Events Blog

March 5th 2016 45 mile Sportive This event was a fairly flat sportive in the Southwell area of Nottingham (some familiar roads from Outlaw!). The "No Excuses" aspect of it was that you pay an entry fee, but if you turn up and ride, you get your entry fee refunded! Otherwise, it is donated to charity. I'd actually entered the "Epic" 70 miler, but thanks to getting a chest infection three weeks prior to the event I decided I would ride the first 38 miles of it, then cut to the finish. I could have done the short route, but the course split was just a couple of miles in so it would have been a lonely ride! This way I was guaranteed companionship (if I could keep up with it!) for the majority of the ride. We set off, glad it was not yet raining as forecast. I was a little toasty in my arctic waterproof gloves over my winter cycling ones, but was mainly focused on trying to keep up. The route was fairly flat to undulating, and after 10 miles or so I got into...

June 28th 2015 112 mile ride from Peterborough A we ll organised but uninspiring route around the Fens. Very flat but quite exposed - the headwind for the last 25 miles was demoralising, even if nowhere near as strong as the winds on the Haydon Hundred. Pleased to cover the full Iron distance in the saddle (even if my bum wasn't too impressed!). In the words of my cycling companion, who kindly let me draft him for what must have been the first 90 or so miles: "Flash in the Fens is a sportive held, as you might have guessed, in the fenland country, starting and finishing in Peterborough. Being all down south, and in the middle of June, you’d expect the main weather hazards to be heatstroke and sunburn. Not at all! The weather was wet, and windy. We had a nice day the day before though - it was sunny and warm, and we did the parkrun in the morning (finally I was back down to sub 20 minutes, I have no idea what’s happened to my running these days). The start slot was 7 ...

June 21st 2015 100 mile ride from Nottingham A great route which was well signposted and well organised. Nice early (7am) start time and lots of options for different distances. We entered as the route covered some Outlaw territory, and we wanted to have a gander at the Nottinghamshire (and Leicestershire!) countryside. Results Distance: 100 miles Climbing: 910 m Time: 6:40 Pace: 15.1 mph

June 6th 2015 63 mile ride from Hexham An incredibly windy sportive. And I mean, winds of 40 mph with 60 mph gusts, in which it is challenging to stay on the bike and road. Throw in the highest surfaced road in England, 17 cattle grids, pineapple flapjack, 7000 ft of climbing and some torrential rain and you've got an invigorating (but rewarding) ride. In the words of my cycling buddy for the day: "The event is a locally-organised sportive. I was vaguely familiar with the general area, and was keen to do it when it was suggested: from what I knew of the area, it promised to be a ride that would be both challenging and scenic. In neither respect did it disappoint! Arriving at the later-than-planned time of 8.30 (my fault, due to not preparing my bike the night before/not waking up early enough), we were faced with decidedly blustery conditions. Indeed, with weather warnings from the event organisers, and the Met Office forecasting gusts of up to 65 mph, the conditio...

May 23rd-24th 2015 78 mile loop from Crewe, taking in the famed Mow Cop climb (25%) Taken from "Two legs and Two wheels" blog: "80 miles in rolling hills, in the last weekend in March so the weather should be half-decent, what’s not to like? Well, it turns out that although Cheshire isn’t particularly hilly the organisers found the four largest hills in the county and put them on the route - including the the Mow Cop Mile, a climb up from a valley to a ridge with a 25% gradient and a tough reputation. As I hadn’t cycled that distance on the flat so far this year, as the weekend came closer I was more wondering if I’d be able to keep up! To add to that, the weather forecast became increasingly cold and damp the nearer we came to the date. I drove down to Cheshire on Friday after work, having tuned up my brakes and bearings over the evenings last week. Saturday was grey and rainy, and the forecast for Sunday had only deteriorated, with predicted wind speeds of 25 m/...

February 21st 2015 Squinting at the end - backs turned to the impending hail cloud 81 mile Sportive This event was a fairly flat sportive in Huntingdon. The "No Excuses" aspect of it was that you pay an entry fee, but if you turn up and ride, you get your entry fee refunded! Otherwise, it is donated to charity. The organisation was good and the signage impeccable, which is always reassuring. I had a great day, spirits not even dampened (although the car was) by the huge hailstorm as we packed our bikes away. I was impressed that for a free sportive, we still got two great feed stations, plus the standard Wiggle finisher medal and t-shirt. Times Total time:             06:35:00 (Bronze) Moving time:          05:38:00

September 21st 2014 100 mile cycle Before the ride Times Total time:                07:51:01 King of the Hill:       00:16:43 Standings Overall female      12/37      32% Overall                170/311    55% KOTH female        07/37     19% KOTH                   80/311    26%

May 4th 2014 For me this sportive was sandwiched in between a couple of days of camping and hiking. A possibly crazy bit of planning, it being early May in the UK, but for once Mother nature produced a top performance, providing good temperatures, low winds and not a spot of rain all weekend. Amazing. It was in fairly high spirits therefore that we set off for the sportive. I was entering with a group of six friends and so we ended up driving with four cars to the site. The car park was for the racecourse and was particularly gravelly and rough (my bike wasn't going to be ridden on it). However, registration was only a short walk away and once registered (and having dropped our High5 freebies back at the car) we pushed our bike towards the start. The start was a very well managed rolling-stock type start. Low stress. Onto the course, it was straight up a medium climb, something that, apart from my legs being a little sleepy, didn't really bother me. Next came a quick ...

September 15th 2013 The London Bikeathon is organised in aid of Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research. There are options for 26, 50 and 100 miles, and a group of friends and I opted for the 100-mile challenge. This was more of a leisurely ride for us rather than a race, but we still tried to be as prepared as possible. I opted to take a saddle bag with an inner and other key repair items as well as a waterproof, some energy gels, cereal bars and two large bottles of fluid. This seemed about right for the ride. The start, once we'd made it into central London (not easy at 07:00 on a Sunday!) was a very muddy affair. Personally, I don't think cycling shoes and mud mix well, and I began the ride with decidedly muddy cleats, spending the rest of the day having a few issues clipping in. Had I noticed this was the problem I probably would have taken the time to stop and wipe them down! The first ten miles or so were very busy and it was difficult to keep even a group of four tog...