Southdowns Challenge Sportive

What a great day for cycling it was today. There was a bit of wind that proved problematic on top of the Downs but the temperature was just about perfect. I rode with a group of local cyclists I had met recently and the target was a gold standard ride, but just to make it a little more challenging we were targetting the gold standard for the youngsters age group.

I arrived early and took advantage of the bike mechanic to set up my gears properly. I'm not a complete dummy with the spanners but have always struggled to set up gears and after half an hour yesterday they still weren't perfect. This guy had them sorted in less than 2 minutes - how did he do that? We set off and within a few kms had lost one of our group; he was behind a caravan that decided to take a very slow left turn and by the time he got passed we were gone. To be honest the early pace was higher than I would have liked - the guys were charging up the hills and working hard on the flats. I thought to myself that maybe everyone else was just doing the 50-mile route and I would be left to struggle round the 80-miler myself! But I sat in and span easily up the hills and closed the gaps that appeared easily once over the top. I was practising my Barca feeding regime and all was good, the only thing that caused a little bit of stomach uneasiness was wolfing down a whole banana at each feed stations; should have just had a half me thinks. 2 hours 20 minutes into the ride and we hit the biggest hill of the day - 1.5 miles of upward cycling. At the bottom I was left behind but settled into my rhythm and started to overtake others who had perhaps misjudged the pace. Halfway up and I was off the front on my own and just kept pulling away; I felt really comfortable climbing (which is most unlike me!) and both lungs and legs were comfortable at my chosen pace. One or 2 of the team were having problems on the hills and the re-grouping at the top obviously slowed the average speed down a bit. Towards the end and I was keen to up the pace - 4:19 was touch and go but it needed a big effort to do it. And so I led the train and upped the pace; unfortunately I had to keep slowing down to keep the group together, and when I pulled over to let someone else have a go the pace dropped so after a short rest is was back on the front and pushing hard. We got to the finish line in 4:20, missing our ambitious target by just 1 minute; not too bad for a bunch of over-40s!

The post-race tea and food was very enjoyable and we received our certificates very shortly afterwards - excellent. Overall this was a really good, hard and enjoyable ride and I feel reasonably well prepared for Barca.

So what now for my Litespeed? It is clear that the groupset is tired and in need of replacement (it has done about 6 seasons!) and I am very tempted by the new Dura Ace and Ultegra, especially as the gear cables run under the bar tape (aesthetically it is much nicer). But no, I will be upgrading to 10-speed Ultegra SL for next year. A bit of internet surfing last night discovered huge bargains to be had on Ultegra SL now that the new Ultegra is about to hit the shops. I ordered a brand new groupset at over £500 off the retail price (and for less than you could separately buy the STIs and a chainset). Very happy with that. I know what wheels I want but these will have to wait until the New Year. It won't be the uber-light bike I was hoping for but 16 pounds isn't exactly heavy.

Roll on Barca and then some well earned rest, pies, beer and cream cakes.