastest of the day! (16.6 mph average speed). It was a great success, the Garmin lasted the whole ride without issue, I made it around the 300K (191 miles) without collapsing in a heap, it was still daylight when I got back!

The Garmin had the ride as 189.68 miles (I kept on forgetting to restart the timer after the stops!) in 12 hours 9 minutes with an average speed of 15.6 mph, route here...