Over 23800ft and 300+ miles in three days. It’s good to know that I’ve got that in the back pocket so that I can pull it out when I need it at RAAM!

 

I drove up to Bristol on Friday night to crash at my sister’s for the weekend – trade off was that I was to feed her cats while she was away; Bargain.   Each day of the three day sportive started at Somerton;

 

Day 1 took us north along the lanes towards Bristol for 102 miles, total ascent 7,512ft. I had no idea what to expect but joined the queue (in true British style) picked up my number and fiddled around attaching the timing chip and making sure that I had all necessary bits a bobs (inner tubes – check; pump – check; levers – check). I then made my way over to the start, attached myself to a group of riders and set off.  There was some chat, some banter and then we sorted ourselves out, working out who wanted to go at what pace. I pootled along, sometimes cycling with others, sometimes on my own but all the time enjoying the scenery. The final 15 miles or so I was picked up by a group and we wizzed the rest of the way back to Somerton. 5h 44min 31s; 17.79mph average

 

Day 2 I was still able to cycle which was a good start. The route took us south to Lulworth on the coast, 112miles and 7,469ft of climbing.  My friend Rob had come up to ride as well on the Sunday, and while he had forewarned that he might actually start going backwards on the hills, we did manage to make forward progress for the whole of the day at a tidy pace. Whoop whoop! 6h 39min 32s; 16.84mph average.

 

Day 3 took us west to Minehead through Exmoor national park and back for 106 miles. I was on my own again (Rob having gone back home) and thankful that Sunday hadn’t been too hard as the route took us up the mother of all hills at Porlock, and all in all we did a total 10,071ft of ascending.  I started of slightly later than I’d really wanted to as there were thunderstorms forecasted for the afternoon and I’d wanted to get through the route hopefully before the heavens opened.  I mooched along for the first 6 or so miles on my own before 7 riders came flying past me. Having gained a bit of confidence from the last two days of riding in groups and working with other solo riders / pairs I jumped on the back and started pedalling. These guys were working way harder than I would normally and were flying along. I was hanging on for dear life – trying to contribute where I could and constantly weighing up my energy expenditure (huge) versus the gains of flying along with a group of guys at a speed way faster than I would ever have been able to achieve on my own.  After 10 miles or we’d wizzed past a number of other solos and pairs and I was definitely looking for another group so that I could drop off.  We picked one up at about mile 17 on a hill and while the rest of the boys wizzed their way through, I was happy to drop the pace and have some chat with the slower riders.  Having said “slower” we were still ticking along at a fair pace.  The atmosphere was great, lots of banter for most of the route even though we didn’t have allot of breath to spare as it was so hilly!  Ride time 6h 19min 23s; 16.78mph

 

Total ride time: 15h 18min 37s. In the bag. Shweeeeet and looking forward to tour of Pembrokeshire next weekend.