Another good read Al
I opted to stay over at the hall where the ride started from as a bit of an experiment, it appears I got just under 6 hours sleep though I felt I was forever struggling to get comfortable I appear to have got about 3 hours deep sleep, so it sort of worked. It was a close call in terms of comparing it to being just over an hour away by car but I know I always sleep badly before an event, so no harm in trying! The final thing that swayed me was knowing there was a large entry field there may be issues finding parking but that wasn't the case in the end.. Adding to my apprehensiveness was a lot of doubt of being able to do the distance - obviously rubbish idea but one I couldn't shift all week on the run up.
The usual mix of faces and a high entry level with this being one of the first 300km PBP qualifiers of the season, 150 riders were signed up, not sure the final on the road tally. Very cold start, murky all the way up past the first control. First control had the largest gathering of Alpacas just before we turned in to the town I have ever seen! Every ride has to feature Alpacas - I'm lucky that I seem to find them on almost every one I do - but this was on a different scale! Reading CTC put on a great spread there - looking forward to seeing the card stampers at our Woodman audax this weekend.
Test valley was loverly with an all you can eat banquet of cakes and proper coffee at the next control. Into the New Forrest with its roaming animals and then a great decent down to Fordingbridge (twinned with Vimoutiers!) for the halfway control and a proper audax garage forecourt session..
We had a flattering tail wind and our average was easily 24 kph for the first half, I was an hour ahead of my schedule, as we turned we still didn't get the headwind but then as we climbed on to the plateau we got the full effect and Joss and I then started to rotate to try and ease the progress, Joss was on fixed so at least I had somewhere to hide in my gears - his marathon training is certainly paying off as he was able to keep a good constant 21/22kph in to that headwind.. as we dropped off the plateau and hit the rollers the sun had gone in and it was starting to get quite cold, arriving in Alresford we opted for the chip shop but it was sub optimal - huge portions, but not really what I desired to eat, the only bonus for me being I managed to get a cup of tea in there to warm up.
For the next leg I had a different route via Hook to the next control. I had based this off Frank's TT bike version of the ride a few years earlier and was mostly in order to get me to somewhere to eat that was still open - this worked out excellent, the shop let me bring my bike in whilst I went about buying some jelly babies and a tuna & sweetcorn sandwich. Less well was the supposed 100m less climbing! With the jelly babies kicking in I was soon back to 26kph and on my way to Winnersh to control. From there is was mostly flat but with the odd 5% lump which felt more like 10% but I was able to keep something close to a 23kph average and also managed the usual effort to fully empty the tank on the run in to the Arrivee.
I arrived back in the Arrivee for around 10:20 to a welcome cuppa and some rice pudding & fruit plus a bonus bowl of soup. (wish I'd had more of the spring rolls and tried a samosa now!)
After various faffing and chatting I put the bike in the car and grabbed an hours kip before setting off home. Another grand day out and 50% of my PBP qualifiers now done. Thanks for the ride guys!