South Western Road Club Raddonee, Sun 7th May, 9.00 am

[Maria David]

I'll be there - number 71

[Andrew G]

Left before the morning post - were your numbers in today's?

Phil - do you want a lift or will you drive down yourself?
Sean - As Alan and Phil are doing the long route I can give you a lift back if you don't want to wait around as I'm also doing the shorter one.

See you there - or tomorrow. Weather's not looking too good for either day .

[Phil L]

I'll take my car there - it's not far. I'm doing the long route and can give anyone a lift back if they need it (or there). Thanks for the offer Andrew.

[John Cochrane]

Thanks from me also Alan. I was in two minds whether to do this one having ridden no more than 16 miles, at a time, since last Autumn. Entered in the hope of at least finishing. Surprised myself with a 3hr 45min. good enough for a Gold by 2mins for my age group!

[Alan M]

Thanks to both of you - the day went well and the weather gradually improved. It was really well organised with excellent signposting. I am now very tired!! I will probably extract the results for the forum digest when they are all in - not sure how many of us rode but I counted at least 9.

best wishes

Alan

[Phil L]

Alan, thanks for persuading me too! I haven't done many rides at this distance. However, it makes the Gran Fondo Cymru look very scarey - 3500m of ascents, 108miles vs. 1800m of ascents, 88 miles for this ride. Yikes.

I got lost twice, once for not paying attention (only added a couple of minutes), but second time someone had removed one of the arrows causing me and another guy (and probably more) to add about 10 or 12 minutes and an extra 3 miles after realising things weren't right.

I managed to tag along with a fast group in the second half, so achieved the 88 miles in 5:50 , and missing out on a gold for my age group by 10 minutes (could have done it if I hadn't got lost!! ... though might not have found a fast group to tow me ... some luck involved I guess). Oh well, still pleased with the silver.

[Alan M]

Well done Phil, I managed to stay on track although there were a few times when I was riding alone that I thought I was lost. I got on the back of 3 fast groups and was spat out of the back each time, on hills mainly - I was with a comfortable group at the mid point but stopped to chat amiably with a few SWRC guys that I knew, then turned around and they were gone - I tried to catch them up but to no avail, so did the next 5 miles solo, then picked up on a very fast pair which gradually assembled others but it was never a working group to which I could contribute - and again I lost it on 'dem 'dare hills! and did another 5 miles on my own to the end, nearly losing the will to live on the last hill. Finally, I saw the "2 miles to go - well done sign" and was able to pick up the pace into Cobham. I was completely gone by that point and my legs are still fairly sore. I did 5 hours 5 minutes which gave me a gold so I was pleased with the performance, but like you worried about the longer hillier rides that are coming up - maybe I can lose some puppy fat and practise some more on wed evenings. Did you do a Garmin download?

Cheers

Alan

[Phil L]

Just corrected my time - 5:50 rather than 5:40 - oops. No wonder I couldn't keep up with you at the pace you were going at - you must have cleared the gold by a big margin (5:40 for my age group) - they will need to offer a platinium for achievements like that - well done.

I left the GPS on by accident the night before - didn't realise until I switched it on at the start and message popped up saying battery low - very annoyed as it would have navigated me without getting lost. So no GPS data.

[Paul on the Pearson]

Thanks Alan for the original post. Was up at 5.30, lycra'ed up, in the saddle and on the road by 6, a bit of an early start but at least the roads were empty. Got to Cobham almost an hour early, but there was already a few cyclists unloading and getting ready. Set off with Sean on the 45 mile ride which was actually about 51 miles, lost the group we were in due to a slight detour(remember to not follow the red arrows, a different ride that just happened to be on the same day), but felt good, the weather was good and did the ride in 3.23 for bronze, 6 miutes off silver, like Sean shouldn't have hung around at the last checkpoint eating cakes. All in all a brilliant ride with a good mixed bunch of riders. For any one whos never done this sort of thing its a bit like a competitve club run on a new route but with excellent signage so you dont have to worry about directions. Managed to clock up 118 miles for the day, was definatley fading fast by Croydon.

[Tamar Collis]

Maria, Eddie B, my mate Sue and I set off together and were immediately dropped by the group as Eddie was still pulling her gloves on.

We rode along happily, gossiping, and within a few miles had got ourselves well and truly lost, as we accidentally found ourselves following the red and white arrows and signs saying 'cycles turn left' rather than the yellow and black arrows.

Ah well, at least that meant the pressure was off as far as times were concerned.

Thank god they'd provided us with maps. We got back on track and carried on our way with slightly less gossiping and slightly more looking out for the correct signs. Eddie did the shorter route and Sue, Maria and I went on to do the full 88 (or 93 in our case).

Sue was her usual tireless self, powering up the hills. Maria cursed and swore as her gears skipped about. I contemplated my cake filled spare tyre and twiddled my granny ring. But the sun shone (mostly...except for the 20 minute torrential downpour between the 2nd and 3rd check points) and the bluebell filled woodlands provided the perfect backdrop to a very enjoyable ride.

Sue had her GPS on will be emailing a download in due course if anyone's interested. Initial reports are of 1600m climbing.

[John Cochrane]

I should be on the list, somewhere.