Today was the Northern Rock Cyclone, which I was planning to do with Rick, and K was riding with Kath, Mrs Rick. They were doing the 63m ride and Rick and I were doing the 104 miler. Due to an early start we drove up last night, and registered in Newcastle on the way there. We stayed in the world's most uncomfortable bed in a £29 Travelodge room, which was ok.
As would be expected, breakfasting in a Little Chef took longer than it should have, and by the time we arrived it was clear the car park at Newcastle Falcons was full. We pulled onto a convenient bit of grass verge and got going. The monster queue for the start moved quickly and we were away just after 8:30, and were immediately surprised by how flat it was. We were promised a "choppy" course with 8 major climbs - but to be honest I cant; think of anything that would qualify as "major" in the Dales. The clientele were generally a bit less experienced looking than the average Dales sportive too, but that's probably partly due to the 33m and 63m rides they run.
How grumpy does Rick look?
The route was very flat, and would hardly count as "undulating" until about the 45m point when there was a climb up to the 2nd feedstop. This is where it all went a bit wrong...
I'd said to Rick the previous evening "I assume we're not going to stop at the feedstops", meaning "let's just fill our bottles, grab a banana and bugger off". It may have been helpful if I'd actually said that, as I reached the stop a minute ahead of Rick and stopped to fill my bottles - Rick, as I'd said, dibbed in and carried on. I then waited 25 minutes to see if he'd arrive and eventually set off, unsure whether he was somewhere back down the road fixing a mechanical or had indeed shot through.
I therefore rode the last 56 miles solo, which in a way was good as I could ride my own pace, but a shame as I was looking forward to riding it with Rick.
The route did get a bit lumpier after the 50 mile point, but in the main the roads follow valleys, so apart from a couple of places the climbs were pretty tame, and all were short lived.
I didn't know what the standard were for gold and silver, but I decided I really wanted to break 7 hours total, 6:30 moving time so ended up riding the last 15m at an average of 20mph, pretty much time-trialling as there were no groups to latch onto.
In the end I broke my time targets, but was disappointed to see Silver was 6:30, which I suspect I could have got with a bit off effort and no delays.
Not an event I'll do again - the organisation was a bit slack in parts, and the need for an overnight is a bit of a pain in the bum - and to put the tin lid on it we got a parking ticket for parking on the grass verge, and the A1 was closed for an hour and a half on the way home!
No comments:
Post a Comment