I set off on with three weekend riding mates Sunday morning in cold rain on wet and dirty roads for the second stage of the three-stage Tour of Wessex.
You can see the route here.
The route covered 103 miles (my first century!) and ascended 2250 meters, heading south from Castle Cary to the coast at Lulworth before circling by Corfe Castle and back northward to Castle Cary.
Even in the grey mist, you could tell that we were rolling through some beautiful countryside. On a sunny day, I'm sure it would have been stunning.
Geoff and I had driven to the start point from our camp site near Corfe Castle at the route's apex that morning, and we commented on the daunting fact that we would cycle twice the distance of that hour-and-a-half drive.
We had loaded up with pasta the evening before and topped up with crunchy nut cornflakes outside our tents that morning. Knowing we'd be spending the whole day on the road, I was carrying 3000 calories and more than £10 worth of sickly sweet sport nutrition in the pockets of my jersey. That, plus the three feed stops generously provided along the route, saw me through the trip. A welcome savoury egg & bacon sandwich and a half tube of salty Pringles after the ride kicked off my recovery in less than classic style.
As you might expect from the overall ascent involved, the course was a very rolling up and down one, with only one real stretch of flat only a tank training area leading up to the second food stop. All in all, the climbs far outweighed any wind in taxing our legs.
I don't have a GPS, but my bike computer does have a primitive altimeter based on barometric pressure, so I have this approximate profile for the route. I lost about 20 km of recording by forget to restart my computer after a couple of stops.
As for the organisation of the sportive, I don't have a lot of experience to draw on for comparison, but the route was well signed, the food stops well stocked and manned with friendly volunteers and there was motorcycle support at dangerous crossroads. The motorcycles carried tyres, tubes, etc as well for free mechanical support. (Last year, one of my mates made good use of it, battling through SEVEN punctures!).
It was a good day of riding, notwithstanding the rain washed and messy roads.
Allez!
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