I rolled in as a group of 3 making lantern rouge - something like 40 mins in hand.
I set off with a mate, Glenn 20 mins late, and caught up with Nick on his first 300 fairly soon. We made good progress until ~120k when Glenn’s legs fell off. He’s done LEL/PBP so the distance wasn’t an issue, but boy did he have a bad day...
On every climb Glenn struggled and dropped right down to 1st gear, and on this ride there are a lot of climbs to tackle. I rode with him trying to distract, and at the half way point we talked about if a finish was possible. I rode ahead to Nick, outlining we’d finish but much closer to 2am than planned (telling him it was fine to just ride on when he wanted to).
The views and pretty villages/houses/churches on this ride are outstanding. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for the quality of the roads! Gravel trap became a common theme as did the short sections that were basically unsurfaced.
We made a couple of extra stops for Glenn to eat and recover (another pub and a co-op). The controls are well placed and made nice food, at 180k we were too late for Farm Park, so stopped in the green at a village fate, the guys running the BBQ we’re avid cyclists who couldn’t believe the distances covered on Audax’s. they pampered to uscwhiskt we chatted. From here Nick rode on to make up some time.
The route kept rolling, Glenn kept going, i’d try my hardest to give him a wheel to follow - staying in the little ring even on the flats (there are not many flat bits!). Even so I kept dropping him
we caught Nick again who’d made a wrong turn. I told him to push on as I was starting to doubt we’d make it in time.
215k & nick pulled away again, Glenn tried to insist I left him, but having ridden together for 20years+ our only rule is that you never abandon the other (sure, escort them to a train or similar, but never abandon). 230k we caught Nick again, after that he rode with us until the end - made for good company. After a swift half at the next control we pushed onwards & upwards , more undulating gravely roads. It was now dark and with so little traffic we easily rode 3 a-breast thinning out on the rare occasion car lights appeared, or letting Glenn shelter behind us as needed.
Around Basingstoke the hills finally stopped and we had some smooth/wide/downwards roads to make a little speed on. Slowly but surely the distance left ticked away, we stopped to check 2 separate people who had fallen into the gutter. Drunk they both got back up and seemed ok...
Finally 2k to go, 1k to go - we’re done. The ride lives up to its name - it is indeed the rural south, the price you pay for such quiet roads is the poor road surface. My legs were not taxed just due to the speed we rode, but my hands & wrists hurt! Well done Nick on his first 300, well done Glenn for a massive effort and finally, thanks to Ian and Phil for looking after us especially at the finish where tea and food was very welcome!