Bike Radar - The Result

Howie J kindly fed me a huge meal of pasta on Friday night and then it was back to the hotel to get kit ready and some sleep. My pre-ride routine of porridge was ditched, as the hotel didn't serve breakfast until 7am and I planned to be at Donington park around that time. I struggled to sleep and was awake before the alarm, got my stuff all packed up and ate my cornflakes and croissant. Then it was off to the racing track to meet up with Dan and Howie.
Unfortunately, Howie wasn't feeling great in the morning and decided to focus his attention on the Devil ride and some hot laps, so it was going to be me and Dan riding. Dan was driving over from Oxford and amazingly, we ended up parking right next to each other and so walked over to registration together. I picked up my timing chip and took care as I put it on, not wanting a repeat of my last botched effort. Numbers were attached and then down to the start line. We waited on a piece of ground near to the track and enjoyed a bit of banter with other cyclists. Thank goodness it was so warm and dry - that could have been a really muddy and messy place to stand if the weather had been anything else. After about 5 or 10 minutes of standing about, the guy next to me looked down at my bike and asked me if I was supposed to have anything in my bottle cages. AGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I screamed. No Drinks on the hottest day of the year! I apologised my way through the huge crowd of waiting cyclists and then ran back down to the field to try to find the car. Thankfully, it didn't take too long and I managed to get back to Dan & my bike, just as the briefing was finishing and riders were moving onto the track. What a nightmare that would have been if after a few miles I'd reached down to take my first sip of the ride and....... I'm sure that I could have come up with something on the fly but it was nearly a disastrous start.

After a lap around Donington, we were off out onto the open road and the sportive was under way. The first 30 miles or so were flat to undulating and Dan and I managed to tag onto a group of 4 wearing the same "Powered by Doreen" cycling jerseys. They were going at a nice pace and our average speed for 30 miles was around 19mph. The first stop came around 30miles and I'd almost used one water bottle. We had a quick chat about it and decided to miss the first stop as we both still had a full bottle (prob about 800ml) with 30 miles until the next top. I lost Dan around this point - he was feeling under the weather and needed to keep his HR low on the hills. When I saw he hadn't kept up, I carried on going, heading deeper into the hilly section of the ride. The hills were much more steep and tiring than I expected. Garmin shows 7300 ft of climbing and the vast majority of that was within a 30-odd mile stretch (the 30 miles I had to do with one bottle of water). We went up a 25% gradient hill - not too long but a challenge in the heat. It's so dispiriting to see that 19.4mph average you worked up, slowly being whittled down to under 15mph. By the time I got to 60 miles, I was on the last few sips of water and started to dream about getting to the feed station and pouring water onto my head. Looking back, it was probably a mistake to take the risk on such a hot day. If I had 2 full bottles, I would probably have taken on more fluid during that stretch. I have also decided that I'm going to use one bigger 900ml bottle & my usual 750ml on my next ride and see how that goes.
Feeding was going well and I was taking on one gel every 45 minutes to an hour. I was feeling great.

I finally made it to the feed station and as I finished filling my bottles, I saw Dan pull in. I waited while he refilled and then we set off together. It was more hilly terrain for a further 10 miles or so but as we got to the top of another long drag, we saw that we had lots of flat land surrounding us and so we knew that it wasn't going to be long before we were out of the hills and heading home.
We worked together really well; each taking turns to lead; sheltering behind other riders where possible and I was feeling really good. I commented to Dan that I was growing confident of finishing the Etape and he agreed that I would.
The final feed station of the day came around the 77 mile mark and again, we had full bottles and with only flat terrain ahead of us (and the food station a mile off the course) we decided to give it a miss and head straight back.

Around the 90 mile mark, I started to feel crap. We were riding into a strong headwind and it was really draining. I started to dread my turns on the front. My toes were killing. My bum was aching (yes!! my bum actually ached - more on this in a bit). Those final ten miles were long and painful. We were both watching our computers a bit too often. The worst thing about feeling this pain at 90 miles is the knowledge that on the Etape, that is where things really start to kick off!
Dan stayed on the front for the last 10 and really encouraged me to keep going - he saved me, he really did.

Finally, we got back onto the track at Donington and after a short hill, which didn't seem quite so bad when we did it in the morning, we crossed the timing mat.
6 hours 40 minutes on the dot. 20 minutes within my dream goal. Amazing. Scanning through the names of finishers, it looks as though I was the 3rd lady to finish the 100 mile ride.
Here's the ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/6332172
We were reunited with Howie and after some photos, I stumbled over to the tent to hand in my chip and had a brief chat with the Cycling Plus people (some comments from me in this article from Bike Radar)http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/cycling-plus-sportive-results-and-photos-21814

Next job was to get food & water. I ordered a cheeseburger (no lasagne and chips to be found anywhere :-) ) and had a couple of cans of red bull. I was totally wrecked. My body felt compromised. I think it was a combination of the heat, possibly the amazing quantity of caffeine I'd taken in (7 caffeine gels & 2 red bulls), possibly not drinking enough (4 750ml bottles in 6hrs 40mins), and just pushing myself very hard. Over the course of an hour, I ate and drank and sat and didn't make a lot of sense, but slowly came around to being almost human again. I decided to get back to the hotel, have a bath, have some recovery drink, lots of water and just lie down for a bit.

Back to the hotel came an important test - the saddle test that really counts. The saddle on the ride felt good and I was very happy with it. It was only in that last hour that I felt a bit of aching on my sit bones, which I took to be a really good sign that the saddle was supporting me where it should. The familiar pressure on the front, the burning pain that really hurts, was negligible. I am happy to report that the saddle has definitely passed the first trip to the bathroom test! No sore bits - hoo-bloody-ray! This is the saddle I'm going to be riding the Etape on.

One day on and I still feel like I've been hit by a truck. I had a poor night's sleep and just feel very tired. My muscles are feeling fine and I don't have any aches and pains. It's just a fog of tiredness that seems to have enveloped me. This week is going to be a very light week with perhaps only a couple of hour long spins. I have the Polka Dot Challenge on Sunday so my focus is definitely on recovery and resting in advance of that.

All in all, it was a superb weekend. I would definitely go back again next year but would take Colin and the kids with me. There was a whole mix of people there - cycling stars like Graeme Obree (picture below), families, roadies, mountain bikers, recumbants, folding bikes, tandems, HPVs - it was just great; a real celebration of cycling.