At 02:30 I left the house to cycle the 40 miles to Cambridge and start ‘The Capitals of East Anglia 300km’ knowing full well that a storm was coming, madness! I arrived perfectly as planned at 05:30 to start at 06:00.
Not even 100m in there was already a crash as someone had hit a bit of road furniture. Hopefully he was ok although it did sound very painful. For Stage 1 I was riding with Jan and Elliot. This stage was very long at 91km or so and quite rolling. We broke it up with some breakfast in Lavenham.
Then onto Ipswich which wasn't quite as long but just as rolling. The wind making itself known but still not a real problem yet. We stopped at Ipswich and ctonrolled with a quick purchase from Tesco.
After that the wind was supposed to be with us to Dunwich but it certainly didn’t feel like it, still no sign of any rain yet though. Nice bit of comedy off road through the woods to fish and chips in Dunwich then on to Norwich where all my problems started.
About 7 miles away from Norwich I began to lose touch with Jan, Elliot and a bunch of other riders who had joined us, I caught up a couple of times but soon lost them again. I had been snacking on these porridge bars I bought in Tesco before the ride and although they were helping I still got really hungry and lost power in my legs. I also felt a slight pain starting to develop in the top of my thigh so I slowed down to a more comfortable pace and eventually crawled into Norwich around 17:30. Originally the plan was a quick supermarket stop to save some time in the tough fen stages. However I needed to sit down and get some calories so found my way to the McDonalds. Whilst there I bumped into a couple of a crazy tandem whom I had overtaken on the way into Norwich. We compared notes about the wind and much further we had to go.
Encouraged that the next stage was only 24 miles I headed out into the first visit to the fens. I felt my better and strong after all the calories from the McDonalds and worked out that if I can keep an average speed of 11-12mph I should make it to Girton with an hour or so to spare and allow time to have a quick bite at Watton and Ely. This didn't quite go to plan as I took a few wrong turns leaving Norwich and then was slowed by the wind. I had to stop in a bus shelter to put on my waterproof trousers. The sun was beginning to set and the rain falling down with it. My knees were red and although they didn't feel cold yet, I thought it best to try and keep them warm.
I made it to Watton and bumped into the Straggler and a few other familar faces, they were just leaving the Spar as I went in. I didn't know what to buy, I was hungry again but not starving, so I quickly got a meal deal to take with me, ate one of my porridge bars and headed out back into the rain, bumping into the tandem couple again as I was leaving.
The stage to Ely was probably the most difficult. I had in my notes that the wind would begin to die down in the evening but I guess as I as heading straight into it maybe it felt worse than it was. The rain had seeped into my map holder and turned my routesheet into mush, so I could no longer read it. On my phone I had my TomTom app, so punched in the postcode for the petrol station in Ely and listened to the directions. This worked well for the most part and it took me a little bit through Thetford forest where there was some nice shelter from the trees, eventually though the forest came to an end and I was back in the fens.
The TomTom lady wanted me to turn right through a locked gate, so I ignored her and carried on. I should have know I was going in the wrong direction as it was so easy and felt like I was going really fast. 3 miles down the road, I stopped and checked my phone as she hadn't said anything yet. The directions were saying to turn around so I did and 3 miles back into the wind having wasted all or at least most of the time in hand I had. I decided to carry on into the wind and was soon overtaken by the tandem couple from McDonalds. I asked if they had controlled at Ely yet and they hadn't, so at least I was heading in the right direction.
Another 'shortcut' and I found myself in the middle of a field in the middle of the night in the pouring rain and wind wondering what I was doing? Complete sense of humour failure and I just wanted to curl up and sleep but that wouldn't help, so I went back to the road and found the quick turning for Ely and was back on track. I got a receipt from the cash machine, I think it was 23:59 or something like that. Another cereal bar and it was the last 18 miles back to Girton.
Thankfully, there weren't any more detours on this stage and it was hard work in the wind but the rain had began to ease off. My watch beeped to let me know it was now 01:00, I didn't want to stop to see how much further there was to go but it still must have been a while as Girton wasn't on any of the road signs yet. In the distance ahead I could see the rear light of the tandem, so tried to keep them in my sights. My watched beeped to say it was now 02:00 and I turned into the control. I didn't take account for the slightly raised and slippery curb and the bike fell from under me. I landed on my feet and quickly got back on and raced through the car park. Ewa was holding the door, saying it was ok! And I dripped into the hall and handed Nick my card and then I remember that I hadn't filled in the times or circled them on the receipts. So I quickly did that and handed it back to him before having some soup, cake and about 4 cups of tea to get me the 40 miles back home. I dragged myself back into the cold and made it home just before 07:00.
My thanks to Nick and Ewa and the helpers. Now that I have had a full night's sleep I can see that this was quite the adventure and hopefully that's the 300km PBP qualifier done. Will try to avoid riding 300km into a storm in the future though.
