Over the last few weeks we have managed to get in at least 3 rides a week with one of them topping 60 or so miles as a minimum. We have completed a couple of local sportive routes and tried some shorter, higher pace rides to test our legs a little.
On a personal basis I have managed to sort out my riding kit so now I can dispense with the rear bike bag I used in Canada saving me loads of weight.
I think we are both happy with our progress, we are much more comfortable over the longer distances, our average pace is slowly creeping up and we are recovering much more quickly after the longer rides.
This week we received the GPS files for the trip. Suddenly it's all a bit more daunting when you can see the route together with daily distances and profiles. I have to say there are not really any easy days with most being over 90 miles long and those less than that tend to have a fair bit of climbing along the way.
Having said that, providing we are sensible, most days will involve about 6 hours riding so when you add in a couple of tea breaks, a lunch break and a bit of sight seeing then we should be able to handle it quite well. The reality is we haven't got anything else to fit in so we can take as long as we want. The challenge will be doing it over and over again for 12 days without a break.
This weekends highlight was the completion of our longest ride yet as we travelled east into the Fens to take part in the 133km Circuit of the Fens Sportive.
I was on Granddad duties caravaning at Ferry Meadows Caravan site, Peterborough so I had the difficult job of getting up, dressed, breakfasted and the dogs fed etc at 6.30am without waking our 8 year Granddaughter. Having more or less achieved success (I was told later my silent dressing wasn't quite as silent as I thought!) I met Mark at the entrance to the site and he drove us to the start in Whitlesea where we met George and Paul.
After the usual booking in and pre-event banter we set off at about 8.30am on what was destined to one of the hottest days of the year. There was initially a cooling mist but after about 45 mins that cleared away and from that point on it was blue sky and sunshine.
We set off at quite a pace as we knew that although it was going to be our longest ride most of it was across the Fens so very flat compared to out usual rides.
The route was along quiet rural roads with some pleasant scenery and a gentle breeze broadly behind us for the first 20 miles or so. However the gentle breeze made quite an impact when you turned into it. In the Fens there is almost no protection from the wind so you have to just guts it out and rotate the lead to avoid burning out. Add into that the fact that whilst it's relatively easy not to be climbing hills all the time the reality is because it's flat there is no chance for you to freewheel. The upshot of that is that you have to pedal all day long.
At one point early on I jumped onto the back of a passing group and was pootleing along at the back at about 23 mph. We zipped into a small town but I was getting a little concerned with one of the lead riders who was making a few dodgy decisions at junctions etc and then almost hit a car, resulting in another of the group giving him a well deserved bollocking, so I pulled off and waited for the others to catch up.
A few miles later a couple of lads came past us and Mark and I tagged on behind them falling into a comfortable pace line, rotating the lead to take the wind without trying to go too fast.
After about 30 miles we had our first feed stop. Stopping made you appreciate just how hot it was getting as the heat radiated off the Tarmac.
We spent most of the rest of the ride with these two riders, joined for the second half by another 6 or so and had a very pleasant ride around Cambridgeshire and a little bit of Norfolk. We had a second food stop after 65 miles where I quaffed a few Cornish Pasties and mini sausages, the food of Champions!!
All was going to plan and we were knocking off the miles with relative ease when with about 4 miles left for some unknown reason the route turned off a perfectly smooth piece of road onto a very old and very bumpy bit. It knocked most of us off our stride and we had to slow down to an absolute crawl from which it was quite difficult to get going again for the 2 miles or so needed to get to the finish.
Nevertheless we made it home in less than 5 hours at our fastest average pac e yet. We headed straight to the pub for a shandy, it was 29 degress at the finish.
Mark then dropped me off back at caravan and I started my recovery with beer and BBQ!
With 4 weeks left we plan to continue to get out during the week for a couple of 40 mile rides. We had planned to go to Cheltenham next weekend for a sportive but it's going to be a bit difficult to arrange so the plan will be to do a long one from home with some hills thrown in as a bit of a test before we think about tapering a little and getting the bikes serviced before we head off.
Onwards and Upwards!!
L
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