Hereward the Wake/Baron's Rides 14/15/16th July 2017

[Phil W]

Weather looking good for my fair skin.  Dry, mild overnight, but not too hot during the day.

[Tomsk]

I'll be there for the curry (email sent). Anybody help me with parking? Tom's info sheet says that the church car park will be open at 20:00, so any advice on where to park before? I assume that I will park, eat curry, move car and ride in that order.

Car Park at St Mary's will be ok to use whenever, but I'll be down to open up the Centre at 20:00 and with a Very Tall Marshall to organise car parking.

[αdαmsκι]

Forecast for Baron's 100 km ride: http://www.weatherbagel.com/f/93392549-2bee-4372-92f7-51d12292e17e

[Manotea]

Many thanks to Tom and helpers for a grand day (and night) out.slightly colder than expected overnight and a bit of drizzle in the afternoon, but no problem. I ECE'd to 400, my first for quite some time, braving the London rush hour traffic on the ride out to Dunmow and arrived in good time for a change. I geared down to 82 which worked well. Some of the longer hills later in the event were a bit of a grind but nothing unmanageable; anything shorter would have made the flatter sections that much harder. Excellent!

[whosatthewheel]

I geared down to 82

Bloody hell, what do you normally ride???!!

[αdαmsκι]

Thanks Tomsk for the Baron's 100km ride. It turns out Good Easter is pretty much 50km from home, making it a perfect distance to turn into a 200 km ride. It was good to ride some new roads as I've never been to Tollesbury, which considering the amount I've cycled in Essex is a bit of a surprise. It was pretty humid today, and what was up with all the little black flies? They got seriously annoying. However, the sun was out when I finished the 100km loop and it was great to enjoy the sun in Good Easter and chat with people who were finishing the 200 mile option or half way through the 200 km ride.

I've now ridden at least 200 km every Saturday or Sunday for the past seven weekends. Next weekend will be a rest before starting LEL. 

Respect to the people doing the (non audax) events on the penny farthings. I know there was a 200 km option

[LittleWheelsandBig]

The 200 was good fun all round, though there were some comments about the 10% distance bonus. If our Mile Failte reunion group had been about 10 minutes quicker, we'd have been looking through the Compass's windows at the rain shower while enjoying our beers, instead of caping up.

[tippers_kiwi]

I opted to DNS Hereward after spending most of the day trying not to fall asleep at my desk. I rode over from Witham, had the curry (of course) hoping I would feel better about it but I was still feeling the underlying tiredness and figured grinding out a 300 overnight was not really what I needed, it was the right decision for me.

On Sunday I rode the 50k, out to the Blue Egg with Huggy and Huggy Junior which was great fun and Huggy Jr was setting a very good pace indeed. Good food at the Blue Egg and then onto a good pint at the compasses before getting back and enjoying a couple of Cidres!

We didn't have any rain on the way back but we did find the very wet roads which I guess was Karma for me not having mudguards. I can also confirm that the new 47mm tyres grip incredibly well in the dry but I pushed the limit a bit too much in the wet and ended up taking a bit of a slide along the tarmac. Bike and me none the worse off other than a couple of grazes, phew!

Thanks to Tom and helpers for arranging all that riding on the weekend, that must have pushed the organisational skills to the absolute limit.

[Manotea]

I geared down to 82

Bloody hell, what do you normally ride???!!

I've been on 92 for a while but it's a training thing really - 2 or 3 laps of Richmond Park and I'm done.

Ride Coda: I often find that I enjoy audax events after more than during... during I'm dealing with the inevitable stresses of the ride and generally working pretty hard. Take those away and it's all good.  The route was far lonelier, than I expected. Not a reflection on company on the road but the shape of the event and route... the evening start meant mostly riding in your own  bubble through the featureless fens (which you couldn't see anyway)  and the second half in daylight featured long country lanes through an empty big sky' rolling farmscape. It was great to be on new roads aand outside my usual riding area (and bag a cheeky 400!). #Doubleplusthumbsup.

[wilkyboy]

A belated thanks to Tom and his helpers — Huggie, Mini-Huggie, Mini-Tomsk — mid-sized Tomsk was working on ITV's Le Tour coverage in London.  I thoroughly enjoyed it — again. 

We had a super quick ride for the first 100 — a cross tail and some lunatic called Matt who wanted to keep riding harder to warm up drove our group northwards at a silly, silly pace.  After the turn at Whittlesey it calmed down a little, but, as I was on fixed-gear, as soon as we hit the hills at the edge of the Cambridgeshire Fens then I was dropped and watched forlornly as the group sped off — a distance group of red lights winking on the far horizon    Still, me, my routesheet and a headtorch and I was fine — it's nice to quieten the GPS, put it back in its place, and use the routesheet for navigation instead, which I did for the whole ride.

I rode the rest of the next stage solo in the dark, and it was, as always, a slightly surreal experience.  I kept waiting for a group to catch me from behind, but the catch never came.  In fact I caught Terry before The Pag, as the group had ruthlessly spat him out as well and left him to suffer on his own.  We bumped into them leaving as we turned in.

A quick coffee and scrambled eggs and I was back out within 45 minutes.  Alone.

I paced myself along this final 120km leg.  The sun was just coming up and the roads were quiet — it's one of the reasons I really like this ride.  I kept waiting for the catch and still it never came ...

I always bounce Biggleswade — I'm sure the café's nice enough, but I like long stages, so I paused at the garage for a receipt and got back on it.  Likewise the Silver Ball café — just grab a receipt and push on.

By now I thought I might just scrape back inside 14 hours, which for me would be a good time.  I put my head down and got on with the job.  The route is very familiar to me from here, as this is home-turf, and I barely needed any navigation at all.  I caught and passed one single rider, also dumped out of the quick group, and got back with 10 minutes to spare — absolutely knackered and so clearly I won't be riding at that pace on LEL next week!

A welcome sausage and bacon bap from Tomsk and a cup of tea and then back on the bike for the 50km ride home.  The hill out of Gt Dunmow that I barely noticed at the start of the ride now felt like a mountain!  It was a struggle to maintain any pace, but I did okay, and got home with a 20-hour 400 under my belt — extrapolate that and I'm up for a 70-hour LEL — hahahahaha   

I took a few photos.  They're a bit motion-blurry, because there wasn't much light about at 9pm at the start.