Confidence boost in Woking...yes Woking!

So the day of my first big test arrived on Sunday - the Evans Cycles Ride-It Sportive in Woking. For those who don't know a Sportive is a timed cycle ride where all the riders start at different times so its not a race!

The day before I went for a short 1 hour spin through Windsor Park, high cadence and easy rolling were the order of the day just to get the legs moving. Then off to Twickenham for the Saracens v Ulster Rugby match - a good game that Saracens won quite easily and I managed to stay off the beer!

The ride was obviously on my mind as I had a poor night waking at about 4am and unable to get back to sleep a mixture of excitement and anticipation. At 6:00am the temperature was -2.5c hopefully it would warm up before the start. A breakfast of porridge toast honey and homemade flapjacks plus plenty of fluids to make sure I arrived fully hydrated was the order of the day and then getting all my kit together, energy drinks, gels and of course my bike. Fortunately I only got half a mile down the road before I remembered I had left my drinks bottles in the kitchen!

Arriving in Chobham there were hundreds of other cyclists all getting ready to go. Registration was quick and easy and my timing chip was stuck to my helmet, maps, energy race pack provided so I was good to go! Feeling quite apprehensive and nervous I lined up next to some of the other riders. A short briefing on signage and we were given the ok to start.

The first few miles felt very easy especially as the adrenalin had kicked in, the trick was not to go off too fast or try to go with faster riders and then "blowing up" half way round. I hooked up with a few riders going at the same sort of speed but what I found was that as soon as we got to any sort of hill I was considerably faster and stronger and in the end eased away from them. I arrived at the first feed station feeling pretty good, stuffed a load of food down, filled water bottles and decided to go fo the long route. No turning back now! I think a majority of people had opted for the medium length ride so much of the long loop was done pretty much on my own apart from one guy who followed me for miles without attempting to share the workload. Hope you enjoyed the tow. I eventually dropped him on the climb back over the Hogs Back.

Still feeling good at the second feed station I knew I only had 23 miles to go and there was another feed station before that. I didn't really need to stop at the last feed station - but I did anyway.

Now if you are going to fall off probably best not to do it in front of all the people at a feed station. Which is exactly what I did. Failing to unclip I just gently dropped into the gutter. I have only ever done that once before. Even worse I couldn't get unclipped once I was on the ground so thanks to the other rider who came to my assistance :-). There are some occasions when you feel such a prat.

Anyway with nothing hurt apart from my pride I made the final dash to the finish and for the last 10 miles I averaged over 17mph. My official finishing time was 6hrs 17mins for the 89.3 miles and my moving time was 5hrs 50mins with an average speed of 15.3mph. You can see the route and stats of my ride here. I was well pleased with that especially as my previous longest ride was only 66 miles. I'm now full of confidence for being even faster on the closed roads of London in August.
 
 To sponsor me for the Ride London 100 in aid of Prostate Cancer UK and to motivate me on those hard training rides then please visit my fund raising page.