Just after finishing
That was hard.
Really quite hilly. Imagine the Denmead 600 stretched by 66% and the altitude knob turned to 11.
The dropout rate was around 30%, with some very big audax names amongst them.
The big problem was sleep. The 9 pm start time was a real problem for most people and you had to work damn hard to get to the controls to get any sleep at all.
I rode faster than I've ever done before and I managed to do the whole thing on 4 1/2 hours night riding, total. Apart from the first night, when I went home to sleep 
I rode dawn-dusk and slept 5 hours or so each night.
Most people weren't so lucky and there were plenty arriving at Lymington in the wee small hours and going straight out with minimal sleep.
That's a recipe for failure.
Report proper, 27 July 2006
Day 1.
I gave a lift down to Andy Tallis (APT from C+), collecting him in Salisbury. We got to Lymington to find the usual crowd, and tried to put up our tents. Rather hard to get the pegs into the concrete-hard ground. I haven't used a tent on an audax before, but it was part of my survival plan. I really was worried about sleeping on this event: I couldn't think how I was going to survive until I saw the route sheet and realised that it went past the end of our road at about 115 km. Serendipity, and the makings of a Plan.
What I hadn't counted on was that the average speed for the first day was set at 15 kph, not the expected 13. Anyway, my plan was to stay with the fastest group I could from the start until the first control at Membury, then shoot off home for a few hours and - duly rested - claw back the time by riding the next 335 k or so in about 16 hours, to finish in daylight. The next day would be 324 k in 15 hours between dawn and dusk, and the final day 231 km from dawn until afternoon. The tent should ensure I got to sleep - experience of audax overnights in village halls is that sleep is not easy.
I'm not a big fan of the 9 pm start time. It's not like PBP where there are many overnight control options: you
have to get back to Lymington to sleep no matter how long it takes. If it takes 36 hours, you've got a problem. Sleep-deprived riding is a Bad Idea for oh-so-many reasons.
So my plan was designed to allow me to survive.
We had an excellent pasta dinner, with fruit pie and ice cream - catering and support was superb - and assembled for the off. The pace out of Lymington was startling as we hammered along the flattish New Forest roads at dusk. I couldn't quite stay with the front group of about 10 riders, but I was just slightly too fast for the second one. So I was stuck in the no-mans-land between. But when we hit the lanes after about 20k, it all changed. Suddenly we had to navigate and see, and that front group couldn't. They started going backwards and I passed them, the Solidlights and local knowledge winning out. I picked up a group of about 6, including Steve Abraham, and they stayed behind me the whole way to Membury. We were climbing and descending the twisty, gravelly lanes with ease as the Solidlights lit up the night. We were the first to Membury - diverting slightly to miss the pointless climb of Marridge Hill out of Ramsbury - and there I left my colleagues. I got home by just after 1:30, with no attack of the dozies. First mission accomplished.
Day 2
After a shower and about 2 1/2 hours in my own bed
I left at 4:30 as the sky was lightening. I could see well enough to read the routesheet, but I didn't need it on the first 50 k or so. I descended Blowingstone in sufficient light to be comfortable and blasted off across the Vale of the White Horse. I figured I was at the back of the field, and my target was to be in-time at the El Supremo "secret" control near Chipping Norton.
I caught the first bunch slewing sleepily across the road just outside Stamford-in-the-Vale and by El Supremo I was well up the field. The sleep had stood me in good stead and I was a lot faster on the road than most other riders. Lots of Muntjac deer scampering in the road here
and a close-up encounter with a heron
I stuffed my face courtesy of El-S and made the round trip to Warwick and back non-stop, overtaking even more audaxers as they snacked in the sunshine at Warwick Services. I was riding this like a perm: no hanging about at controls, grab a drink and keep rolling; ride to the HRM to maximise pace.
It was getting seriously hot by now, and the terrain was distinctly lumpy. I pushed on to Cirencester and beyond, and felt a little sleepy in the mid afternoon. I thought I'd drink my emergency Coke and sit in the sun for 5 minutes for it t kick in - but as I pulled over a small group of familiar faces caught me: Tony Pember, Dave Bartlett and Dick Nutall. Good company all. I quickly hopped back on the bike and sat in with them, the company waking me up. We caught Paul Whitehead on the long climb out of Collingbourne Ducis and swooped down into the Vale of Pewsey.
As we headed towards Amesbury, I was conscious that the cafe there closes at 6 so I didn't want to hang about; about 20 k out we were caught and passed by a small group containing Andy Corless, George Hanna, Rob Gray and John Barkman amongst others. George, John and Rob accelerated off the front, and I made the jump to join them. We got to Amesbury in good time and at a very fast pace.
After Amesbury the ride got seriously lumpy and I was worried about getting caught in the dark. I really pushed it along here and got into the New Forest in daylight; the route here was magical with a descent through an arboretum and then a flat run in to Lymington by 9:10 and dusk. Second mission accomplished
Day 3
Up at 4 and out at dawn at 5. Judith and Pete Marshall hadn't been in long - Judith had been having back and knee problems: the aftermath of a SMIDSY in Cheddar last year.
I left about the same time as Steve A, but he was flying and I couldn't stay with him. The run-out to Ringwood is fast and flat and I chatted to APT and Patrick (Grandmaster Flash) here, and then pushed on to pass Tony and Dave and Julian Dyson en route for Shaftesbury. After this I was on my own all day in the increasingly hilly Mendips. The 10 k climb of Cheddar was OK, but after Nunney Catch (where I was mistaken for Steve A in a garage
) the lumpiness became extreme, to the point where it was unremittingly, grindingly Dorset. It was also more than a little damp, and windy.
By pulling out all the stops I made it back to Lymington by 9:25, just beating George and John and just behind Steve. 5th back
. That was good, considering I'd gone astray in the morning and put in an extra 10 k on the Somerset Levels. Good job it was there and not the Mendips...
I did stop long enough to tell the driver of a stretch Hummer jammed across a mini roundabout in Fordingbridge
exactly what I thought of his vehicle
Day 4
Clear and still this morning
I had this weird deja vu: rolling out across the flat New Forest with the sun climbing into a clear blue sky, mist in the hollows, lakes and groups of grazing animals, the road disappearing into infinity over the horizon, I was reminded overwhelmingly of the Etosha salt pan in Namibia. Weird indeed. OK, they were ponies and cows, not zebra and antelope - and I didn't see any lions or rhinos. Perhaps I was a bit tired.
This was a much less lumpy day, but still far from flat, and familiar territory as it skirted around the Test Valley and over to Reading. Another day on my own, another ridden in perm mode with minimal stops. I saw the leaders - including Mike Pain and Martin Lucas, coming away from Reading as I was going in, and I saw most of the rest of the field spread out over the 20-odd km between Mortimer and Hannington as I was on the return leg.
I was convinced I'd be caught so I pushed on apace, stymied only by the screaming headwind in the New Forest - didn't someone promise a flat, fast finish ? - and the level crossing in Lymington. I finished at about 4:20 and a few more riders drifted in over the next couple of hours, including Patrick and Tony and Dave who arrived just as I was going home, and George, John and Rob who were about an hour behind me.
I packed up the tent and headed home about 6:30.
I got up to the M3 and found it completely seized by the crowds spewing out of a "Game" and country living show in Romsey
I headed across country, co-incidently following the route of the 1000 backwards to Sutton Scotney. I saw a load of riders here and confused many by leaning out of the car and shouting "Allez !"
Peter and Judith were outside Montisfont and Andy/APT had just crossed the main road at Stockbridge (tho' he didn't see me). Probably on for a finish around 9:30 I'd guess. Nothing problematic to stop them except that wind....
All-in-all a great route, but far, far hillier than anyone was expecting and with a tremendous attrition rate.
Our own Lynne Gorings-Nayle was a victim of repeated punctures, pump failure and the clock; Andy Corless and Roger Philo also DNF'd - and of course FWN.
Pete Marshall had a wheel trashed by a silly person in a 4x4 and borrowed one from the organiser to finish.
Brian Callow seemed OK - he'd just arrived at Lymington this morning as I was going out but he's a seasoned rider and he'll have rested a while and then pushed on. Cut-off is about midnight. I suspect that some will be very close to that indeed.
Next day edit:
Reading this back it sounds a little negative. It's odd, some of the classic rides hurt at the time and only a few days later do you realise that they were indeed classics. Even now, already, I feel that I really enjopyed this one. Yes it was tough, hillier than expected, but the route was absolutely excellent. Really scenic and almost all on quite little lanes. I guess an easier ride would have been more main-roady and faster but a lot less fun to ride.
Would I ride it again ? Definitely. But this time I'd be prepared for a hard time. In fact, though, it can't have been too bad: I didn't have to walk anything and I rode 1000 k in 67 hours with about 13 hours sleep. That's actually quite quick. I think my average road speed was in excess of 20 km/hr including (non-overnight) controls.
The routesheet was almost perfect (just a mix-up over an info control at the end gets it 999 1/2 points out of a 1000). That makes a big difference. Trusting the routesheet makes the whole ride so much easier.
The organisation was first-rate and the Lymington control worked well - mmm, electric showers with unlimited hot water, mmmm, fine food - and the helpers did a stirling job.
I think that without the organisational excellence it would have been almost impossible to survive with a smile.
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