Welcome to the May/June edition of the sportive newsletter. Now the warmer summer months are upon us, many of you are taking the opportunity to test yourself with long or difficult rides, not just locally but including some of the toughest and longest in the UK too. Great reports including one who got a police escort.
Very well done to all that completed their chosen events. If you have either ridden a sportive recently, please email stivescc.sportives@gmail.com and let me know.
300 miles from St. Ives to Newcastle – Jess Williams
Just before a quick round up, as mentioned previously, Jess Williams completed her epic 300 mile challenge from St Ives to Newcastle upon Tyne within the 24 hour time limit she set herself.
Just to let you know I completed my ride, reaching the outskirts of Newcastle upon Tyne in 23 hours 49 minutes, with a total ride time of 20 hours 34 (taking out my stops for food and checking the bikes over etc). I’m so happy I pushed myself to the edge and this is by far my biggest achievement to date. The hills of the last 100 miles were spectacular and I finished the ride descending in the dark at 40mph! With less than 50 miles left, I completed a climb called Crawly Side which is ranked in the top 100 climbs. Really tough climb made especially hard already having 250 miles in my legs!
We got pulled over by two police women on the final mile. It was a Saturday night in Newcastle and not far off midnight so I think they were wondering what on earth we were doing, so explained that we were on a charity ride and not far from the finish. They asked where we were going and said we had just missed the turning. As you can imagine, at this late stage in the ride we didn’t want to have to cycle any further so were thankful when they said they would escort us to meet my mum in the support vehicle. Not only did they provide a police escort, they also donated £10 to the fundraising total, which now stands at £1,500.
So proud of how hard my dad (St Ives member Graham Williams) and I worked to complete this ride. Both him and my mum kept me going and believed in me when I was both physically and mentally exhausted. It’s amazing what your mind and body can do when you push your limits 🙂
I completed this ride in honour of two friends, one who’s living and fighting cancer and is an admiration to all for the determination, courage and strength she shows every day and one who’s overcome both ovarian and breast cancer! These two ladies and their ongoing strength got me through the hardest hours of my ride where I had pushed my body beyond exhausted!
The sponsorship is coming in well, so thank you to everyone has donated already. My just giving page can be found at http://www.justgiving.com/Jess-Williams1990 so please if you haven’t already log on and donate and help my raise the maximum I can.
I have had so much support and followers who’ve given me encouragement and support I feel eternally grateful!
Thank you x x x x
Wiggle Tour of the Peak – Richard Neil
72 hours after finishing the Tour of the Peak, and I’m still feeling the after effects! For whatever reason I felt this ride more than almost any other I can recall. I think this was probably due to a combination of factors:
I ate too much for breakfast (schoolboy error!) which made me feel full & bloated for the first couple of hours. As a consequence I rode through the first feed stop (thought I had enough to go on) & ran out of liquid & short on food before the second stop. I had under estimated the time it would take to get between stops.
I had only done a few miles when I felt a pain I had never had before in the rear of my LH leg, after descending (!). Not sure what was going on – I tried to keep it turning during descents but it got worse & worse – I can still feel it now…. I had misjudged the amount of climbing from our B&B in Tideswell to the start – nothing massive & only 8 miles or so, but I think it still did some damage. Probably due to lack of fuel I struggled up Holme Moss which came before the 2nd feed stop. It’s an exposed climb into a brisk headwind on the day.
The second feed stop was not very good in terms on nutrition – just some bananas, apple pies & Viennese whirls (yuck!). Lesson learnt – don’t rely on feed stops for fuel! However the 3rd stop was really good, all sorts of cakes & bars & gells. The loos were about a 5 min (I kid you not!) walk away through a school.
There was a moderate to brisk Southerly wind on the day, the route is basically North/South, so the return half was tough, especially on the high moors – no cover up there! There was little or nothing in the way of grouping together with other riders. The thing with rides like this is you are either going up or down, little flat to get together & do some work to share the load. Everybody rightly climbs at their own pace, and you need to leave more of a gap when descending. Talking of which I had forgotten how much strain descending puts on the arms – gripping on & breaking hard for long periods is not something we normally do a lot of! Yet again it’s brought home to me how much time can be gained by riding in a group….
I had some guy follow me for about 20/30 miles at one point – he simply would not come through. I mostly forgot about him & in the end he was not there… On top of all this, I had trouble with my cleats – I think they are worn & when climbing they were loose & creaking! Highly annoying (not sure if this is related to my leg problem – I think this started too early in the ride to be fatigue/poor position though). They advertised Winnerts Pass as closed road – it was not! The police were on duty & were letting vehicles through in batches – so we still had to suffer exhaust fumes.
All of the above makes it sound really awful & I was very, very tired afterwards. Having said that the weather could have been far worse. Technically it’s a great route – quiet roads. I think I learnt (or reminded myself of) a few lessons, so hopefully in that way it’s good prep. for The Gran Fondu in June.
For the record I did it in 07:40:22, which placed me 60th out of 690. This is a ‘Bronze’ time, but I think they muffed that up as only 9 people got a gold (somebody in just over 6 hours!), and 30 silver times. No age breakdown, but probably not too shabby a time for an old bloke like me!
The organisation/signing etc. was very good, maybe I’ll do it again next year once I have forgotten how much it hurt!!
For those not familiar with the Dragon Ride, it’s one of the largest, toughest but most prestigious sportives in the UK. Starting at Margam Park near Port Talbot in South Wales, 2014 saw record 6,000 entrants take part. Over the last few years this has been a popular event for St Ives CC members and is a good test for those in training for the Marmotte or Etape! Most riders opt for the traditional 225km route although for 2014 the organisers have added a 300km route with nearly 3500m of climbing. In the past this event has sold out within hours. I shall keep you updated when next year’s entry opens!
Dragon Ride – David Baxter
I rode the Wiggle Dragon ride yesterday, the Gran Fondo route. The published distance is 223Km, though my garmin thought it was 225Km. That’s 140 miles! They also claim 2905m of ascent, which I can attest is ‘hilly’. With aid stations about every 50km the ride is broken up nicely. With a ‘chip time’ of 9:47 and a ‘moving time’ on Strava of 8:54 I definitely made good use of the stops! I can thoroughly recommend their cold & salted boiled potatoes, especially since towards the end of the ride I didn’t want to see another gel ever again! Some torrential rain, some glorious sun and plenty of cloud cover made the weather interesting. The headwinds up some of the climbs weren’t as bad as the howling gusts that hit you from every direction while I was riding down them at 40mph! This is a really well organised event that is seriously tough. Well worth the trip.
Wiggle Long One – David Rigby
After spending two weeks in Spain and picking up a couple of niggling injuries cycling there, I opted for the shorter 83 mile event which still included 1500 of climbing rather than the longer 125 mile distance. I set off at a steady pace knowing I had a long time in the saddle with my brother Daniel. We cycled together for the first hour, even hitting 49.7mph on a descent from Goodwood racecourse.
The course then split and Daniel went off to ride the epic 125 route. I just carried on cycling round at my own pace. There were many hills with gradients from 8-19% which for me was hard (I’m certainly not built for climbing, but go like a rocket down hills!) but just plodded up them. I feel I was doing ok but at around 50 miles I could feel a bit of cramp forming in my legs, so I eased up a bit and it went. After the last feed stop at 60 miles I was averaging 14.2 mph, so I thought for the last 23 miles I could make the extra .3 mph to get a silver award, so I started to push harder, this was probably a mistake as the cramp came back and was very serve, I had to stop and stretch and walk it off, I stopped 3 times so the last 23 miles were very slow. Never mind, it’s all good preparation for the Etape where the hills might be longer but at least they aren’t as steep.
Overall I was disappointed with my ride due to the slower time. The scenery around the South Downs was lovely with great climbs. Really well organised but with UK Cycling Events this is a certain plus you get free rider photos to show your friends. The hills were tough but I never got off the bike and walked up them which I feel was good (unlike many riders around me). I will say is I have a time to beat now so next year, I will do it again and faster. Any ideas for preventing cramp when cycling are gratefully welcomed!
Despite not having ridden more than 70 miles in one go this year, Daniel completed the Epic course in 7 hours 31 mins, over half an hour inside the gold time. He did look ill and felt very sick at the end though!
Ely District CC Sportive – Liam Dower
I did the Ely District Cycling Club sportive sunday, 81miles round the fens starting a couple of miles from my house. I enjoyed it, glorious day. Water stop at Lakenheath, cafe stop at Denver and lastly a cake at the end in Witchford. Despite being a small event organised by Ely District CC, they did have a support motorcycle going round the route. I saw a couple more St.Ives CC folk starting in an earlier group, but unsure who they were.
Would recommend this great local ride next year for those not wanting to travel too far!
