An early start just before seven and a three-hour slog-a-thon in the cold morning gave me little time to suffer café legs before Tomsk set us off.
I was feeling cold, though, as we pootled — slowly — through the outskirts of Witham, and when a few quicker riders leapt off the front, I chased them down and stuck to Hugh's wheel, just to keep warm!
Some chap I don't know sat just dangling off the front for 45 minutes or so, so I did the honourable and took a turn. It must've been downhill or I had a private tailwind to High Easter, because by the time someone else rode by we'd somehow dropped the Orange Tandem! Buggered me up for the rest of the ride though, and it wasn't long before David, a 9.30 starter, called out as we passed and I was happy to drop off for a chat.
I hadn't had any breakfast before starting and nothing to eat on the way down, so the final 10km into the café were a bit of grovelling on David's wheel. And we were passed by the tandem.
The café were well organised as last year and from ordering to eating was about three minutes. Soup and a ham sandwich — I really should remember to avoid pork when I'm riding, as I had indigestion for the next few hours! It's a family thing ... however, nice to have some breakfast at last.
Rode from the café solo and a rider caught me just before Brick End and the right-left by the Prince of Wales — when I indicated right, he shouted "no, left!", to which I told him he could go left if he wanted, I was going right. Mike followed and explained that he was using the RideWithGPS app and spoken instructions in his ear, and they had been a bit iffy all day.
Every Essex audax goes to Thaxted! While that's not even vaguely true, Thaxted does feature on a LOT of events (including one of mine).
In Thaxted RWGPS told Mike to carry on up the hill — when I called him back, he stuck with me then as far as the Blue Egg, after which I couldn't maintain his pace. I caught up with him at arrivée and he said it had sent him all around Witham before guiding him to where he'd intended to go — another double-plus for the humble routesheet, methinks.
After the Blue Egg, I came across another fixed-gear rider — Richie Phipps, Mr Fixed-Gear himself!
Oh, the honour
Not quite as quick as me, as I was still pushing on to keep warm, so a few minutes' chat before carrying on.
As we got closer to arrivée, my speed increased again — partly because I was managing to drink more, and partly because the stomach was less painful. But also because I tend to raise my pace when the end is in sight. I caught and passed a couple of slower groups — probably 9.30 starters — and arrived back in Witham by the new back-lanes route in just over five hours, suffering from winter-pace. Right outside the door of the Battesford Court PH I managed to slash my rear sidewall open on some glass in the road. After an amateurish first attempted fix, and deflation, I went back out into the cold again and did it properly.
I spent way longer chatting with Tomsk + family and other riders than I had intended, plus fixing the p*nkt!re, so was stopped there for three whole hours, before finally venturing out to start the return ECE leg of 72km. I had so little energy I could barely turn the pedals up the hills. TBH I think it's dehydration, because I hardly drank anything all day and yet was working quite hard at times. The road seemed to go up all the way to Castle Camps and then a fast descent to Linton, followed by the sharp up-and-over the Gogs and then Cambridge. As always, once the end was in sight, my pace went up.
All in all a good day on the bike, but tough in places. It was nice to be out with other riders on the main event — I do a lot of solo riding, checking and re-checking routes, so it's a novelty to have people to chat to, not that I was that chatty yesterday. I'm not sure I'll ever get to love a winter ECE to Witham — in places it's a glorious, quiet, lanes with big views, and in others it's Braintree.
Thanks to Tomsk for organising, helpers for helping, riders for their company, and the 'Spoons for providing somewhere to hide from the cold
