Heart of England 300, Sat 23rd April

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Part of the joy of audaxing (for me) is finding and chatting to different companions along the way.
 
The scenery, the weather, the potholes, the food, the conversations I had along the way, the personal satisfaction of completing the event within the time limit, are all more important.

+1 on the chatting bit.  Or even just listening in to chats when you don't have much to say.

As for the potholes, my new bike spec will cater for gravel roads - as this is where we seem to be heading.  Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire have never featured highly in my mental list of places to go to for smooth roads but they did seem to be in a particularly bad way this year - not just on the section that Whosatthewheel suggested we avoid.  And they weren't little ones either, but bike busting craters. 

[Rod Marton]

Part of the joy of audaxing (for me) is finding and chatting to different companions along the way.
 
The scenery, the weather, the potholes, the food, the conversations I had along the way, the personal satisfaction of completing the event within the time limit, are all more important.

+1 on the chatting bit.  Or even just listening in to chats when you don't have much to say.

As for the potholes, my new bike spec will cater for gravel roads - as this is where we seem to be heading.  Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire have never featured highly in my mental list of places to go to for smooth roads but they did seem to be in a particularly bad way this year - not just on the section that Whosatthewheel suggested we avoid.  And they weren't little ones either, but bike busting craters.

+1 for the potholes.

I do most of my riding in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and can vouch for the size and number of potholes. Both are bad, but on the whole Oxfordshire is worse. Having said that, in this event it was one in Buckinghamshire which ambushed me, it must have jumped out at me when I wasn't looking (admittedly I was checking the route sheet at the time). I didn't realise what a bike buster it was until I got home and found my rim to be cracked. Perhaps I should have taken the gravel bike instead.

[RobD62]

My first 300 of the year, and given that I lost the coveted lanterne rouge by mere seconds on my last calendar event, this was always going to be a bit epic...

It occurred to ask some peoples yacf moniker when I met them, so spent some time chatting to such luminaries as...   Somnolent, Tomsk and (I think) Captain Slow. Arabella I think you asked if I was OK when I stopped to photograph a particularly fine brown VandenPlas 1500...  In retrospect, a sensible question 
I was the last Audax Club Bristol rider on the road.

At about 150km my knee was giving me grief, but I remembered that I'd raised my saddle a few mm when I switched to winter boots. Suitably adjusted, it improved.
I left the final control (8:50 ish) buoyed by chips and full fat coke, but the lightshow started and the rain began. I don't think we had it that bad at the back of the field given the amount of surface water I saw later - but it can be pretty localised. Nearly came off on a submerged pothole near Witney.

I certainly questioned my sanity / leisure choices on the last stretch, but today I was idly planning a DIY 400.  My knee might take a while to recover.

Hi Ian,
Nice to ride with you, on and off, prior to control 1 and near Crick.
very socialbe at our end of the pelaton! 
Rob

[Wobbly]

Wot? No Heart of England 2019 thread?

Who's in?

Who's checking the weather forecast?

[S2L]

Wot? No Heart of England 2019 thread?

Who's in?

Not this year... long drive for a ride that passes 3 miles from my front door... easier to do something similar as a DIY without the drive-to-ride-tragedy complication

[Martyn Wheeler]

In case anyone finds it useful I have done a gpx file with a cuesheet for this event. https://ridewithgps.com/routes/29716938

Martyn (driving from Leicester to Cirencester to cycle past home!)

Sent from my LLD-L31 using Tapatalk

[hughm]

I've entered HoE this year but now can't do the ride. If anyone wants a room at the Travelodge Cirencester for the Friday and/ or Saturday nights, let me know. I paid £75 for the 2 nights.

[Andy C]

Strong Wind Alert.

Will be staying in the hall Friday night and probably go for a curry and a few beers beforehand.

Just sayin'...

[Martyn Wheeler]

I'll remember my ear plugs

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[Andy C]

Best bring extra 2....for nostrils

[Simon_A]

I'm in and looking forward to riding in a new area.

Best bring extra 2....for nostrils

Oh dear, going to be 'Farts of England' is it... 

[S2L]

Strong Wind Alert.

Will be staying in the hall Friday night and probably go for a curry and a few beers beforehand.

Just sayin'...

We tried the "best Indian in Cirencester" recently and there was not much to talk about, to be honest... chicken was dry and lamb was tough.

[Andy C]

Oh dear, going to be 'Farts of England' is it... 
[/quote]

ffs no one light a match...

[djrikki]

I too will be sleeping over in the village hall this Friday night.  Not sure about evening meal yet - do not have know the area at all.  Hmmm wondering what time I should aim to arrive.

[Andy C]

Had an email from Peter recently asking riders to arrive at hall not later than 10.30pm Friday night.
I usually get there around 9pm and its already open.
Ping him an email maybe just to confirm.

Also, about 200 yards from hall in Watermoor road are a selection of takeaways https://goo.gl/maps/33sqaKxYXZ9kwHZE7
More choice in town centre nearby.

See you there

[JBB]

I emailed him a couple of days ago but as yet no response. Is that normal or I do I need to contact him again. No desire to nag but don't  want to find myself with nowhere to rest my head.....

Julia

[Wobbly]

And wasn't it lovely weather too 

Was *gagging* for a pint by the time I got to Sturdy's Castle

(can highly recommend Weston's Rosies's Pig as a recovery drink)

Thanks, as always, to Peter Holden and the crew 

[Peat]

Tough day out for me.

I probably set off a bit too briskly across the cotswolds and then went backwards as soon as we hit the flatlands.

Something at lunch disagreed with me and I started feeling pretty rotten on the run into Daventry. I managed to eat a jacket spud, but thereafter i couldn't even get water down me without gagging. I couldn't use the drops/aero bars either as my guts were rock solid.

A proper ordeal, but worth it for the dawn scenes over the Cotswolds. 


Thanks to Peter & Co for organising.

[djrikki]

Thanks to Peter and company for organising a great ride; loved just about every moment.  However, it all started out wrong for me this weekend when outrageously I forgot to bring my Wahoo; leaving it on charge at home over 3 hours drive away!

Luckily I found a solution that made me happy again - find out what it was by watching my video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpzhjkVILeA

[lawnmowerman]

Thanks Again Peter and Team for organizing, I also had a recovery cider at sturdy castle, of all the times i have ridden this event by far the best weather. 

[S2L]

Thanks Again Peter and Team for organizing, I also had a recovery cider at sturdy castle, of all the times i have ridden this event by far the best weather.

Last year was the same identical weather, except the late finishers got a bit of a thunderstorm scare... 

[Simon_A]

More thanks to Peter & team for a great event. Wonderful route on a beautiful day. Thanks for company on the road, especially Roger from Bath (LawnmowerMan?) + Gordon & Stuart from Weymouth. My pint of cider at Saturday's Castle went down a treat as well 

[BrawleyBurst]

Many thanks to Peter and his team for another excellent Heart of England ride. The weather was just perfect, the first couple of hours were chilly as the sun warmed us up, then the final leg saw a strange combination of micro-climates as the valleys in the woods were cold but on the level it was quite warm. On the first leg I saw the chap in the blue streamlined recumbent struggle a bit up the hills but once we reached a decent stretch of main road going down a bit he raced past me like a car at around 30 mph and I never saw him again. Apologies to the rider I met early on when I assured him that after the Cotswolds there were no hills of note to worry about, I kept seeing him resting at the top of yet another beast and I kept apologising for misleading him! At the end I achieved a moment of media fame when I was interviewed by djrikki with a GoPro camera, you can see that epic performance up thread.

[Wobbly]

The "streamlined recumbent" (AKA "velomobile") was a glorious beast, wasn't it.

I chatted to the rider (his name is.... er, memory, why have you deserted me?) at the start and when I caught him on the early climbs. His bike is *huge* and, being fully enclosed, must have been like a portable oven going up the climbs.

I saw him briefly again at Atherstone. After that I expect he quite rightly made *very* rapid progress.

[yanto]

The "streamlined recumbent" (AKA "velomobile") was a glorious beast, wasn't it.

I chatted to the rider (his name is.... er, memory, why have you deserted me?) at the start and when I caught him on the early climbs. His bike is *huge* and, being fully enclosed, must have been like a portable oven going up the climbs.

I saw him briefly again at Atherstone. After that I expect he quite rightly made *very* rapid progress.

Neil Flemming is the name your memory needs rebooting with, and as a fellow velo' rider I wouldn't like to ride with "alien hood" on in warm weather and especially up hills!