A great ride but slightly marred for me due to some eating issues... great to catch up with friends and there was the usual good craic.... here's a few words from me on the report, some pictures are on Facebook also.
https://www.strava.com/activities/643615691https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10154332598669938.1073741883.814969937&type=1&l=328ac62617A plan was hatched and an ECE rapidly set up to extend the 300km ride to a 400km ride and I set off to arrive in Dunmow for around 18:00 and get some of the 100km out of the way in doing so (35km). There I joined about 10 of us for a discussion of Audax hallucinations and eating of curry, after which we decamped down to the start venue for a 21:00 kick off.
We rolled out of St Marys church on the dot and I soon found myself pretty much lantern rouge, over the rolling road through Thaxted to Saffron and on to Cambridge I rode, Cambridge was full of unlit cyclists mostly chasing Pokémon or on the way back from the pub. I caught up with the rest of the ACME peloton at the Esso garage just outside the city centre and departed with them but soon dropped off the back again. Entering the dark fenland, I can only describe as like riding a real life turbo trainer, there is no scope to freewheel…. we were with a benefit of a tailwind, which put me comfortably ahead of schedule…. Plenty of wild life, I counted 2 barn owls and a hedgehog but the scenery was missing as it was a dark night, which some described as a blessing as the frustration of the never reaching destinations remained unseen… I marvelled at the mountain rescue team signs and we actually went down a 10% “hill” at one point!. It never dropped below about 13 degrees..
Reaching the 100km point just East of Peterborough marked where we turned on the Fens and headed in to the block headwind towards Pagnell Services. This was quite a drag and made a dent in to the buffer I had accumulated but made better by the fact it had some ups and downs, so not pan flat, relieving some of the monotony of the flatlands, we also got a great sun rise as well, which lifted my mood immensely, coupled with loads of Muntjac deer around. I passed through some familiar villages, including Sharnbrook.
We entered the back of the n/b services and went for Starbucks…. I think this plus the pork pie I had on the way contributed to the indigestion which prevented me eating properly for the remainder of the ride… I was starting to feel pretty broken and worried I was going to run out of steam…
From ‘Pag’ we controlled at Millbrook, but not a lot was visible from the roadside but it did bring some ‘meaty’ hills (by flatlanders standard) to follow which were enjoyable. I’d highlighted Biggleswade for a proper feed, but due to the eating issues, I just had a mug of sweet tea and pressed on.
This next 118km section I was hoping to be tailwind, the forecast was for the SW to move to more NW… of course, this didn’t happen, so there was an alternating slog and fast progression to the Silver Ball café where I forced down 2 slices of bread and a few beans to try and get some energy in to me. This helped somewhat, but I still lagged and whilst we set of as an ACME peleton from here, I was soon at the back and then off the pace.
I made it in to the Arrivee but still had no appetite and managed to get a cuppa and a couple of Bakewell tart cakes in me.
I still had circa 65km to do, which saw me retrace some of the incoming route back to Brick End and then head out to Great Canfield/Hatfield Broad Oak. The once wonderful section of NCR1 has been made a surfaced dressed nightmare and I had to endure quite a few km of trying to not fall victim to the drifts of chippings from dodging oncoming cars. I was lucky to get behind the roller vehicle for some of the last section of it which helped a lot… Norton Heath/Blackmore couldn’t come soon enough and a quick caffine gell helped to get me back to Chelmo.
A shower and hour kip and a couple of beers plus a steak and I am fed & ready for bed… this certainly felt harder than the 600km ride which with temperatures hitting a balmy 25 degrees average meant I was possible a bit heat exhausted too!