This weekend was the last of my big training rides before the cross season starts next weekend. I decided that riding Cheddar Sportive with my friends from work would be a great way to end the Summer season. All the boys from Strada entered and this being our local sportive many of our regulars entered also. Great to see so many Strada jerseys out on the ride.
A core of 6 of us had agreed from the start to set out together and stay together as best possible and this was how it stayed for the first 50 or so miles until 3 of the guys thought the other 3 had left a feed station (we were still there amongst the crowd) and set out to chase us down. I was in the second group of 3 and as we left the feed Matt got some serious cramp (he ran his first half marathon last week and I think this ride was a bit soon) so we dropped back futher still.
It became obvious pretty soon that Matt was done in by the cramp and that he’d be wise to stop at the 60 mile cut-off, which was also the start/finish, and Mike decided to join him. I then set out on the chase and the second loop of 40 miles to finish the daddy distance of 100 miles.
The second loop started with Cheddar Gorge which was also the first proper climb of the day. I caught a couple of friends near the bottom and passed them. Their friend came with me and had a good dig a couple of times on the way up. I knew I could follow but also knew that serious bursts of speed with 35 miles and a lot of climbing still to cover were a bit beyond my current fitness level so let him attack each time and then real him back each time. Worked out fine and we went over the top together and took turns to set pace across the tops.
The descent into Wells was new to me and the other guy ( I think his name is Dave) was a solid descender so again I made my own way before pulling back onto his wheel towards the bottom. As we exited I reaised we were at the bottom of the Wells climb which is just the sort of climbing I like so I set myself a good tempo and pulled myself clear, pressed on over the top and kept it going…
Feeding strategy was spot-on again and I felt really good for pretty much the whole ride. Been a while since I could comfortable move around a group and put serious effort in on the climbs… Not done that for a long time, things are deffo coming back to me, just need to get the weight back down and I’ll be back in business as a bike rider.
All in all a great day out. Got to ride with a lot of friends, ride the first half chilled and enjoying the company, used the second half to test my fitness, awesome…
