Okay, route check done. Tom's doing another one next week, he said, if he gets time — he might need to, because there were three road closures in place, although two should definitely be gone before the event and the third might/not be there, but it's walkable if it is.
Overall this is a lovely, varied route. The first stage to Grantchester starts with a climb and then it's a fast, ever-so-gentle downhill on a fast-running surface all the way and usually has a tailwind. The Orchard Tea Rooms are expecting you — I'll be stamping cards, outside if it's dry, so no need to ask for receipts, which is good because they didn't know how to issue one yesterday ...
The second stage includes the long climb up to Balsham, the climb of the day — it's not hard, it just goes on a bit; I really started to feel my lack of fitness from being off the bike, injured from LEL, here. There are some really long, lovely laney sections all the way to Hawstead. The Maglia Rosso are expecting you for lunch and it should be great, they're always good. They have saddle-hanging bike-parking, and there's an outside tap to fill your bidons from.
The third stage to Mistley Towers, Manningtree, starts to become more Essex-esque — short, hard ramps with no recovery on the other side. The scenery is lovely again, although more main-roady along this section. I have no experience of the café at Mistley park, as they're always closed when I get there. There's a garage another 2km further on if you need to stock up on sweeties, although you will still need to control at the café.
The final stage back to Great Dunmow is punchy — lots of short climbs and short descents, all packed close together — typical Essex. I felt it badly on this section, lack of energy and no longer fixed-wheel-fit. That hurt. But it was a great feeling to finally drop down into Dunmow and grab a receipt from The Angel and Harp
I ECE'ed the ride, and thought I might add in some bonus km to bring it up to 200 miles. In the end I had to work really hard (not that it shows in the averages), but managed to finish with 325km ridden in just under 16 hours elapsed — "that'll do, pig, that'll do."
