Nice one jibers old chap!
A fun ride, although I found it a bit gruelling during sections of the first loop. In my defense, it was my first 400 on fixed (and the first ride in my attempt on a fixed SR this season) although I have done the Flatlands 600 on fixed.
I got to the hall around 10:40 after the ride over from Witham, to see a number of familiar faces, both riding and helping out. The weather was almost perfect. There was a distinct easterly wind, which would be in our faces to Reed (40km), but which would blow us all the way to Harwich (156km).
I was feeling pretty good on the way over to Reed, hopping in and out of a couple of groups, and so had a fairly quick stop at the Silver Ball for an Eccles cake and can of Tango. Went quite well as far as Clare where I opted for the golf course tea room. I didn't really feel like a proper meal at this point, so just had a coffee and some chocolate: a picnic bar and a bounty.
I started to get some twinges of cramp in my quads after this, on uphill out of the saddle efforts mostly, and put this down to possibly starting the day a bit dehydrated. I swapped to the bottle with an alactrolyte tab in it in case that was the reason and upped my liquid intake a bit. Later on I started to find the hills a bit if a struggle - the cramping in the quads had been joined by a similar feeling in my triceps (which is where it usually hurts me when climbing on fixed if I'm not fit and used to it) so I made the decision that whenever my speed dropped below walking pace, I'd get off and walk. I think I needed to do that three times in the end.
On crossing the A12 just before Dedham, I spotted a garage just off the route, and headed down there for a hot pasty, some more water and a lucozade sport, one of the raspberry ones (I'm quite wary of these though since my forst 600 where I think I overdosed on them only to throw up tons of purple stuff in the loo at a petrol station in Biggleswade -- oh the glamour of it all)!. Pasty onboard, and bottles filled with a mix of the lucozade and water, I set off towards Mistley and Harwich.
I started to feel a bit better, although my climbing legs still weren't anywhere to be found. Shortly afterwards, the sunshine was replace by cloud and then the rain started. I was approaching the L@T ont the A137 between Dedham Heath and Manningtree when the heavens really opened. I pressed on briefly, then found a bus shelter just after the T to shelter in. I tried to get a picture of the heaviness of the rain but my phone camera didn't really pick it up.
But I was treated after this to a fantastic double rainbow directly ahead which persisted pretty much until I reached Harwich. The sun was back out for that stretch but I could see and hear weather in the distance off to the southeast somewhere (dark clouds, lightning flashes and thunder rumbles).
In Harwich I found a couple of ACME regulars, jiberjaber and carlosfandango in the Cafe on the Pier, tucking into some hot food. I was also introduced to Bus Shelter Bertie. I found out that at this point I was the second to last rider out in the field. The lanterne Rouge arrived just as we were getting ready to make a move.
We rode on together for a while, although eventually carlos and I drifted off the front (jibers had a strict ride plan to avoid overcooking himself on the way to his 600 ECE). carlos and I rode together (drifting ahead or behind occasionally) until just after Clacton where (drunks mostly avoided and an emergency vegetable samosa purchased for the overnight stretch).
Sometime after this I dropped back from carlos and went back to solo riding. I only saw one other rider on the way from there to Dunmow, just after a hedge stop on the Wivenhoe trail, a rider appeared from behind. We barrelled along there (as much as you can barrel along on that surface in the dark) for a while, then a pair of muntjac appeared just ahead and ran along ahead for what seemed like an age (although probably only 10 seconds or so) before disappearing into the undergrowth.
I carried on, again solo for a while, until the same chap (not sure who it was) passed me again whilst I was donning my extra layers and tucking into my emergency samosa (and $LOTS of wine gums for dessert). He also slowed to check if I was alright in one of those very-Audax cameraderie moments which reminds me why our calendar events are so pleasant to ride. It's a testament to the conditions we had that it wasn't until after Kelvedon, at 20 past midnight, that I felt the need to don any extra clothing.
I arrived at Dunmow just after the bulge (but considering where I was at Harwich, was surprised not to be outrigh Lanterne Rouge). I was still well ahead of my pre-event, hastily constructed schedule, by 80 mins, and was planning an hour's stop in Dunmow, so decided to grad a brevet card stamp, a banana and a caramel wafer and press on in order to divert off-route to home (Witham) for a longer break.
Arriving home at 03:20, I decided to set my alarm for 2 hours later before doing anything else. A shower, some food, some ibuprofen and a sleep in the spare bed was well incredibly refreshing, but I really didn't want to get up when my alarm went at 05:20. I put on some fresh kit, breakfasted and was on the road by 06:00 for the last 74 miles.
North Hill is very familiar to me, the foot is only 6 miles or so from home and I've ridden hill repeats on there on fixed a number of times in the past. Despite this, I was already resigned to walking some portion of it for the first time ever. Sure enough, my "walking pace" rule kicked in where the road get's a little steeper above The Rodney, and I walked a couple of hundred metres to where the gradient eases off a little wher ethe cars are perpetually parked on the left.
Very familiar roads took me to the outskirts of Stock, and less familiar ones to Billericay. At the garage, I found jiberjaber and Bus Shelter Bertie again and rode most of the rest of the day with them.
The day was heating up, and when I mentioned in passing that Radar Hill was still to come, jibers mentioned that he'd tuned the route to avoid it. My ears pricked up, particularly as I wasn't keen to walk up a hill when people were watching
, so I followed him on the jibered version.
It's only the second time I've ever been to Burnham, despite living relatively locally. Both times I've been on an Audax and on a schedule so haven't really looked around properly but it seems like a lovely place.
Onwards to Maldon. I was feeling the heat a bit by this time, and briefly considered taking off my base layer. In the end, I couldn't be bothered, and pressed on with Bus Shelter Bertie. jibers, riding well within himself with an eye on his ECE homeward leg, arrived as we were locking bikes up to visit Costa.
A sandwich, some juicy water and a short rest later we set off towards Dunmow for the last 21 miles. These were very familiar roads (and I'd ridden most of already once in each direction already on my way to the start and on my way home for my sleep stop) and actually seemed to fly by comapratively. My legs still creaked on every little rise, but it finally felt like I was definitely going to finish.
One thing that struck me throughout was that a combination of the weather, the timings and the sundial effect meant that I spent a huge proportion of this ride pedalling towards my shadow.
The off-road sections were "interesting"
(Tomsk and the other ACME folks will know my legendary love of COR).
Huge Thanks to Tomsk, Soupy, the tippers family and all of the other helpers.
I only took one photo on day 2. Bus Shelter Bertie showing the glamorous side of Audax in Burnham-on-Crouch (or Sunburnham-on-Crouch, perhaps):-
Strava:
day 1 day 2Some random pictures, mostly day 1:
(dropbox gallery)