'The Flatlands' 600km 13/14th September 2014

[tonyh]

Have a great ride ..shame I couldn't make it this year!

+1
You're on your way

[Cycling Daddy]

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

[wilkyboy]

[whispers into the breeze:]  Anybody home yet? 

[hellymedic]

[whispers into the breeze:]  Anybody home yet? 

Yup

According to my Twitter feed...
... he's been back 8 hours. GIT!
... Oranj finished a while back.

[cyclinggeezer]

Came across a number of Flatlands riders on my own DIY around Lincs yesterday and today. The wind heading towards Boston was a bit of a pain!I took my own route out to Coningsby  after that (hoping to see the 2 Lancs at BBMF) and did not catch up with any one else until Gainborough and had a pleasant conversation about all things audax on the garage forecourt. My last sighting was a horizontally prone rider in an audax hotel at Sturton by Stow near Lincoln.

[Flatlander]

[whispers into the breeze:]  Anybody home yet? 

Yup

According to my Twitter feed...
... he's been back 8 hours. GIT!
... Oranj finished a while back.

At Whittlesey Oranj left just as I arrived. By halfway he was at lwas 2 hours up judging where we crossed. I made it back to Cambridge at 5am but shower, food and bed won. Cat went off at 9:15 and I was on the road for the last bit at 10:30. Finished at 12:15.

Main problem was in the second half I couldn't get my fixed up  shoulder comfortable.

Lincoln was good - took the tourist root. Lincoln drinker's appear to be very polite. Took one wrong turn near the bottom of the cobbles  because I couldn't read the Garmin. .

Stark industrial Landscape up North, especially at night.

Worst bit - busy main roads into Gainsborough as it was getting dark - probably serves we right for being too fast.

Thanks to Tomsk for organising .

[Flatlander]

...I took my own route out to Coningsby  after that (hoping to see the 2 Lancs at BBMF) ...

Although perhaps a little less impressive, a DC3 in this livery:

did a low circuit of RAF Coningsby when I was on that section of the route yesterday.

Sky was full of biplanes when I returned to Cambridge this afternoon through Duxford foday - there is a big asishow on. A505 was gridlocked and Duxford village was a carpark with lots of people viewing from surrounding fields.

[Bikeabilityman]

What about Team ElliptiGo? Were they seen riding together this time? I didn't see them after the start, but I expect a good report.

Me, I was enjoying the ride (but not the headwinds) until after Kirton, when I had to keep stopping to be sick (apart from the one time when I set off after being sick, and proceeded to vomit over my bars, etrex, phone, etc. Luckily, I had plenty of water for a rinse. The tandem couple on the way to Goole probably wondered why I was yo-yo-ing. It was coffee and Lucozade Sport (disagreed with me) after that, until I tried a chip bitty at the welly cafe to get me through the last leg (Cambridge and all those hills afterwards). The chips didn't settle!

I had to finish, because I had driven to the start, and I want to finish the year on 50 points for a nice cloth badge. Too many commitments on other weekends!

[Slimline Saxon]

Sounds like my July ride when I had to finish for RRTY, felt sick all day.

Job done, lots of points for Team MK and ready for the PBP season.

Entered the Essex SR PBP qualifiers today, third time lucky for the Essex shiny.

If Raymond finished, well done and sorry I was unable to ride with you.

[Lars]

Nice weekend of riding. It was more wind than the forecast said it would be. But it was fair with both head and tailwind.
Maybe even a bit more overall tailwind since the Sat was more crosswinds and Sun more tailwinds it seemed. Temperatures
were ideal for riding. And zero rain.

Had a very civilized 600. Had booked Travelodge in Scunthorpe after about 360k, which added about 15k. But it was
well worth it. Got there quite early and was asleep at 10.45 pm. Got up at 4.45 am in order to reach the Gainsborough
control with about 45 min margin. I really like having a long sleep break like that. Day 2 went fine and I finished just
before 6pm. Since pretty much zero horrible night riding misery it felt like two rides almost! None of the "March of
1,000 headless corpses" day 2 slog a full night's riding can bring. Thought the ride would be harder after the points
chase frenzy with 400, 300, 400, 400, 500 the five weekends leading up to this weekend. But luckily it was all fine! 

Thanks Tom for organising, and to Wilky for stepping in and manning the first control. Everyone queuing for receipts
at Red Lodge would probably have been quite chaotic otherwise!

If Dick Turpin's Day Out 200 perm, Green and Yellow Fields 300 perm and Asparagus and Strawberries 400 perm count
for the Essex SR The Flatlands would wrap up my Essex SR no 2. Chatted with Richard Ellis during the ride, and he thought
the rule might be only one perm would be allowed. Doesn't really matter since I already have the shiny medal since last
year though!

[wilkyboy]

Nick, our new controller, held us all for a few minutes until the control opened at 08:02 and then we were off again.

Sorry 'bout that, but rules is rules    The queue for the café was much shorter compared to last year, and turnaround on food much quicker I thought, in spite of several times the number of riders 

And if you passed through Cambridge at 3am then you must've been back at arrivée by 5?  Crikey, that was quick!!!   

If Dick Turpin's Day Out 200 perm, Green and Yellow Fields 300 perm and Asparagus and Strawberries 400 perm count
for the Essex SR The Flatlands would wrap up my Essex SR no 2. Chatted with Richard Ellis during the ride, and he thought
the rule might be only one perm would be allowed.

I thought the rule was Calendars and Perms okay, but only one DIY?  That's what I thought, but Tomsk's the Man.

[Christophe]

Congratulations to all who took part.

Any news on Team Alp D'Huez? Or are they still climbing those mountains?

[delthebike]

Congratulations to all who took part.

Any news on Team Alp D'Huez? Or are they still climbing those mountains?

We all got back from 2020ish. - 2120ish 
What a fantastically cracking good ride it was too! 

[bikey-mikey]

Indeed well done all. 

Any news of the pedal scooter brigade? Ideal event for them, and I hope all home safe ?

[Tomsk]

^ Team ElliptiGo got in with a well judged, but still fairly slim margin. Not quite the last on the road, due to a few navigational errors by tired heads. As far as I know, all that made it to Chatteris in time were back before the cut off at 22:00.

'Team Alpe d'Huez' had a cracking ride, though sleep needs diverged, with OD peeling off early for by all accounts a verdant woodland idyll, Del and Huggy found the best of several 5* 'hotesl' on the ridge before Lincoln, where I just power-napped, being still a bit too alert and buzzing after a lot of Tomsk the Tank-Engine peloton-towing. I did need another few zzzzs on the little green in Girton, in order to be clear headed for the obstacle-course that is Cambridge.

Leaving the 'Audax Hotel' early, I had time for two feeds in Sleaford, at McD's AND the Packhorse - the extra calories were very much needed when the wind got up later: with the ziz-zag nature of many Fenland roads, it was a case of slog/zoom/slog, but never with the satisfaction you get from climbing hills.

A number of messages regarding pack-ers: no major catastrophes reported so far, but commiserations to those defeated by fitness issues, pain, lack of sleep, domestic crises and so on.....and 'chapeau' to those that, despite 'issues' managed to somehow keep going.

[Needham-matt]

My last sighting was a horizontally prone rider in an audax hotel at Sturton by Stow near Lincoln.

Could well have been me wrapped up in a silver foil blanket from about 12.30, didn't think I was sleeping all that well but I'd been down for 2 hours but only felt like 10 minutes . I think a bench would have been nicer bet for comfort. 

Not sure if this contravenes any publishing Audax times, but I quite enjoy looking at the Strava Flybys of these events to see where I fit with the pack, well the pack that is using Strava
http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/#194463859

My first 600 since PBP qualifying 2011, haven't done a 400 yet this year just lots of short faster rides as a way of training.

Thanks for organising!

[Tomsk]

^ I'd have thought some kind of 'Anti-Strava' would be more in keeping with the Audax ethos, with kudos for 'full value' rides, most unhealthy calories consumed, most 'bonus' kms off route etc.

But then, I just don't 'get' Strava - instead of pretending to race - why not actually.....race? But hey, however/whatever you ride its all good.

[Redlight]

I was a bit apprehensive about this - partly because it was my first Audax since breaking my leg and ankle earlier this year and partly because of the resultant loss of fitness and addition of weight - and I was mentally prepared to cut it short if need be.  As it happened, the ankle held out fine but the other factors had some impact.

Straightforward run up from Great Dunmow up to Red Lodge, although inexplicably I managed to overlook an instruction on the route sheet and so added about 10km. Cafe was busy so I didn't stop. On to Whittlesey was fine, although the wind was starting to be noticeable on some of the more exposed stretches. Nearly got taken out by a clown with a caravan who seemed to have forgotten that he needed to wait for that to pass the cyclist as well before pulling in.

I found the stretch up to Boston hard going. LittleWheelsandBig very kindly offered me a tow but I could see that I was holding him back and encouraged him to press on. I was grazing along the road so stopped only for a quick coffee at the Wetherspoons in Boston, while others were ordering meals,  and had a steady, but solo, ride for the next 90km. I faffed about a bit at the Spar in Kirton Lindsay and so missed the departure of a decent sized group that had arrived about 20 minutes before me and would have been fun for the next stretch, but I pressed on solo and rolled in to Goole a little before midnight.  It had been a bit disheartening on the 12km of out-and-back to see so many lights coming the other way (including the Alpe d'Huez group, I think) and Goole was awash with young men racing around in tuned-up hatchbacks, so I was glad to get away again.

Goole to Gainsborough was a doddle, and I was glad to be doing it at night as I could imagine it being less pleasant when busy. There was quite a gathering at the Murco garage and we were treated to some entertaining demonstrations of what Gainsborough youth gets up to on a Saturday night.  I was particularly taken with the young lady who leapt out of her car and went over to some of the other riders for a chat, and then insisted on giving one of them a kiss before  being hauled back into the car. Never seen that happen on an Audax before.

I found Gainsborough to Sleaford a slog. The terrain was fine - it was actually nice to have some ups and downs again, with the possible exception of the climb out of Lincoln, which I remembered as a ba***rd from London-Edinburgh-London - but my legs were rebelling. About 25km from Sleaford I hit the wall. Tried eating but didn't have the energy to chew. I struggled on but lost a lot of time just crawling along in low gear. I spent a good hour in the town just sitting on a bench trying to get a sensible mix of savoury and sweet inside me and rehydrating a bit.

The wind was getting to be a bit of pain on the approach to Chatteris, especially after Spalding. Certainly the last few km, along a dead straight road with no cover, were grim. But the Green Welly Cafe made up for it. From the name, I was expecting something a bit more pretentious, maybe full of yummy mummies and serving quiche and salad, but instead we got a proper old-style roadside caff: mug of tea, double beans on toast, a milk shake and all for less than a fiver.   Perfect top up for the last leg, but I probably stayed too long as other riders came and went while I was still refuelling..

Cambridge was much as expected and there was a bit of weaving around tourists. My fave was the lady who walked backwards in to the road in front of me to take a photo. Then the roller coaster to Saffron Walden, which was unpleasant, with too many close passes. And I have always hated the road from Saffron Walden to Dunmow, so the least said the better.  I would have been fine under normal circumstances, but my legs were jelly by this point and I was simply crawling up the hills and coasting gently down them.

Rolled into Dunmow just before 6 and was home with a beer at 7.30. 

Any complaints are minor gripes on an otherwise great ride, though. Unfashionable though it might be in these days of GPS, I like Tom's route sheets not having any distances other than the stage lengths. In my view, it encourages you to look around and absorb the surroundings much more, rather than simply be watching the GPS screen for the next instruction or the accumulated kilometres on the computer. In fact, I didn't look at mine until I finished, which is when I discovered that I'd inadvertently reset it at some point and so had apparently ridden only 190km.

Personally, I was pleased to have done it without breaking for sleep, as I have this in mind for the outward leg of Paris-Brest-Paris next year, but it's obvious that I need to regain more fitness as my rolling speed was slower than I would like. Keeping riding over the winter should sort that - and a bit of self-discipline should sort out the weight!

Thanks to Tom and his merry band of helpers. It was great to see such a big field on a 600, let along one at this time of year. I thought the DIY brevet cards was great idea too.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

PM me Redlight, so that I can work out how to return that extra weight to your saddlebag. Thanks for the loan.

[arabella]

Saw this on the BBC website, assume it was to do with this ride:

Reply #288
We were invaded by cyclists here in the middle of the Fens on Saturday - but they all stopped off in the town for lunch, which I've never seen done before. It wasn't a race as such, more of a touring assembly. When we have a race it's a real pain because they shut the town centre off and make it very difficult to get about - and they sometimes don't tell you which roads they are shutting.

(under this story)

[Christophe]

Congratulations to all who took part.

Any news on Team Alp D'Huez? Or are they still climbing those mountains?

We all got back from 2020ish. - 2120ish 
What a fantastically cracking good ride it was too! 

Congratulations to all of you. Looking forward to your tales over the coming days/ weeks.

[Redlight]

Saw this on the BBC website, assume it was to do with this ride:

Reply #288
We were invaded by cyclists here in the middle of the Fens on Saturday - but they all stopped off in the town for lunch, which I've never seen done before. It wasn't a race as such, more of a touring assembly. When we have a race it's a real pain because they shut the town centre off and make it very difficult to get about - and they sometimes don't tell you which roads they are shutting.

(under this story)

Presumably a resident of Whittlesey or Boston.  Some of the comments under that story are depressing, though.

[hellymedic]

Saw this on the BBC website, assume it was to do with this ride:

Reply #288
We were invaded by cyclists here in the middle of the Fens on Saturday - but they all stopped off in the town for lunch, which I've never seen done before. It wasn't a race as such, more of a touring assembly. When we have a race it's a real pain because they shut the town centre off and make it very difficult to get about - and they sometimes don't tell you which roads they are shutting.

(under this story)

Presumably a resident of Whittlesey or Boston.  Some of the comments under that story are depressing, though.

So a group of people lunching in a small town is unusual and newsworthy to a resident?!
The Small Town must be very quiet!

Buying a Mars bar from a sweet shop will be news next...

[delthebike]

As usual I arrived a bit early  so spent those four hours in the pub, chatting to three Irish riders, and reading a book in the churchyard.


Presently Tomsk arrived and opened St. Mary's Church Hall. Joined by Dan we set about putting out the tables, chairs, and food for the Grand Depart the next morning. I set my sleeping quarters up in the corner opposite the stairs and under the time switch. Tick bloody tock all night! I think I had about four hours kip overall.
Come the morning I loaded up for the ride.


The rest of the world turned up soon after 0500 and parked various vehicles, guided by Dan, behind the hall and when that was full they got to park just down the road.
Somehow I managed to volunteer myself as Signing in Clerk, it seemed a good idea at the time as a lot of people were having difficulty in "READING" the simple instructions taped to the table by Tomsk! And he wants his pens back!
The view outside from the Desk of Signing In.


Flying Helmet Ada and Ali turn up. Honorary members of the Essex Alpe D'Huez group.


Huggy, Tomsk, Ada, and Ali ready for the off. 0630 after clearing the hall of 100+ randonneurs had eaten breakfast, dropped off bags, and stolen pens.


We caught up with the EGOtists at Clare but we heard them several km's before we saw them!


FHAda is happy at the EGOists stance on excercise. If you can't decide to run or cycle why not do both, at the same time?


EGOmaniac in tippy top shape!


Joined by tippers_kiwi and Oscars Dad at Red Lodge.


Second breakfast, Wilkyboy, aka Red Lodge Controller, waits for more to arrive.


On Peak Hill, the highest point hereabout at a dizzying 9m! Team Essex Alpe D'Huez got to the top without problem or oxygen!


And looked good doing it too!


FHAli had a minor incident that was soon sorted.


Moon Under Water. I asked the staff what they had for a vegan to eat, she didn't know what the term was so I had to go vegetarian with a veggie burger and chips.


Energy drinks.


Tippers with a selection of drinking vessels.


"We're gonna need a bigger spoon!"


Without brane freeze too!


One Stop Kirton in Lyndsey.




Gainsborough, only one drunk lady (not pictured) shouted at a sleeping rider asking if he was alright.


What happens when a 24 spoke, lightweight, racing wheel meets an 18stone Kiwi on rough roads?

(click to show/hide)

Huggy and I found this delightful oak beamed bus shelter. It was clean and the en suite facilities were excellent. Best of all there were no neighbours who drove by shining million candle power light into our sleeping faces!


The Pack Horse in Sleaford provided a different menu challenge to the last Spoons pub. I was reading the breakfast menu and asked what the porridge is made with. "Er, porridge!" was the reply. Huggy saved the day by saying it's milky so again I went for the vegetarian option and the large veg. breakfast. "Without the egg", "What would you like instead?", "I'll have extra mushrooms please." Plate duly arrives and there are two mushrooms! Still it was a nice breakfast and a good start.


Our Glorious Leader and Benign Benefactor Tomsk. All hail and praise him with great praise for such a well run audax!


Doubling the amount of ZZZ at Girton to 20 mins!


And finally tippers_kiwi and his supreme bodge at Arrivee! Riding without sleep he finished at 1630, top stuff!


These and more pics are here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117165246273658419612/Flatlands6002014

Well done Tomsk it was an excellent second audax for me!

[hellymedic]

If the Moon Under Water was a Wetherspoons pub (most of that name are) you could peruse the menu online and choose before you enter...
http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/food/dietary-requirements

That reduces both Faff and aggravation.
Knowing what you'll order before arriving at a Control saves loads of time.