Dave Briand Memorial: Credit Crunch Sportive

As a warm up for the Cheshire Cat, I took part in the Dave Briand Memorial sportive last weekend. The ride started from Leek, only an hour away from my house, and looked a nice hilly circuit around Ashbourne & Buxton. I got there early and put my name down for the first group to leave - with Howard Johnson, also from Team Cycling Plus.


The weather was lovely and I spent an enjoyable hour, chatting with the other cyclists in the sun before the ride started. There were about 80 riders and it was all quite low key, nevertheless, when I was stood on the start line, my thigh was shaking uncontrollably and I was surprised to find that I was quite nervous.

We were started in groups of 10 with 2 minutes in between. After the off, the hills began immediately and the nerves were long forgotten. For the first hour, I stayed in 3rd or 4th place with another rider. I had expected to be overtaken early on, as is usually the case, but it didn't happen and I started to feel like a world beater. I went down one particularly nice descent and managed to top 40mph, which is a new record for me. As we got to Ashbourne, we hit roadworks with traffic lights on a steep climb. I struggled to unclip before stopping and duly waited in line. Then a load of cyclists went past and I thought I'd better keep going and try to keep up with them but I didn't have the nerve to ride in the middle of the road and I found it hard to push off and clip in on the hill. I think this was the start of a cycle of negative thoughts - wondering if I'd gone off too fast, had I eaten enough, etc. Riders then started passing quite often and I realised that although I had made loads of improvement, there was still a long way to go. The head wind was really strong, the sun went in and I had that feeling, which I think I always get on a long ride - "why the hell am I doing this???". I decided to have a sing song - singing one of the tunes that I enjoy doing my rollers to - it seemed to have a positive effect. Then the food stop came - I told the guy on there that I was having some negative thoughts and he said I may not have eaten enough - so I had a couple of choc digestives. From then on, I made more of an effort to keep sipping my drink and it did help a lot. I started feeling much better - the hills were great, I was enjoying it again. Within the last 5 miles came quite a steep climb and I suffered a bit but I knew I was only a few miles away from chilli and rice so I was able to keep on going.
I didn't do too badly - 52 miles in 4 hours and 8 minutes. Here's the ride:

Don't know why this isn't working - here's a link, let's see if that's any better:
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride///501123714473967998



Joe Beer analysed the data from my Garmin and concluded that yes, I hadn't eaten enough as my performance dropped off slightly throughout the ride. We're now working on a feeding strategy to make sure that I can keep going over the longer distances. I'm even starting to try gels - yuk!

It was a great day - really well organised, nice people, food at the end was just fantastic - really enjoyed the whole experience, particularly when I'd finished, and I would definitely do it again next year.