Today was the day of the Inter Services Sportive at Highclere Castle. The weather forecast had been pretty gloomy but fortunately the clouds seemed to dump everything overnight and the day itself was very pleasant, occasionally overcast but the were long periods of sunshine. I had elected to do the 77 mile route due to my lack of bike mileage over recent weeks and I'm glad I did. I got there early enough to have a quick chat with Phil McNeil before he set off on the 200km route and I was on the receiving end of some gentle banter for wimping out of the big ride.
I met up with Paul Fullalove at the start who was aiming for a sub 4:33 ride to qualify for a gold certificate. That seemed like a reasonable goal so decided to ride with him. We tagged on to a reasonably paced group and although the group broke up on some of the climbs we were making good time. Talking of climbs, there were some real beasts (not Pyrenees beastly as Phil had pointed out, but after 5 years in Cambridgeshire I thinked they qualified for the term). Paul was riding very strong in the early miles and fairly flying up the hills. I was taking a more conservative pace uphill and then making up lost ground on the descents. I was really enjoying myself. At the feed station at the 42 mile point we were averaging just under 30kmh, plenty fast enough to qualify for Paul's gold certificate. Shortly after the feed station the route splits and the long course boys head off on their extra loop. We carried on with far less cyclists around and it we found it difficult to get into a rythm due to the constant change in gradient, but we were maintaining a reasonable pace.
And then it all went Pete Tong!
We got lost. We must have missed a signpost (although several others we spoke to had also gone wrong at a similar point so may be there wasn't a sign or it had been hidden by the locals???). Either way we were way off route and Paul's gold certificate was going up in smoke. Eventually we stopped at a Service Station and a very helpful lady showed us exactly where we were; fortunately by this stage we were only a couple of miles off route, but we had lost a lot of time. We rejoined the route and after finding out we were now only 28km or so from the finish I decided it was hammer time. Paul hung on for a few km but then was lost, I was amazed how good I felt and was flying up the hills and passing loads of people.
Based on our average speed we would have comfortably gained Paul's gold certificate had we stayed on route - I finished in a little over 29kmh based on my actual riding time. Hopefully there will be sme pictures soon.
On a lighter note, there was one memorable moment during the day. We had climbed a rather large hill and then enjoyed a fast descent into a very tight left hander. Without knowing what was round the corner I had changed down a number of gears. Good planning as it turned out as round the corner the road went directly up. And there was Paul getting off his bike. He had gone round the corner in the big gear he had used to descend the hill and could then barely turn the pedals and had to get off and put the bike onto the small ring by hand. Lesson learned!
Met a lot of RAF cyclists with tales to tell - a number of the 200km guys had changed to the 77 mile route after a mistake by the lead vehicle took them off route almost from the start!
Anyway, time to rest now and look forward. I plan a couple more sportives this year and also need to get into the time trialling habit.
Train smart folks!
