Tour of Britain Stoke Sportif 26 Sep 10

Phew! Been very busy with one thing or another lately. Can’t believe how quickly time flies. To cut a long story short, since the Vitruvian I have done not much swimming, hardly any running whatsoever and lots of biking. This was a sort of crash prep 3 weeks for the Tour of Britain Stoke on Trent Pro Ride Sportif. The race was on 26 Sep 10 . . . . . er, last Sunday!

So how did it go? It was a great day out and the weather was ok(ish). Quite windy in places but it could have been far worse. The route went deep into the Peak District and some of the high points were really exposed. Of course the theme of the ride was hills, hils and more hills! I had a place in the RAF Cycling Association Team and there was 20 of us all decked out in RAF Cycling. It was quite an impressive sight – oh, and there was an interloper wearing an RAF Triathlon cycling jersey! No, not me! It was young Jase Walkley. As it turned out, he would be my ride buddy and we probably spurred each other on to levels of utter exhaustion that would not otherwise be possible. That may sound dramatic but the last 10 miles was a real pain-fest – just the way it should be!

The RAF peleton moved along at a healthy pace to begin with. The first real hill split us up slightly and 3 of us were up the road by the top. One of the guys then punctured and we stopped to wait for him. This caused the whole peleton to regroup. This seemed to be the pattern of the ride. The peleton moved well together but as soon as the road went skywards, it split. So it was always stop, regroup. Drink station, regroup. The ride felt somewhat broken and inefficient to me. I suppose it’s difficult with such a large group as people want different types of rides. Me, I wanted to get back as soon as possible. In the end, at the main feed zone, me and Jase made the decision to just crack on for home.

So it was just the 2 of us and we hit the hill of the day (though I found later hills tougher), Gun Hill. We saw a timing point on the road but we didn’t click that this was the start of the King of the Mountains Challenge and there would be another timing point at the top! We just carried on puffing and panting in our rhythm until we saw the timing point at the top and then sprinted the last 50m! Nevertheless, out of nearly 800 riders we had the 28th best climb of the day time!

The rest of the ride was hard. . . . very hard! We just pushed it home all the way and passed many people. As I said, the last 10 miles were a real pain fest and I was really feeling it. I lost concentration at a roundabout and nearly got wiped out. I then had to chase hard to catch Jase up again.

Overall Jase was 37th and I was 38th. Happy with that, considering all the stops and the puncture! Ride time was 5:27 but clock time 5:53! Man we lost some time phaffing around! However, it was a great ride – my first 100 miler!!