Having abandoned Chris to a solo and rather wet ride on Saturday, Simon, Steve and Stuart made an early start for the Hampshire Hilly on Sunday morning.
The event is one of the more popular rides on the circuit and had sold out weeks earlier. So, thinking ahead we had decided to arrive early to beat the queues for registration, unfortunately the 700 other entrants had the same idea! So after a rather lengthy check-in process we headed back to the car to don wind-proof jackets, leg warmers, arm warmers and winter gloves for the ride. The forecast North-Easterly was already setting in for the day, so much for a warm Spring day!
The three of us set off together, planning to spend the first half of the ride as a team before separating for Stuart take the shorter route. Stuart had been out for 4 weeks due to work commitments and an extended (thanks to the Icelandic volcano) business trip in the US, and sensibly opted for 60miles rather than the full 100. More on the ‘shorter route’ later.
The first 2 or 3 miles were the usual stretching and ambitious goal setting for the ride. With the first hill hit Simon and Steve pushed the pace slightly planning to ease off to let Stuart catch-up at the top, unbeknown to us, Stuart had taken an early puncture and was struggling to make a quick repair halfway up the hill. Being ‘team players’ we turned back and helped him make a quick repair and crack on….. No, I have to be honest, we did slow down slightly, but when he didn’t appear we abandoned him and pushed on – sorry Stuart!
So two became three for a while, until we were joined by another rider, ‘Mr. Bianchi’ who joined us. Having sat on our rear wheels for a couple of miles he kindly offered to take the front. This was a mistake, the pace quickly built-up to 20++mph with little let off on the hills! With only 10miles or so completed it was a mistake to push quite so hard at an early stage, we were to regret this later. ‘Mr. Bianchi’ soon realized that his temporary partners were not going to stick with his pace and he headed off with a new pair ‘Mr. Pinarello and Mr. Colnago’. Back on our own we started taking better note of our speed and pushed on towards the first feed station.
Refueled buy a great selection of cakes, bananas and energy drinks we cracked on into the stiff breeze managing to maintain a 16mph average with some strong through-and-off in the mid 20’s all good training for July.
The first third of the route had taken us along pleasant but unknown roads to the West and South of Winchester, It’s always more challenging when the hills are unknown and for me 40-60 miles is always a tough sector, so this was time to put your head down and push hard. Once we entered Alresford and started heading for Overton we were on familiar roads which made a huge difference and gave us both an extra boost.
We arrived at the control point in Hannington where our timing chips were read and we took a slightly longer break to take on liquid and more of the great selection of energy snacks.
Refreshed we headed on now very familiar ground over Sydmonton Hill and down along the Test Valley back towards the finish. Despite being passed by a few more ‘Mr Bianchis’ we were feeling pleased at holding a steady pace and confident of respectable finish times.
The last refreshment stop at 80 miles was very brief as we had both decided to make our final stop at 85miles to test our secret weapons, a Lucozade Alert Plus for me and a Red Bull Energy Shot for Steve. Taking note of the warnings ‘may cause heart palpitations’ ‘only one per day’! We knocked them back and carried on for the final push home.
It was with 15miles to go that we saw a familiar figure ahead, pushing a big gear head leaning to the left, it had to be Stuart, he’d had a tough ride, apart from the puncture, the ’60 mile’ route turned out to be a 78mile route which had just joined up with the 100 route that we were on. A baptism of fire for Stuart after missing 4 weeks, so well-done to him for battling round and finishing in a very respectable time. We decided to ride in together as a team……. briefly. The chance of a PB for a 100 miler and the buzz from the energy shots got the better of us and we pushed ahead, sorry again Stuart!
The last few miles were uneventful and completed at a surprisingly high speed, despite the final few hills that we had to contend with. All in all a great ride, with all of us making good times and getting another chunk of miles under our belts as July 18th looms closer.
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