As is now usual for me, all thoughts of taking it easy and saving my legs for Sunday evaporated within about half a second of the gun! Although the start is theoretically neutralised for the first few miles on the road, what that really means is that we chase the race marshal’s van at speeds reaching 38mph, all jostling for a good spot in the draft! I was determined to stick with the lead group as far as I could, even managed a wee chat with Nick Craig the Scott Factory Team rider who went-on to finish 2nd. Pretty soon we swung off the road and up the first long, long and really steep ascent. By now I had fully committed myself to just go-for-it and deal with the consequences on Sunday when it came, after all its just training really!!! I knew I was pushing a bit hard, but when I noticed that I had gone beyond my previously recorded Max heart rate and had been there for a few minutes, just confirming that this was going to be tough (184bpm… doesn’t that prove that I’m still really only 36?).
Over the top of the first climb and it was time to try and settle down, get the heart rate back into a reasonably sensible zone and concentrate on maintaining a decent pace. Descending at speed in the dark does, shall we say, require a bit of focus and we hit a short series of rocky steps that were fine until I realised all too late that my line took me off the steepest bit, with no time to pick the front wheel-up, relax and hope was the only option… luckily I was carrying enough speed to take me over it but any slower and I expect it would have been a very painful experience.
Splashed through a stream and smacked into the granny gear to get up a short but really steep climb, chin on the bars and front wheel lifting with every pedal stroke when there was an ominous “Ping” from the back followed by the “tinkle” that announced a broken spoke! Darn it… only one thing to do, whip the old one out, throw it away, crack-on and forget about it until the end of the race, it’s the first time I’ve broken a spoke, I guess it’s the price you pay for weight-weenieness!
Another screaming descent brought us back to the road and 6 miles of tarmac to the finish line. I caught and sat on the wheel of a guy who was going quite well, until we were passed by a chap pretending to be Fabian Cancellara… we ended-up with a group of 5 and were starting to work quite well, with about a mile to go it was my turn at the front and managed to stay there till we crossed the finish.
I was utterly spent! But finished in 2hrs 9mins and 31st out of 205 finishers, probably my best result to date.
For the data/stats freaks the link below will take you to the data from my Garmin;
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