The Tour of Cambridge was a closed road sportive with about 8,000 riders. The route was billed as 80 miles (they lied) and nice and flat (true)
Due to the size of the event there were draconian parking charges meaning you needed to arrive by 10am ready for a 12.30 departure. This meant we had a nice relaxed wander around the site, before we joined the queue for the Challenge ride.
There were 4 groups
Race
Sport
Challenge
Leisure
The first three categories doing the "80" mile route and the last one a 55 mile route. The first two groups were also race categories, and they got to set off a little earlier than the Challenge and Leisure groups.
We got through the gate at 12.41 and really relished the freedom of the closed roads. No cars just hundreds of bikes. Although I have done some big sportives before this time was different - I was cycling with the pack, which felt a little unnerving. Previously, I have pulled over to the left, ridden at my own slow pace and let everyone fly by. This time I was flying too! After 20 miles my average speed was 15mph. I haven't ridden anywhere near these speeds before!
We kept the speed up, but unfortunately made a tactical error at the first feed station (30 mile mark). It was billed as the Leisure feed station, so we missed it out thinking ours was just around the corner, but we were wrong. The next feed station was at the 45 mile mark. Things slowed down a little and I was averaging 14mph when we reached the point where the course split. This split point was at 42 miles, and you had to arrive by 4pm to avoid being forced onto the shorter route. We arrived at 4.10pm and were told we couldn't continue on the longer route (I was mortified) unless we handed our timer chips in and deregistered from the ride. Easy decision. The chip was ripped off the bike and handed in.
We clambered through the barricade that had been set up to prevent people like me and Stuart going rogue and headed off in desperate search of the feed station. If it had been closed or much further on than it would have been a very bad decision. Luckily it was still open and a handful of other riders were still there. We refuelled with an energy bar and a banana.
Setting off again was a lot of fun, there was no pressure and we just focussed on catching up and overtaking other "still chipped" riders. These were the stragglers and very spread out, so I was very proud to overtake 16 riders by the time we finished the next 20 mile loop and got to another cut off point. This also kept my average speed at a pretty reasonable level.
At the next cut off point where the option was to dechip or wait for the sweeper bus, I saw the man who had taken my chip 20 miles earlier. I said that I had overtaken 16 other chipped riders and believed that I deserved my chip back!
He agreed that I deserved my chip and said he couldn't do what I had done, so I was happy with that!
On the final section of the route we ignored the third feed station and just wolfed down a banana. So in total we ate 3 bananas and 1 energy bar, which really wasn't enough to sustain us. Perhaps it was the lack of food that led to a minor navigational error and an extra couple of miles. Even on a closed road route Stuart and I can do accidental exploring!
With the extra 2 miles and the grossly misrepresented billed mileage of the route, we ended the day doing 87.5 miles. The last 7 miles were really really tough. Psychologically, I was ready to finish at 80 miles.
My final average speed was 13.8 mph, which I was absolutely delighted with, a massive improvement from last year. And I think Stuart really enjoyed the fact that I am now riding closer to his speeds. A great day out!
No comments:
Post a Comment