New Forest Rattler

Today it was back to the New Forest for the Rattler sportive; I did this event last year but had some mechanical issues that held me back, alhough I did still manage to finish. So this year the mission was to finish without any mechanical dramas and hopefully take a bunch of time off my 2009 standard (4 hours 20 mins).

I left the house under overcast skies and with a steady drizzle of rain. I picked up Hamish on the way and we arrived and registered in good time ready for the 0830 start. We were somewhat surprised to see the first riders set off at about 0815 and after unloading and assembling the bikes we wandered across to the start to see a fairly lengthy queue already waiting. We joined the end and set off at about 0915.

Our plan was to ride moderately hard all the way (not a very technical plan I grant you) with brief stops at the 2 feed stations to stock up on supplies if required. After a couple of miles we had left the rest of our start group behind and quickly caught up with the tail end of the previous group. The rain had resulted in the roads being quite slippery, and in a couple of places it was quite treacherous, with mud and gravel washed on to the road. We caught an ex-Army guy wearing a Help for Heroes shirt and after a chat he joined us until the first feed station where Hamish and I stopped and he carried on. We didn't stop long - top up the drinks bottles, 2 pieces of flapjack and a quick wee and we were off again. Once again it was just Hamish and I and we were exposed to the wind. We were, though, working well together and were maintaining an average speed above 20mph. Too well it would seem, as we picked up our own peloton who were happy to sit on our wheels but let us do all the work. We got a little fed up with this so attacked up a hill and left them behind. Shortly before the 2nd feed station we caught a group of 4 who were riding just a little slower than us. Rather than go through the whole 'peloton' thing again we decided to join their group and sat with them until the 2nd feed station. After repeating the routine off the 1st aid station we were on our way again, and quickly caught a large group that were travelling quite swiftly. We agreed to ride with these but we both noticed that, as the miles went by, the group was getting slower and slower. Decisive action was required. With 21kmto go, at the bottom of a hill, Hamish and I exchanged a 'look', had a quick exchange of words and then we accelerated; me at the front and Hamish on my wheel. We went passed the rest of the group and fully expected a few to grab our wheels. I had my head down and didn't look back until we reached the top. Not only had we left the group behind but they were actually out of sight! I was working hard at this point, and didn't realise how hard until I noticed that Hamish wasn't coming through to take a turn on the front, so we eased back a bit to recover. We were still going reasonably quickly though so I was surprised when a glance over my shoulder revealed a small group catching us, and at some pace. They came passed and we grabbed their wheel. Jeez these guys were travelling quickly. Just hanging onto their wheels my HR was bouncing around between 155 and 160!

We kept this up for a few kms and then we reached Blissford Hill. All 25% of it! Fortunately it's not very long and although we lost 30 metres or so to the rest of the group on the climb we soon caught back up and then all worked together for a very fast ride to the finish. Hamish and I were delighted to finish with a total time of a few seconds over 4 hours. My bike computer showed a ride time of 3 hours 54 minutes so I was well happy with that.

At the end we looked like we had participated in a cyclo-cross race; some very amusing sock marks! A great ride and another well organised event by the Rattler team. The hot soup, roll and tea at the end was very much appreciated. The New Forest is a lovely place to cycle through; today we had to avoid ponies, donkeys and cows, although there was no sign of the pigs we saw when we did the Spring Sportive in April!

I have a couple of days of downtime now; we're off to the Terracotta Warriors museum in Dorchester tomorrow; should be very interesting.

Rest well folks.