Everyone rides to Skeggy 300

[Feline]

I've just realised I don't think I had a route sheet or an email for this- does anyone know if the route sheet on the auk site is still correct (it says May 2014 on it)?
My cheque was cashed so I think my entry did arrive at the other end .... I hope!

[jhob]

I've not either and have worked from the May 2014 route sheet.  If there are any changes to the route Tom normally writes them on a board at the start.

One change I already know about is that Little Dorrits cafe control in Woodhall Spa is now called 'Ollies'.

[Feline]

I've not either and have worked from the May 2014 route sheet.  If there are any changes to the route Tom normally writes them on a board at the start.

One change I already know about is that Little Dorrits cafe control in Woodhall Spa is now called 'Ollies'.

Ah thanks for the heads up. I ride using the gps only so last min changes given at the start are meaningless to me!

[jhob]

I've not either and have worked from the May 2014 route sheet.  If there are any changes to the route Tom normally writes them on a board at the start.

One change I already know about is that Little Dorrits cafe control in Woodhall Spa is now called 'Ollies'.

Ah thanks for the heads up. I ride using the gps only so last min changes given at the start are meaningless to me!

Likewise!

I have GPS files set up for auto-routing that I prepared myself.  I can send them over if they're of use to you?

[Feline]

I've not either and have worked from the May 2014 route sheet.  If there are any changes to the route Tom normally writes them on a board at the start.

One change I already know about is that Little Dorrits cafe control in Woodhall Spa is now called 'Ollies'.

Ah thanks for the heads up. I ride using the gps only so last min changes given at the start are meaningless to me!

Likewise!

I have GPS files set up for auto-routing that I prepared myself.  I can send them over if they're of use to you?

I fiddled with the ones on the auk site to suit my purposes (so long as the route is the right one), but thanks

[Bobbinogs]

Can anyone recommend a cafe in Horncastle?  I notice that Hennys closed at the start of the year which was where I was planning to go.  Looking at the town, looks like there are a distinct lack of places where a bike can be safely left.

[dasmi]

Can anyone recommend a cafe in Horncastle?  I notice that Hennys closed at the start of the year which was where I was planning to go.  Looking at the town, looks like there are a distinct lack of places where a bike can be safely left.

the chip shop in the market square has a sit down eatery in the basement, and there are some handy window bars to chain your bike too

dave

[Bobbinogs]

Well that was a challenge    Not sure what was more fun, the first 150k into a straight headwind or the 2nd 150k with a tailwind but 150k in the legs!

Lovely route and great instructions though.  The full on sunshine for the whole day seemed to lift the mood of the riders enroute and helped to distract from the wind.  I was surprised at the good turnout at the start (although probably predictable given the PBP qualifier status) and was left marveling at the fantastic British insanity of the fellow doing a 300 in the Quest (recumbent speed machine complete with full cover...boy that must get hot in mid summer)!

A small peleton made good progress on the first 2 stages and even managed to keep to the timetable for opening.  I then rode the remainder in the good company of Kev from Sheffield although it was a ride where riding in parallel seemed to waste effort so conversations were brief and limited to the rotations/pitstops.  Our timing inevitably drifted a little on the 3rd/4th stages but not too much given the conditions and turning at Sutton helped us get back on pace but we couldn't make up the lost time by then.

We managed to find a nice tea room right at the entrance to Horncastle town centre where the staff were very welcoming and seemed to give us fastlane service...although it may have been the sweaty salt in our beards which encouraged them to see us out quickly   The coffee was good though and so was the Victorian fruit/nut cake, which then fueled me all the way to the BP garage at the Doddington roundabout.

The last stage seemed to drag a bit but with no wrong turns it was nice to get back in good time.  Unfortunately I missed the organiser at HQ as he had popped out briefly for an emergency footy final score update     Never mind though, I had to make do with a big fat curry and a shedload of beer when I got home, result.

Many thanks to the orgs, great event and well organised.  I recommend this one to anyone as a perm, picking the right day weatherwise would make this a grand day in the saddle.

[lord hereford]

Thanks to Tom and team for a well organised event and friendly welcome. I enjoyed that more than I thought I would, given my previous experience of bum numbing flat roads and headwinds out East. Fantastic weather, good company on route and great cafe controls made for a very pleasant trip.

As Bobbinogs has said, the weather really contributed to the cheerful feeling amongst the riders - probably would have been different on a stormy day!

Thanks to Arran and Paul, I think was his name (amazing how I can ride 200k with someone and still manage not to remember their name) for the company from Woodhall Spa onwards. We

Highlights included -
Passing Club Tropicana in Chapel St Leonards - George Michael did not seem to be around yesterday, shame really, I bet he's there most Saturdays.
Puzzling over which lane to take at one point after Lincoln only to look up to see the red recumbent appear as if by magic, gliding above a hedge in the distance like a full fairing beacon for the dazed and confused.
Arriving the garage just before Lincoln in need of a pick me up and being met inside by the dulcet tones of Billy Ocean's "When The Going Gets Tough".

Lowlights -
How many boy racers are there around Mansfield??
Managing to add on 16km by losing the toll bridge road completely- doh!

Thanks again to Tom and all for a good day. Back again for the Moors and Wolds next month.

[billyam998]

Oh My. "Event full" on one of the dullest rides known to man.

The Audax world has gone mad. Madder.

What a strange opinion, what makes for an "exciting" ride in your opinion?

Yesterday was the reverse of the usual mad tailwind assisted dash out, followed by a slog home. Great weather, nice to see packed cafes and, lots of new faces, some of the group riding skills on the way out left a lot to be desired, 5 abreast at one point together with the apparent bike handling skills of a 3 year old with an ear infection, make for interesting times, never mind, once the field had spread out the return was immensely enjoyable and the various lumps and bumps of the lincolnshire wolds and the final hump to mansfield seemed strangely flatter than in previous years. Topped off by a magnificent sunset at the end yesterday was rather superb, only downside was that for some strange reason my garmin did not record it

[Feline]

Having suffered all week with a really bad back I was worried I might not get round this.
I was pleasantly surprised by most of the route. It probably helps keep things interesting when the terrain is so different to home turf.

I recorded temps of only 1.3C through Sherwood forest- and even saw ice 
I finally got to see Newark in daylight- and it actually looked very nice and there were no drunk people like my last visit! As I approached Lincoln the sky was bright orange highlighting the cathedral up on the hill. Even the roadkill in was different- I saw deer, rabbit, squirrel and hedgehog rather than the usual Somerset badger-fox-badger! it was good to recognise some sections of the LEL route- brought back good memories. I am not very fit at the moment so the lack of anything resembling a proper hill was most welcome. There were excellent views to be had riding with the Eliptigo crew Idai, Alan and Billy who are all very well toned 

I yo-yo'd a bit also with Hoppo and Jenny. His aero position appeared to be a bit compromised by a huge rucksack on his back- but he did bring some background music with him. He has some very impressive tattoos on the back of his calves which also added to the scenery!

On the way out all the daffodils alongside the fields were facing us. It was fairly hard going on the Skeggy- Sutton-on-Sea section where the wind was strongest. By Horncastle I was having some digestive issues. I'm not sure what caused it but the heartburn made it very difficult to eat anything from 200km onwards (and I still can't eat without pain today). It made me slower than I would have been in the final third, but I still had over 1.5 hours in hand by the end 

Overall it was a great day, and chatted to many riders I haven't met before. All the riders and staff at controls were very friendly.
Many thanks to Tom and Sue for organising 

[DCLane]

A good day for my first 300. At the start I ended up with the front group, who I stuck with on and off for most of the ride. A (very) brief stop in Newark followed by other almost-as-brief stops elsewhere meant arriving back just after 6pm, 2 hours earlier than my 'hoping for' finish time. My thanks to Mark who spent far too long on the front for the last stint!

[SR Steve]

I had a slightly upset stomach on the morning of the ride that caused me to start a few minutes late, missing out on joining the faster riders. I was wearing shorts and had left my gloves in the back of my van so got cold legs and hands, but was wearing my goretex jacket so my core body was warm. I was going well though and was leaving Gannets in Newark just after the next big group arrived.

The headwind became stronger after Newark and getting into an aero position was making my back ache so I had to keep varying my position to minimise fatigue. I passed some riders who were struggling and they followed my wheel for a few miles before dropping back. I'd been dreading Timberland Fen, but it passed fairly quickly and I was soon buying an egg roll at Little Dorrets café in Woodhall Spa.

The next leg was across the Wolds so hillier, but with more shelter from the wind. I caught up with two riders and rode with them for a while, but their mate got dropped, so they eased back to wait for him, leaving me back on my own again. When I arrived at Poppy's at Skegness, a fast group of about 7 riders including Bob Johnson was just about to leave. I didn't fancy riding to Sutton on Sea into that headwind on my own so I just grabbed a sticker and stuck it on my GPS unit.

The fast group had gone, but were still in sight so I sprinted after them. Fortunately for me the traffic lights turned red for them, giving me chance to catch up. The pace was faster than I'd been going on my own and I really could have done with stopping for something else to eat and a rest. My stomach was still a bit off and I didn't fancy my energy bars. I also still had my goretex on and the weather was warming up. On balance I was still better off being in a fast group and it was good fun too.

I had to stop at Sutton on Sea though to take my jacket off and force feed myself an energy bar. I was on my own again across the Wolds, but at least there should be a strong tailwind for the remainder of the ride. I was doing alright, but the group were miles in front and widening the gap. They were still at the Shell garage in Horncastle and I had time for a sandwich before leaving with them for Lincoln.

This was another flat, fast, fenland stage with a tailwind and we were soon on the outskirts of Lincoln. Bob guided the group on his own way through Lincoln and I followed my GPS track, calling at a Sainsbury's ATM for proof of passage. Bob's route proved quicker as the group were still outside a garage on the A57 when I passed. I was pacing myself as I hadn't eaten much, and didn't want to blow up before the end. There was no point pushing too hard as it was easily far enough to the finish for the group to catch me, however hard I tried, so I might as well keep fresh so I could lift my speed when they caught up.

It felt good just trundling along in a big gear with the wind on my back and my GPS was telling me that this would be my quickest Skeggy 300 at around 12 hours. Any chance of getting under 12 hours was lost in the red (traffic) light district of Mansfield where I was unavoidably delayed. Just before Sutton in Ashfield, Bob's slightly depleted group caught me up and we carried on together through the town and down the A38. I had planned to turn off at the Designer Outlet junction, but Bob wanted to go over the M1 roundabout so we stuck together and rolled in to the finish shortly after 6pm, over an hour before my estimate from before the ride.

Thanks to Tom for a very enjoyable day out on the bike and his helpers for supplying much appreciated refreshments at the start and finish.

[jhob]

I set off at 4.30am for a relatively easy 18km pedal from my home to the start.  It was a bit chillier than I was anticipating but I had just enough layers on not to get cold.

All went well from the start, set off at quite a high pace, probably a little higher than I had intended - having not done the distance before I was trying to save my legs a bit. 

Scrambled eggs on toast at Gannets cafe in Newark set me up nicely for the next leg, was nice quick service too.

The next section I found a bit of a slog, for some reason it's always the section between 50 & 100k that I find the hardest on any audax I've done.  The headwind was stiff but not horrendous, I was thankful of having my tribars for sections of this as they definitely helped in cutting through the wind.  It was on this section that I started to notice lots of little niggles - aching back, neck, legs etc.  At one point I thought I'd pulled a thigh muscle but it went away after Woodhall Spa so I think it must have just been trapped nerve.

The fine weather was a nice distraction on this section, it was so nice to ride in favourable conditions for a change.

All was going well through Woodhall Spa when the defining point of my ride came - a rear drive side spoke snapped on the steep hill before Spilsby!  I considered it doubly bad luck as this audax was to the last on that wheel (a 24 spoke shimano R500, being replaced by a 36 spoke hand-built wheel).  Fortunately I had purchased an emergency spoke a couple of months before-hand and after a couple of attempts at trying to get it true I was back on the road after an hour with a stable, but very wonky, rear wheel.  I think the low spoke count and high spoke tension meant that getting it perfectly in true would never be possible.  Plan was to make it to Skeggy and see if I could get a replacement spoke there.

Anyway, made it to Skeggy just fine, bike felt good enough but I had to be careful on descents as it felt a bit unstable and I had slackened off the brake totally so was just running with a front brake.  Stopped briefly at Poppies in Skeggy to pick up a sticker and then headed into the town centre to find Derek's Cycles and attempt to get a replacement spoke.  The chap in the shop (Derek?) was very helpful but unfortunately didn't have any of the proprietary shimano spokes that the wheel required in stock.  He did though have a quick fiddle with the brake so I did at least have a rear brake again.  He was reassuring that the emergency spoke should hold out as long as I didn't stomp up any big hills.  I'm more of a spinner than a stomper anyway so that suited me fine!

The section up the coast was breezy and pretty dull, I was glad to turn back in land at Sutton on Sea.  I also wasn't able to use my tribars for any extended period by this point as my bum was too sore when down in the aero position.

From there it pretty much felt like we were blown all the way back to Alfreton, roads that flat with a good tailwind meant that we made good progress.  Stopped briefly at one-stop in Horncastle and then at the Co-op in Lincoln where we chatted to a group of three VC167 riders who we had passed, and been passed by, at various points on the road.

From there we blasted along the A57 and from there dropped the pace a little but still pedalled with intent back into Alfreton.  Pleasingly it wasn't as hilly as anticipated coming back into Alfreton.

So made it back fine with a wonky wheel for 200km just after 10pm.  What I really could have done without was the 18km ride back home as my legs felt pretty finished by then!  I quickly got my card stamped and picked up a medal as it was my first 300 and then set back out on the road.  I think that is the slowest ride ever back up the A6, just keeping the pedal turning on the flat seemed like a great effort.  But I made it. 346km all in and a great sense of achievement!

[rodgers73]

A pretty functional ride for me as I was just looking to get my 300km PBP qualifier ticked off the list, and this ride was relatively local.

I can't bear route sheets (make no sense to me!) and I didn't bother to load the route onto my Garmin either so I was following a small scale AA road map for most of the ride. Thanks to all who let me tag along for the navigational help through the urban bits and the fiddly parts of the Wolds.

Completely failed to eat enough (should have had the stew and dumplings at poppies, which in retrospect looked fantastic) so was fading a bit by Lincoln. Seemed to regain my energy at Ollerton though and finished quite strong, but cold.

A bit of a dull ride but the weather compensated nicely.

[Trois]

This was my 4th Skeggy 300 and probably the toughest yet. We picked up the Derby Mercury 'Skegness Express' as it passed us on Timberland Fen but it was going just a bit too fast and we couldn't hold on. This meant we arrived at Little Dorrits to a queue and wasted the best part of half an hour waiting for beans on toast.

A 'drafting incident' just before Poppies saw my friend Peter on the floor but fortunately not badly hurt and we were soon tackling the coast road to Sutton on Sea - or rather it was tackling us. However everything changed when we turned the corner and the ride home was a beautiful fast spin. The Wolds were beautiful in the sunshine. Life was good.

Usual boy racers on the final leg back to Alfreton, but they didn't take the edge off a great day out.