Wiggle KiloToGo Flat Out in the Fens 2014

Well, that was the longest ride I've ever done by some way. But it wasn't boring, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.

I mean, 152 miles was never going to be easy, but I was prepared for a real sufferfest which never happened. Good preparation? Good weather? New aerobars? Eating properly? Probably all of these. The weather I think was kind - I had expected it to be a lot windier, which would have made some of the long straight roads quite an ordeal I'm sure. Apparently last year it was like that, so again I have been lucky with the weather! It was hot and I had plenty of suncream on, especially on my left leg which is essentially now just one big scar below the knee. I need to find out whether it's OK to have it in the sun a lot, or whether there's still some risk I'm running by doing that. Anyway, I put loads of factor 50 on it so should've been OK.

On the start line, at Peterborough Regional Centre.

As I said in my pre-ride musings post from last week, I really had no idea what to expect from this ride time or pain wise. I guess I was preparing myself for the worst. Pretty early on though it became clear that I was going to finish this ride somewhat quicker than I imagined, if I could keep the pedals turning! I was using my average speed to gauge my effort, in the first 30 or so miles up to the first feed station, the average was around 18 mph. Big groups of riders were passing me, something which continued through the day, but I wasn't tempted to join any of them. I know all the stuff about effort in a group etc., but I'm sorry to say I just don't like it very much - I don't like being so close to people and not being able to see the road properly in front of me. One or two people is OK, but more than 5 and I'm getting nervous. Plus, these groups were going at about 21 mph, which even factoring in the saved effort is too fast for me I think. I kept reminding myself that my race was with myself, not with anyone else.

In terms of eating, I decided to stop at all 4 feed stations and make sure I was eating along the way. I think I ate more on this ride than I've ever done before, because I was concerned about the bit between 110 and 152, i.e. the end, and how tired I would be. I didn't want to struggle because I had been stupid and not eaten enough. I also thought that signal permitting I could send tweets and texts to Mum and Rebecca from these points.

The stops were at 29, 67, 95 and 130 miles. At all these points I refilled my two bottles, most times with OTE energy drink from sachets I was carrying. I made sure to eat two of the things on offer at each stop; small size cheese and onion pasties, sausage rolls, sandwiches, cakes, half bananas. This was on top of the 3 Mule Bars, one OTE Duo Bar, one packet of Powerbar Shots, 2 OTE energy gels and 2 OTE caffeine gels I ate on the move. The caffeine gels are awesome - I saved these for near the end and had one at 110 miles and the other at 140. They give you a nice boost.

It was the first time I've ridden with aerobars. I got them specially for this ride because of all the long, flat, straight roads. They're brilliant. Apart from anything they give you another position to be in, to be able to keep shifting around every now and again and stay loose. On top of that I think they give about an extra 1-2 mph. This ride was great because I was able to think about and test that during the day. I won't use them all the time, but on rides like this, and the one I'll do with Tijl in Belgium next month, I think they'll be really useful. They're Profile T3 Plus bars from Wiggle, in case you're interested.

The route was not boring. There really are some super straight roads in the Fens though - one of the stretches was, I think, nearly 7 miles straight as an arrow. Wow. The sky is big round there and there were also lots of villages on the way. Lots of interesting water management works too, engineering stuff that reminded me a lot of the Netherlands. Probably the best stretch I can recall without thought was the bit along the River Great Ouse up to Downham Market.

Time-wise I could see after about 50 miles that I was going to do quite well compared to my expectation. I had it worked out by that point that I would have to have a major problem not to end up with a Silver time for this ride, a bit surprising since on the other KiloToGo rides this year I've not even managed Bronze. I think the weather must have been a factor, but having said that I did feel good most of the way, so maybe the training has helped :)

I got a few comments about my Holme Moss jersey, which I wore on purpose as a sign that I'm from a place with big hills. Some guys from Wakefield passed me and let on.

At the end I was able to have a sit down and reflect on the previous 9 hours and 15 minutes. Lots of easy miles was my conclusion, just that there was 152 of them! I wasn't expecting to feel like this, but I think I might do this one again! There was something very different about it, but also very good. You are able to get completely in the zone, it is very relaxing. This is going to sound very silly, but at a couple of points I was actually fleetingly worried about falling asleep.

Resting at the end. Aerobars are brilliant.

Afterwards I had a rest, ate a flapjack, and drove back to the hotel, The Bell Inn in Stilton for a shower. The day ended with a few beers, some phone calls, internet and strava updating and a big juicy burger with stilton on it and chips. Mmmm. I checked my justgiving donation page - link to the right of this page - and it was up to about 450 pounds raised for the North West Air Ambulance. That's great!

Later, back at the hotel, a well-earned beer. Oakham Ales' Bishop's Farewell.

Here's my strava entry for the ride. I was very interested to hear what my friend Tijl would say after he saw this - "absolutely brilliant performance!" was his verdict, and who am I to argue? I won't be being hard on myself this time. My moving time was 8h 33m.

4 years on, KiloToGo Flat Out in the Fens pre-race thoughts

It's a special weekend this coming one. I'm off to the Fens, east from Peterborough, to ride the Wiggle KiloToGo Flat Out in the Fens sportive. I'm doing the 152 mile option, which will make this by some stretch the furthest I've ever ridden in a day, assuming I complete it of course :)

But it's special because it marks the 4th anniversary of my appointment with destiny, June 21, 2010. The World Cup has been reminding me of it too - I know I watched some of the last one from a hospital bed in Preston but I can't say I remember a right lot of it. Although as an England fan that may be a good thing ;) 

4 years on

Over the 4 years since several factors have returned me to the point where I can consider doing the kinds of rides I used to do, and even go beyond. In the first place there's the NHS, who saved me and put me back together, rebuilt my leg and followed up with me until just recently, to make sure I was as good as they could get me, for free. I suspect that most people in this country have no idea how lucky they are that we have the healthcare system we do. Long may it continue to be so. 

The encouragement of friends and family has been important. None of them have ever 'managed my expectations' which would have been a valid thing for them to try to do, but I guess they know me well enough to know it's not what I wanted. If I haven't already, I'd like to thank them all again for their support - knowing when not to speak as well as when to - and also to apologise again for putting them all through this in the first place.

Finally, and in a rare departure from my usual modest self, I know my attitude has been one of the most important factors. I have tried to stay as positive as I could throughout the whole episode, and for the most part I've succeeded. Last week some people who really didn't have to paid me a massive compliment by describing me as 'amazingly positive' and 'a shining light'. These were the guys from the insurance company, a matter which I'm pleased to say, 4 years on, is now behind me.

It's unlikely I'll ever run again, which crosses off all sorts of things as possible, but I can live with that, and you never know, right? I'll never go a day again without pain in my leg and ankle, but it's the price of being alive. I will probably have another operation in the next couple of years, to break my ankle a few times and hopefully make this pain more manageable, and walking a bit easier. I might have a few more operations to make my leg look nicer, but there's probably not a lot of point is there? The days of me being a leg model are over ;)

There have been moments where I've been really sad and have struggled - I still have flashes of it and there are some persistent and annoying symptoms of post-traumatic stress, but it was worst was when I couldn't ride. In the 895 days I couldn't ride my bike, sometimes it looked a long way off, but the truth is I never genuinely doubted - I knew I'd turn the pedals again eventually and I knew I wouldn't just turn them, I'd push.

And here we are.

Flat Out in the Fens

The furthest I've ever ridden in a day before was 108 miles in 2009 in Wales. Since then I've ridden 100 miles a bunch of times. What are the issues with this ride then? OK well it's flat. I did more climbing within 4 miles of my house the other day than I will do in the whole ride on Sunday. So that makes this one different. Flat brings two potential problems to my mind: first, you have to pedal pretty much the whole time. On a more normal ride you at least get to freewheel down hills if you want a rest, etc. Second, wind. There will be no protection from potentially strong winds. There may be many, many miles riding into a headwind. I don't like that at the best of times, but after 100+ miles that could be a killer.

Got my number and timing chip, and some new OTE bottles and smart bottle cages for the occasion.

Anything else? Well, yes. Eating and drinking. Of course there's the well-stocked feed stations as usual with KiloToGo rides, but availability of food is never my problem - it's eating it. This time I will have to be really disciplined and eat regularly. This is too far to push through I think. Sometimes by 90 miles I'm thinking - I'm hungry and aching a bit but only 10 miles to go... this time it will be 60. Yikes. It's a long way. I will aim to carry enough food with me for the whole ride as usual, and only use the feed stations as top up and to get water. I'll probably adopt my usual strategy of missing the first one altogether. If it's super hot I will need water, but that should be quick.

What else? Fundraising. This time I'm going to ride for the North West Air Ambulance. I didn't need them, but people involved in similar accidents to mine regularly do and regularly get saved by them. I think they're an extremely worthy cause and will for sure help people like me, so they count. I hope to raise a significant amount this time, even though I know people may be getting tired of sponsoring me now - I have to think about that for the future. As usual, you can donate by clicking the JustGiving link on the right hand side of this page.

My other thoughts at the moment to do with the ride are slight worries about pain in my ankle, my contact points (hands and bottom) and lower back. I'm not sure what state I will finish this one in! I'll probably take some Ibuprofen and Paracetamol with me and hope not to need it. Also we can hope that the weather will play ball again - no rain and no wind would be best!  Finally, I have no idea what time to expect or to aim for on this one. As I said, it'll be pedalling pretty much all the time which is not what I'm used to. I was thinking if I finish in 9 hours I'll be happy, but really I don't know if that's realistic or not. I guess we'll find out won't we!

My itinerary for the weekend is to leave on Friday lunchtime - on Friday night I'm staying with friends in Cambridge, who I haven't seen for a long time so that should be fun! Saturday and Sunday night I'm booked into The Bell Inn in Stilton - as in the cheese - that will be lovely I'm sure. On Saturday during the day I will go and find some pretty village to look around or something equally relaxing. When I get to the hotel I might ride for half an hour if the weather is appropriate. It's an early start on Sunday morning - I'm aiming for 7am on the start line - so I decided to stay Sunday night too, didn't fancy driving for 3 hours after this one! So I'll come back on Monday.

I'm sure it'll be a great weekend whatever happens on the ride. I will see another part of the country I've never really seen before and I hope that I can raise some money for a good cause at the same time. I will try my best to write a proper ride report as soon as possible afterwards. I know I'm not always very good at that!

KiloToGo Cornwall Tor 2014 results as spreadsheet

Here's my spreadsheet of the results from the 2014 edition of KiloToGo's Cornwall Tor ride. With this you can order stuff to your heart's content. I added columns for route option (42,64,95) and gender (M,F).

Hope it's useful to someone!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d0scwm12hikw62t/CornwallTor2014.xlsx

KiloToGo Cornwall Tor preparations

Tomorrow morning we're going down to Bodmin so I can take part in the KiloToGo Cornwall Tor ride on Sunday. The route looks fantastic - 95 miles out east from Bodmin to the south coast at Looe, then weaving back west and north to the north Cornish coast then back to Bodmin. Should be a fab day in the saddle.

Here's the route. kilotogo.com.

There's also loads to do round there so we're staying Sunday night too. I'd like to go and see Tintagel, and Rebecca might go to the Eden Project while I'm out on the ride.

On this ride I'm raising money again for the NHS, and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals in particular. I owe them more than I can ever possibly repay. Donate by clicking the link on the right of the page, if you want.

This morning I made sure that the bike is ready, I put new rear brake blocks on so I have a chance of controlling my speed on fast descents. I gave it a wash too. I hadn't washed it since the Lionheart ride so it was a bit dirty... but now it's all clean and sparkly.

I love my race bike.

As usual the weather is unpredictable so I'll need to take gear for all possibilities. Hopefully it'll be short sleeve weather but the weather forecast doesn't think so.

The stuff that will keep me going... hopefully!

Endura Trek Lionheart 2014 results as spreadsheet

Here is a link to an Excel spreadsheet (.xlsx) of the results from the 2014 edition of the Endura Trek Lionheart ride, which took place on March 23. I made this mainly because I wanted to see the times in order of the hill climb up King Alfred's Tower, so I could figure out that I was 479th fastest (!) and I make the sheet available for others who may want to play with the data in a way that the racetimingsystems site doesn't cater for.

All I did was cut and paste the data from the pages on their web site and reformat it. Not difficult, but saves you some time. The column 'E/B' is the ratio of the time the rider started the King Alfred's Tower climb to their total time for the ride. In principle this number lets you filter out those riders on 100 mile or km route independently of what route they entered (column 'Entered'), e.g. < 0.4 = 100 miles, > 0.4 = 100 km. Dirty, but should work in most cases.

The link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jy95yptcoynxwyr/Lionheart2014.xlsx

While you're here, you may want to consider donating money to the NHS, who saved my life and rebuilt my left leg after I was left for dead on a road in 2010. Read the condensed version on the page The Accident & My Leg. Donate by clicking on the justgiving link to the right.

Endura Lionheart 2014

On the start line, Longleat House.

I picked the Endura Lionheart as my first race of the year for several reasons: one, I've never been to this part of the country before (rural Wiltshire, nr. Frome); two, I read about it in the book Classic Cycling Race Routes by Chris Sidwell; three, the event centre is Longleat Safari Park (well, OK, Longleat House) and the start goes past the lion enclosure! Lots of good reasons :)

This is my third event raising money for the NHS who saved my life and rebuilt my leg. You can still donate if you follow the justgiving link to the right of this page.

Rebecca and I drove down on the Saturday and stayed in Frome at the Old Bath Arms Hotel which is very quirky - I seem to know how to pick these places - without realising I'd chosen a pub/hotel which has themed rooms! We were in the Hollywood Room which was lovely. I was quite impressed with this place actually. Frome is a town which seems to be on the border somewhere between a tourist place and real life, if you know what I mean. We found a good Italian restaurant, Castello's, across the street from the hotel and then after a pint it was sleep time for me!

Sunday morning and I was up at the crack of dawn raring to go see the lions. Frome is about 5 miles from Longleat so I had decided to bike to the event centre to avoid the stress of parking and getting everything sorted there. I took my time and got my stuff together in the hotel car park, then set off at about 0725 for the event. Found it no problem, only had to look at the map once to make sure I was going the right way.

First thing on getting there - this is a really really good venue for an event centre. There's lots of space, beautiful grounds, the house itself. Top. The weather was OK but it felt like it might become a bit changeable, and so it proved! Because I'd ridden in I just went straight to the start line and queued up. Got underway about 0815. First stretch is through the estate and past the safari park. No animals to see :( Maybe it was too early for them or maybe they don't come near the fences, I don't know. But getting chased off by lions was only a dream after all.

A few miles in, still looking fresh. sportivephoto.com

The first part of this route, the first 40 miles or so, is hilly. Not major climbs, but up-down rolling hills and countryside. Well OK, there's one major climb, King Alfred's Tower, which on this ride was a timed section too. The weather over this first half of the ride was very odd. At one point there were ice crystals coming out of the sky so hard that I had to shield my face with my hand so I could carry on seeing where I was going! It only lasted a few minutes, and thank goodness it didn't happen on a fast descent, but it was pretty mental.

Anyway, I digress, King Alfred's Tower. I don't mind admitting that I look these routes up before I do them, and I tend to make a mental note of any bits of road that have an upward chevron on them on the Ordnance Survey map. This ride had two the second of which was the aforementioned road up to the tower. The tower itself is visible from a lot of the first part of the ride, and it sort of looms in your head, you know that after 32 miles you've got this big hill to get up. I'd never ridden it before, so didn't know really what to expect, but the ride brochure described it as a 'killer climb'. Anyway it was pretty tough, as expected. There was also a car just in front of me to take into account with pacing, as well as people getting off and walking. The climb has three main pitches I would say, and after the second one, when the third and final one came into view, two people in front of me decided they'd had enough. Luckily they were far enough ahead not to bother me as they got off, otherwise I would not have been happy. On this last bit I was just thinking "14 operations, 14 operations" and that got me to the top. My heart rate was at absolute maximum on that last bit. In truth though, my climbing legs may have come back. I wasn't scared of being clipped in like I was on the Ride with Brad last year. I guess I somehow knew that I could get to the top, no matter how bad it got. So it was. I also don't mind admitting that my leg situation spurred me on. I wanted to see people get off and go past them. In the opposite sense, one rider blasted past me right at the top making a lot of noise which made me chuckle. Maybe he was one of the fastest up it, I don't know, I didn't get to see his number :)

After King Alfred's Tower, the emotional side of the ride changed as I began to contemplate the second half. At the second feed station (again I hadn't stopped at the first as per my usual strategy) there was a lot of food and drink, including wine tasting which I don't think I've ever seen before at a sportive feed stop! The feed stops on this ride are billed as being amazing and it's true there was a lot of cake and sandwiches etc. and Haribo! which I love and took a big handful of. I didn't stop long though - I still had my eye on the time and wanted to try to get round in 7 hours. It was already looking doubtful but I decided to push on and see what the state of it looked like at the third and final feed stop at 70 miles.

Wine tasting at a feed station after 48 miles? Surely not!

By this point I was cold and wet, the weather didn't know what to do and I didn't have my jacket with me. So I didn't stop long here, just a toilet break and a refuel. Fortunately the weather settled and I didn't see rain again until the finish. The second half of the route, after the split point, is a long gradual descent along the Nadar Valley and then a long gradual ascent back up the Wylye Valley. Both of these were scenic and enjoyable, even after 50 miles already!

After feed stop 3, I knew my 7 hour target was pretty much impossible, and then getting a puncture after about 72 miles put the tin lid on it. I nearly threw my bike in the hedge at that point, I hate getting punctures, and that's two on the last 4 rides. Bah! I have even now got one of those CO2 inflation things but I didn't use it. I just decided to take my time, eat and drink a bit and press on.

This is the part of these 100 mile rides that I find the hardest psychologically, I know that once I get within 10 miles or so of the finish some adrenalin will kick in, but the hour between 70 and 85 miles is usually pretty tough. As it turned out this one wasn't too bad, the weather held out and the route was interesting enough that my mind didn't go anywhere near a dark place :)

My OTE caffeine gel after 85 miles really picked me up - they are amazing those things - until the finish. The last few miles before the run in to Longleat House were a bit of a tease. You go right past the safari park entrance and then do another couple of miles to arrive round at the driveway into Longleat Estate. I have to say this is probably the best run in to a finish of a sportive I've ever done, right down the perfectly straight driveway to the house. Awesome. That made a brilliant end to an excellent route. Happy :)

Here's a video of the run in from my Virb camera:

Collecting my medal off the nice lady at the finish line.

I find myself wondering about these sportives now that have two route options. I'm sure it used to be that more people did the longer option, but now it seems that after you pass the split point on the long route you barely see anyone. It could be that I'm slower now so everyone's in front of me, I guess I can check the results to see if that's true or not. But it could also be that more people are now doing the short option, which is a shame because I think it has led to the following situation: the first part of the ride is more interesting terrain-wise because everyone does it, then the short route zips back to the event centre, while the long route gets a much less varied extra 40 miles bolted on. I'm not really complaining about the run out along the valley and back, but it was definitely less interesting than the first 40 miles. And I think it was the same on the Wiggle Rut in October.

Having said that I would definitely do this ride again, and recommend it. No wonder it's so popular. Next time though I want to take another day and see the animals myself. I'm a bit jealous of Rebecca's day, and I think she's not a bit jealous of mine ;)

At the finish, Longleat House.

Done the ride, got the T-shirt!

Finally, here's my strava track for this ride. The observant will notice that the moving time was exactly 7 hours! That's quite amazing considering it was my target. If only I could do these rides without stopping :)

Wiggle KiloToGo The Rut 2013

I've never been to Rutland which is one of the reasons I picked this ride. Rebecca and I stayed in Oakham on the Friday night in the Old Wisteria Hotel. This was a good choice and Oakham it turns out is a good venue for an event centre. We had a good look around on the Friday night, found a quirky Italian restaurant for some pasta dinner, and then Rebecca had plenty of things to do (= shops to look in) on the Saturday while I was out riding.
One of my work colleagues is from Rutland and told me it was pretty flat. Well it isn't. There are no big hills, true, but it is very undulating rolling countryside. This ride had barely a flat section on it, the 102 miles had over 7500 ft of climbing in it! It was a very good route though, quite varied and beautiful scenery throughout.

Plenty of picturesque villages in Rutland.

The weather was windy but dry and quite mild for the time of year. I wore my waterproof jacket but it was too much, and I decided half-way round that I won't be wearing it ever again for biking, it gets pretty sticky and starts to feel like a bin-liner. I'll get one specific for cycling for the future.

The split point. Long route :)

After the split point the number of riders you see drops heavily. I think many more people than before are now doing the shorter options on these sportives. I have mixed feelings about this. Anyway, as usual on these 100 mile routes I started struggling a bit around 70 miles. I hadn't stopped at the first feed station but I stopped at the second for a refuel. They were good and well-stocked with gels and drinks and so on. If I hadn't have stopped it would have been tougher, but of course it ruined my overall time.

There are a lot of rural lanes on this route, but not too rutted or muddy. Perfect!

In the end my moving time was about 6h45m which would have been good enough for a Silver medal on the day, but with feed stops and photo stops and twitter stops I came in in 7h23m which was only good enough for Finisher status. But still, it was a good day in the saddle, and Rutland is worth another trip.

Tired Andrew at the finish.

Here's my strava track for this ride:

The Leeds Big Bike Ride 2013

On Sunday I did the Leeds Big Bike Ride, '100' miles for charity - the Leeds Children's Hospital. Thank you to those who sponsored me!

The ride started and finished in Roundhay Park, and there were two route options - 100 km or 100 miles. In actual fact by my GPS the 100 mile option was 98.5 miles. This was a bit of a disappointment in a way since I had hoped this would be my first 100 mile ride since the accident. That will now have to wait until October 26 in Rutland, unless I go and do one round here first of course! I did think about doing a lap of the park at the end to make it 100 miles, but that's not right somehow is it?

For the weekend I had hired a car, to make getting there and back less stressful, and I stayed Saturday night at Clair and Matt's house (Clair is my cousin). That was good too as I got to see them and their new place and Seb of course, their 1-year old son. I got there around 1930 and Matt made us a risotto which was tasty and good carbo-loading for the ride too!

Sunday morning was an early start, 0600 Weetabix and a coffee, then hop in the car to the start. Matt was going to do the 100 mile route with me, but he changed his mind due to the weather forecast (more in a moment) and decided to do the 100 km route instead. It is true that the weather forecast had not been good for Sunday - heavy rain and local gale force winds was the prediction. I was a bit worried to be honest but it would only make it harder, not impossible! And I'm always a bit skeptical about the power of the weather forecast, especially when it's made 4 days out. Even one day out, weather forecasting in England is pretty rubbish. Small land mass, lots of hills, etc etc. 

A look out of the window on the morning suggested it might rain, but it didn't look too bad. It hadn't rained overnight and it wasn't raining currently. About as good as you can hope for! At Roundhay Park it was a simple matter to get my rider number and fix it to my bike. We had to fill in a card and exchange it at the start for the route map. One of my criticisms is that the route was not published, except in cartoon form, ahead of the ride. More on that later!

My lovely Focus bike, ready to go number 260. New bar tape, done by my own fair hand. OTE sports bottles. Lights in anticipation of bad weather!

I had made some allowances for the impending apocalyptic weather though. I put my lights on, just a frog on the front but a proper Cateye one on the back, in case it got really rainy and poor visibility. I used my saddle wedge to put my tools and spare tube in - don't normally do that. It allowed me to wear my Paclite jacket without it getting stretched and uncomfortable around my jersey - the same one I wore for the Ride with Brad, but with hardly anything in the pockets. I put gels and drink sachets in one of the drinks bottles, so I was only carrying one bottle of fluid - the rest stops looked quite frequent (every 17 miles or so) so I wasn't too concerned about that. I put some snacks and my car keys and stuff in my jacket pocket which was a bit bulky but not too bad. Ready to go!

The start line, Roundhay Park.

The ride started off quite simply, a drop out of the park and onto the A58 up the hill out of Leeds. This road I have driven many times in my life on the way back from Manchester to Mum and Dad's before the M62-A1 link (M1) was built. But I've never ridden it obviously because it's quite a busy road! After the roundabout turn right onto a smaller lane, that's better. Matt and his friend Nick had gone off like the clappers and this was the last time I saw them! I had to let them go, they were doing 62 miles and at that pace I would have buried myself in the first 50 of my route. So off they went! On my own, pacing is a lot easier anyway.

The weather wasn't bad at all. It was windy, but so far, dry. The first rest stop that I stopped at was in Naburn, at the pub there (name forgotten!). I ate a chocolate bar and refilled my bottle. If this was repeated at all the rest stops everything would be fine, I felt sure, fluid and food-wise. 

The split point of the route was in York, which we approached from the south through Church Fenton. This was all pretty flat, as expected. In York we did a strange little loop around a roundabout where the shorter route split off, and us 100 milers went for a little cycle through the streets of the city. That was good - I love York, and have been there many times on those streets, but never on a bike. And I knew we'd be coming back to York later on too, so much the better! On the way under the city wall on the way out, it started raining!

Here's me on the start line.

and here's Matt. Sunglasses not really necessary!

I stopped and put the hood of my jacket up under my helmet to keep the water off my head. I started the ride with my new Northwave overshoes on, so my feet should stay reasonably dry and warm. Was this the apocalyptic weather we'd been promised?

Actually it didn't last long. I did get wet, but it wasn't so windy (or was the wind on my back?) and my coat kept me mostly dry. My overshoes were rubbing on my right leg a bit, but not too much. And because I was wearing shorts my feet were getting a bit wet, but it's OK. I'm tough.

North of York I knew that the route entered some less-than-flat country, the Howardian Hills. On the map I had guessed what the route would be from the cartoon map posted on the event web site, and there was only one bit with a chevron, somewhere around Sheriff Hutton (that's a place). There was indeed a bit steep bit, called Bulmer Bank, but it wasn't very long so I could muscle up it without too much difficulty. Some people were walking though, so this represents progress for me! After a further rest stop there was another steep bit called Dalby Bank, but again, I got up it without much of a struggle. Apart from rolling hills, these were the only steep bits of the ride, but I knew that it would be mostly flat, that was part of the reason for doing this one before Wales.

There were some really nice country lanes up there, and so it was a bit of a shock when the route dumped out on to a busier road, turned left at a sign saying York 13 miles, and I realised that I'd be on this road all the way back to York. Plus, there was a headwind. I had had a feeling that the wind had been on my back because the speed was quite high for not really pushing hard. And so it was that the next 13 miles were quite tough, this road has some long straight sections where basically I put my head down and got on the drops to try to minimise my cross section and reduce drag. But it was doable, and I managed to maintain 13-15 mph throughout. I did bemoan the choice of route several times though - long straights are bad enough at the best of times but worse when you're riding into the wind! At least it wasn't raining!!

Back into York, along the road that Mum and Dad always use that goes past the hospital, the same fun was experienced riding round those streets. The route went towards the station but made the sharp left after the bridge down by the river side and passed by The Maltings, one of my favourite pubs. I did stop to take a picture, and the thought of a pint flashed across my mind for a super split-second. Not today :)

After returning to York the route had us go to Tadcaster and then back to Roundhay Park. In Tadcaster I stopped at the rest stop and took the last of my energy stuff, save for one emergency gel just in case. I didn't realise how hilly it was between Tadcaster and Leeds. I remember thinking that Leeds wasn't at the top of a hill surely, so the downhill had to come sooner or later. Eventually it did come and I was back on the A58, the same road I'd left Leeds on, 7 hours earlier.

As I said, in Roundhay Park I did consider putting a loop in to make it 100 miles, but I didn't. There was a medal and certificate and a bottle of water. My bike looked like it had been off-road it was so covered in dirt from the wet roads. But I had finished the ride, in a reasonable time considering most of the second half was into a headwind, and it was another target reached, well, almost.

It did rain, I did get wet and it was very windy at times, but the weather warning stuff never came. Probably just as well but it goes to show you can't tell, the day before, let alone 4 days out.



Afterwards, after I had got dried and changed in the car, I went back to see Clair and Matt for a coffee. I was tired and needed a caffeine boost to get home safely! It turned out that Matt had been the first finisher for the 100 km! The winner. Just tells me really he should have been on the long route :)

When I got home I had a nice hot shower and some food. My scale told me I was 5 pounds lighter than I was on Saturday when I left. Cool!

Overall, I was pleased with this ride from my own body / recovery point of view, but in all honesty I was a bit disappointed with the route. It was for charity, of course, so I will keep my moaning to the minimum, but it was organised by an experienced bike event company, so I would have expected a slightly better (cycling-wise) route than the one we got. It was billed as being mostly on country lanes, and there were some lovely bits, but for me there was too much on busier roads - even if they're B-roads. The Howardian Hills are lovely and I have never biked there before. And riding through York was fun - I would do both those bits again happily. But over the rest of the course there was too much turning the pedals and not really enough to see! I'm sure one could come up with a 100 mile route starting and finishing in Roundhay Park which was much more interesting than that one. And if I'd designed it, it would have definitely been 100 miles long!

But as I said, it was for a very good cause, and I hope they raised a lot of money. I heard that there was about 1000 riders on Sunday. That seems high to me, I didn't see a whole bunch of people at the start, finish or going round, but maybe the majority were on the 100 km and they left after me and finished before me, it could be.

Would I do this one again? No, not unless they change the route. Maybe next time it could go the other way up to Harrogate and Ripon? Or towards Skipton and the edge of the Dales?

And a 100 mile ride has to be 100 miles. Sorry, it just has to be.

Next? The Autumn Epic on October 6, 95 miles but in the hilly Welsh Marches and Elan Valley.

Ride with Brad 2013 results as spreadsheet

I don't know why events publish their results as pdf files, especially where the times are sorted by rider surname. Most people want to be able to sort the times out into order, by route, by name, by time whatever. I know many people can do this themselves, but perhaps some can't so here I give the results from this year's Ride with Brad as an Excel spreadsheet. Basically I took the pdf from the chiptiming website (http://www.chiptiming.co.uk/pdf/2013ridewithbrad.pdf) and imported it into Excel, sorted by route, time, surname, then saved out the xlsx. Enjoy!
Here it is: http://www.newmillscomputer.co.uk/2013ridewithbrad.xlsx

Ride with Brad 2013

OK, the short version is, mission accomplished :)

Yesterday was the second (annual?) Ride with Brad sportive out of Barnoldswick in Lancashire. Some of you will know that I volunteered at the first one last year while my leg was in external fixation after the rebreak, and it did occur to me at the time that if they ran it this year I might be able to take part. It was a good target.

I plumped for the 100km route option, mainly as a nod to common sense and realism that I probably wasn't ready yet for 100 miles with nearly 3000m of climbing. There were a lot of people on the ride again, and I would guess more on the 100km than on the 100 miles, so maybe word had got around from last year how hard this route is!

Rebecca and I camped at Lower Greenhill Camp site where I stayed last year, a lovely camp site with friendly people, recommended. On Saturday I picked Rebecca up from work in the hire car, and we arrived at Barnoldswick, OK Salterforth actually, just before 4pm. We pitched and then went to registration at Victory Park, the event centre. The queue for the 100km was only a few people, which is why I wanted to register on the Saturday, no queuing for ages on the Sunday morning! I was on my crutches of course, which brought a few comments, and required my usual explanation of "I know it seems very strange, but walking is much harder than riding at the moment!". Anyway I got my rider number and timing chip label - the numbers and labels have your name printed on them this year! I've never been to an event where that was so - a nice touch!

Numbers with names on. Cool!

Next we went to The Craven Heifer in Kelbrook for a beer and some dinner. I had a massive gammon steak which pretty much covered the whole plate - not exactly carbo-loading but it filled me up anyway. 

Back at the campsite I got everything ready for the ride, put the number on my bike and checked the pressure in the tyres etc. I had decided to take a non-standard pedal configuration, on account of my nerves at making it up some of the steepest gradients. I took off my SPD-SL pedals, and put a flat one on the right and an XTR SPD on the left. That way, I could wear my Shimano shoes which have the cleats flush with the soles. This served two purposes: first I could bail easily without having to unclip on a steep bit of road, and second, if I did bail I would be able to 'walk' - walking is nearly impossible for me in the riding shoes with the SL cleats on, well, without really hurting my foot anyway. I don't like this set up because it looks crazy on the bike, but in this case I think practicality has to take precedence.

Camp.

It was an early start yesterday morning - I was up at about 0545 getting excited. Got everything together, had some breakfast - tuna pasta I brought with me, made Rebecca and I a coffee and Rebecca a bacon sandwich, then packed some stuff up and headed out. Got parked and bike out of the car about 0720. Now I was happy, I'm always a bit nervous about getting to the start line on time. The start for the 100km route was 0800-0830 so everything was good. When we got to Victory Park there was a massive queue for registration, like I remember from last year, but I already had my number so I could just line up. Had a quick toilet visit, then into the line. And a long wait! I don't know why they seemed to only be letting a few people go every couple of minutes. But more likely there was a lot of people in front of me. The 160km guys had all already gone, so all these people were doing the 100km.

Event Centre, Victory Park, Barnoldswick.

While I was waiting Rebecca was alongside over the barrier taking pictures and chatting. Then there was some commotion up front and apparently Sir Bradley Wiggins was in attendance! He gave a typically verbose interview: "Are you looking forwards to it?" "Yeah, should be a good ride." Then he and the Wiggle-Honda girls were on the start line and after a half-hearted countdown, they were off. After that, they let the rest of us all go off quite quickly. That was the closest I came to Sir Brad all day!

Waiting to get going.

And ready for the rain!

The route, which I had studied on the map of course several times, starts off easy. About 15 miles of easy actually, until Waddington where the fun begins. Waddington Fell was the first proper climb of the day and it's quite long, and has a sharp pull near the top, but it was the first of the day so no real problem, legs quite fresh and all. I sent a tweet from the top, had a minute's rest and then started down the other side. Rain! No, wait, hail? Stinging the face anyway. I had set off with my Berghaus Paclite jacket on in anticipation of some rain and that helped I'm sure. It was quite an exciting descent on a wide fairly smooth road so no danger to worry about even in the wet. At the bottom of Waddington Fell at Newton there's the split point, 100km to the left. The 160km riders had gone off here for a 40 mile loop through the Trough of Bowland, which I've ridden some years ago and it's pretty spectacular. Then they rejoin us at Dunsop Bridge, so for them it's 40 miles but for us it's about 3 or so.

After that we're heading south, nice easy miles for a bit until a sharp pull up to the first Feed Station at Wildboar Forest. I stopped here at the junction for a rest and to take stock, but decided not to go into the feed stop and instead to push on. Mainly I was aware that the next climb was the one I was not looking forwards to the most, and I wanted it over. Longridge Fell, Jeffrey Hill. Now that's a ramp. It was here that I realised my pedal and shoe choice had been very wise indeed. I think I got about 5/6 of the way up the first really steep bit before I cracked. It's a shame because I knew that at the bend it eases off a bit, but there really wasn't enough strength in my thighs. It's not all about endurance - I've got loads of that (modesty) - I just need more strength for those really steep prolonged bits where I'm out of the saddle. Anyway, I wasn't the only one beaten by this short stretch of tarmac! So I walked around the bend and stopped for a little rest to compose myself. Then back on and OK until the top. But something was wrong! A strange feeling like the road got very bumpy all of a sudden. A rear-wheel puncture!

I wasn't the only one walking this little stretch! Jeffrey Hill, Longridge Fell. Hard.

I have never had a puncture on this bike before. Most likely it was all the pot-holes - some of the roads had had quite bad surfaces already. Anyway I knew I could fix it it was just a surprise and very inconvenient on top of Longridge Fell in the rain! Took me a while to get the tyre off the rim, took me a while to get the new tube to inflate, especially after I bent the valve, oops. There was a point where I was worried it wouldn't go up, but a bit of care and fiddling around and I got enough pressure in it, I hoped. Because now I couldn't afford another one! Oh, how bad would it be to fail this ride because of a mechanical? Something I had never considered - always thinking about me and my body, never worried about the bike which had never given me any problem in the past? I guess I spend about 20 minutes fixing the puncture. I knew the second Feed Station wasn't that far away so I could get there and get some mechanical assistance if I needed it, I hoped.

After Longridge Fell I protected the rear wheel a lot on the descents, afraid of going over a pot-hole and puncturing again, but I tried to convince myself that I must have done about 2000 miles on this bike without a puncture so it wasn't likely to happen. There's a lot of downhill on the next section, down into the Ribble Valley. Time for a bit of recovery. The second feed stop, near Billington, was a must for me. I could already feel the tiredness in my legs and with still 20 miles and some climbs to go, I admit I was a bit worried. But the best I could do was stop, rest, and take on board some food and drink. I refilled my bottles, took a few gels in my pocket, ate my banana and had a chocolate cookie. There was really a lot of stuff, I could have had muffins or sandwiches or fruit. Well catered. I had a bit of a chat with some lads who had seen my leg and were curious. They were impressed, I think. That gave me a boost.

I knew the next climb was the Nick O' Pendle which is pretty nasty about 2/3 of the way up. At the base of it I finally took off my waterproof jacket and stuffed it in my jersey - instantly I felt better - it was like being released from a sweaty bin liner! That helped too. I got most of the way up in lowest gear until, again, about 3/4 of the way up the steepest bit I had to stop. This time I only walked probably 50m over a little lip before I could get back on and then was fine all the way to the top. This is telling me something about my level of fitness / strength. What? I'll have to think about that!

I paused at the summit to take a picture. The rest of the ride from here is undulating almost until the finish. I knew there was a couple more pulls that would probably cause me problems and the rest probably wouldn't. Descending into Sabden I thought I'd punctured again :( But at the bottom I stopped and no, it was just a strange sound coming from somewhere. The climb out of Sabden is nasty. Three single chevrons on the OS map over about 3/4 mile. I didn't walk at all on this one, but I did have to stop halfway for a rest, "to admire the view". I was now passing and being passed by a nice guy on a mountain bike so we were having a bit of a chat.

Summit of Nick O' Pendle.

After Sabden there's a nice easy miles stretch then it goes down and up near Newchurch. Here, again, on the steepest bit, I had to walk. Coming up to a house where people were watching riders go past, a nice lady came down the hill a bit clearly concerned about me (probably saw my leg!). She asked if I was OK, "yes". She asked if I had any support riders, "no". She asked if I was going to continue, "yes". Did I need her to phone anyone? "no". It is nice when people care! But really, I explained to her and her family what I already knew - I just can't get up the steepest bits, probably because of the strength, or lack thereof, in my legs still. I knew there was 10 miles to go, there was no way now I wasn't finishing, major mechanical or body-bag notwithstanding. But her Dad told me I deserved a medal. That was enough to get me to the end.

In Barley I stopped to take a gel and eat my Go bar. Because I knew Barley Fell was a climb, but no chevrons so slow and steady should win the race! It did. After that, there's a descent and a right turn, then undulating until 3 miles from Barnoldswick. This section has some nasty pulls on it, but they're all quite short, so I didn't have a problem. As usual on these rides, the legs start to come back a bit as they sense the proximity of the finish! By the time I got to the main road, and knew it was all downhill for 3 miles to the finish, I felt like I could've done the 160km route. No wait, actually I know I probably couldn't have done that yesterday. But I will next year ;)

Crossing the finish line.

At the finish, in my dreams, Sir Brad was there to congratulate me, and there was an announcement by the commentator saying how great it was that I'd made it to here after 3 years of recovery. Of course, those things didn't happen. But it wasn't really about that was it? It was about my leg, my journey, my ride, my race, my life. I'm very happy I was able to set myself this goal a year ago and realise it. I would have liked to have done the 160km route, but that wasn't realistic. I would have preferred not to have had to walk 3 times on the steepest bits, but that gives me some information about where I am and some more space to improve into. I would like to have at least laid eyes on Sir Brad, but for the second year running, I didn't. Rebecca on the other hand met him at the finish line, exchanged a few words and got a picture! I think Rebecca was a bit bored while I was out riding, but I hope that experience made up for it a bit, and it was really good to have her there as support. I liked texting her a few times on the route. And I had a text from my friend Julia too saying that everyone at church was thinking about me. That meant a lot.

After the finish, there was the goody bag - nice T-shirt this year! - and some rider food, pasta. Then I went and found Sophie (and Leah) from Pennine Events, the organisers, who I'd been exchanging emails with in the run up to this event - to thank them and to say hi.

Then we were away, to pack up the camp and go and get a drink before heading home. I was already thinking about the next ride.

After the finish. I like my new jersey :)

If you want to you can look at my data on strava. Under the circumstances, I'm quite happy with my 5h9m moving time for this ride! Again, I find it very amusing that "there are no achievements on this ride!"

Ride with Brad nerves

Well, I just looked over the 100km route again on the map, I think I know where the worst bits will be. Then I made the mistake of reading a few blog posts from last year's event and now I have to say I'm nervous. "Brutally hard" stands out. Even my friend John 'irontwit' Sutton found it tough and he knows those roads! The blog posts reminded me that it did rain a lot last year so that probably didn't help. Pray for clear dry weather this year.

I used to know for sure that I could muscle my way up anything. I don't know that for sure right now. On the ride I did on Saturday, there was one hill which in April I had to get off on, but on Saturday couldn't understand why as even though it was steep, it was so short. I know I'm stronger. However I also know there are still some roads round here which I haven't dared attempt on my road bike yet. It's Tuesday today, and the ride's not until Sunday, so I could still go and test myself on those roads. But do I want to know? Obviously if I get up them it'll be a big boost, but what if I don't? This attitude is annoying. I keep telling myself it'll be OK if I just relax. I often find on a climb that I get a bit too excited sometimes and then it becomes very hard. If I can force myself to relax and concentrate on one pedal after the other, one at a time, it's usually fine. I know from my elevation vs time plot on Saturday that I'm still limited on the hills. Oh if I could swap my compact chainset for a triple just for one day!

Of course there is also the comforting knowledge that in spite of my leg, I am sure I will not be the least fit person on this ride.

Jeffrey Hill, Longridge Fell. I expect to suffer. 

I also realised that I have ridden some of these roads before. I knew I'd been to Waddington and Chipping on my Slaidburn weekend adventure in 2010. I've actually been across Longridge Fell on the road out of Waddington through Higher Hodder. It was up there somewhere where a deer was in the road! And I remember turning left at the Newdrop Inn before descending into Ribchester. Also that weekend I rode between Dunsop Bridge and Newton which I will do on Sunday in the opposite direction. Small stretches in common, but in common none-the-less. And it is a beautiful part of the country, that's for sure.

The Comeback - August 11 2013 - Ride with Brad

OK so I've kept this a bit under wraps because things are so uncertain with my foot at the moment: I'm doing my comeback sportive on Sunday. It'll be the Ride with Brad starting and finishing in Barnoldswick, see www.ridewithbrad.com

You may remember that last year I was so sick of not going to races that I volunteered at this one, external fixation, camping, crutching, registering riders and all. Last year when I was there it did cross my mind that this year's one might be around the right time for me to enter it as my first sportive in my second cycling 'career'. Anyway, a few weeks ago I got an email from the organisers, Pennine Events, asking me if I wanted to volunteer again, so I reminded them of my situation and they said it would be fantastic if I entered even though they would have also liked me as a volunteer.

After some amount of thought and a discussion with my physiotherapist, I decided to enter. But, alas, not the 100 mile route which would have been the ideal :( Common sense and reason have prevailed so I'm going to do the 100 km route, which still goes over most of the climbs - it just misses out a 40 mile loop through the Trough of Bowland. It will be 62 miles with about 1750m of ascent. The main climbs I think are Waddington Fell, Longridge Fell and the Nick O' Pendle, but there are a couple of others too. In any case it promises to be hard, especially if the weather is poor like it is today, but it will be fun and will of course be a massive landmark in my recovery. The last sportive I rode was the 3 Shires Sportive on 18 April 2010, on Sunday that'll be 1,211 days ago. I think the organisers may be going to do a bit of publicity about me because of my story but we'll see. It doesn't really matter but it would be nice to get a thank you in for the NHS and all the people that have helped me get to here. Hopefully this year I will at least lay eyes on Bradley Wiggins, unlike last year where I was so busy registering people in the tent that I never saw him!

What about my foot? Stress fracture and so on. Well, yes, it's a bit of a concern but I went out and did 28.5 miles round here on Saturday, with about 1000m of ascent, and I could feel it but it wasn't too bad. I will chew down some Cocodamol before the ride on Sunday ;)

I am quite nervous but once I set off on it and get up the first hill it will be fine I'm sure. I've ordered some new kit for the occasion - a garish yellow and red Northwave jersey and some new (black) bib shorts. It will be an early start as I'm not camping this year, probably we will need to set off about 5.30am. Rebecca is going with me - I hope she won't be too bored while I'm riding - and the set off time for the 100 km route is 8-8.30. I will tweet (@andrewmarkwick) from the start, finish and some intermediate points (probably the top of the climbs!). Exciting!

After this, the next one is the Autumn Epic, 95 miles in the Elan Valley, October 6. Instead of Bradley Wiggins, on that one I'll have my friend John Sutton (irontwit.creativeblogs.net) for company :)

3 Shires Sportive ft/mile

Sure enough, checking previous sportive results reveals that the 3 Shires Sportive is the one I have done with the highest feet of ascent per mile. For the route I did, there were 139 feet of ascent per mile, on average. That probably explains why my average speed, 13.9 mph was lower than I would have expected. The Peak District, what can you do?

3 Shires Sportive

So, yesterday was my first Sportive (road bike fun/race) of 2010. It started and finished in Macclesfield and took in some of the best riding of Derbyshire, Cheshire and Staffordshire (hence name). I entered it for 2 reasons apart from the usual ones of fun and cycling; first it's close to home so no car rental needed, and second, the route looked great. Obviously I had ridden a lot of the roads before - though not all - and there was one in particular that I'd seen on the map and wondered about - the road over Wincle Minn.

Arrived at the start after coming over Kettleshulme from New Mills - Macclesfield in 51 minutes (12.2 miles, 676m ascent) - my friend Dave tweeted "you must be mad, cycling to and from a bloody bike race" - I like that :)

Turned out my entry hadn't made it into their system so I registered there and then, no problem, given number 143. Then a 30 minute wait for the start where I got talking to a nice guy from Hazel Grove, who, it turned out, I was never far away from for the whole ride. Start at 9am was a mass start of around 300 riders up the Cat and Fiddle climb - not good for local traffic, and actually pace was limited by a coach on the way up for the first half. Once that disappeared managed to get into better rhythm and passed a lot of people, as I expected. Last time I did that climb I ended up in Macclesfield A&E of course, but no such outcome this time, thank God.

The route took us over into Buxton - that descent still excites me every time, then up Long Hill (not as bad as it sounds) before turning left down the steep drop into Goyt Valley. Next climb (Goyt Valley - Derbyshire Bridge) is one of the best roads in the region, in my opinion, so enjoyed that. Cross over Buxton road and right onto Allgreave road - can really put the power down on that stretch. Left turn into Wincle up that nasty little climb past the farm and then turn left towards Danebridge. Gun Moor is also a nasty bit of climbing but again, the descent off that to Meerbrook is brilliant. Right turn there and a bit of nice country lane rolling terrain to Rudyard and the feed station at Hotel Rudyard. Well organised, bananas, cakes, coffee, tea, sports drink etc.

Didn't stop long as legs already feeling a bit heavy. Pressed on up the hill to Top Road. Now here's where it went wrong. I had tried to put the route into my GPS from the directions on the web site and was sure we should bear left on Newton Road and loop around Biddulph back to that point, and bear right the second time. However, no sign at all for the bear left bit, and a very obvious one for bear right. Stopped to consider that for a moment, with some other riders, but the consensus was, rightly, that we should follow the signs. In any case I knew that would take us back to the finish eventually so no big deal, except missing out an 11 mile loop.

In any case I still got to do the Wincle Minn road which was pretty brutal - steep, poor surface and really takes the line of shortest distance (i.e. steepest) over the top of that hill. Felt good to get to the top of that one though - then a bit of a drop down to the main road, right turn, left turn at Fourways Motel, which, I now realise, is the junction I can remember from the Cheshire Bikeathon all those years ago! Anyway, next climb up the hill not too bad, then drop right off into Macclesfield Forest - good job the brakes worked on that descent as I met a little old sports car coming the other way, with virtually zero space to pass, even at walking pace!

Now I was riding with a guy from Nottingham and we went pretty quickly over the last few miles back to the start/finish, where.... there was no one! I mean, no one from the organisers! Amazed, a bunch of cyclists gathered around and tapped their feet, bemused, before going their separate ways. One guy asked me as I arrived what distance I had done; "Honestly?" I replied, which got a few chuckles and then of course they knew the answer anyway. Turned out they had all done the same. It will be interesting to see if there's any follow-up on this - had there been some big accident or something? I really can't imagine why there'd be nobody there at the finish - if that was what they intended then I'd say it was outrageous. The most important thing is not the times - it's accounting for all the riders. How do they know I'm not in a field somewhere with a broken neck? They don't. I think it's a bit irresponsible actually.

So, a brilliant route - don't get me wrong, I will do this as a training route starting from Goyt Valley, it's that good. And harder than I expected, although I'm always surprised by the Peak District, must be one of the best places in the country for training.

But, sportive massively let down by signage at one of the most critical junctions - they should've had a marshall there, and by the totally bizarre idea of not having anything at the finish! The 15 quid goes to charity, fair enough, but come on! On cyclosport it says they intend this to become a premier sportive on the calendar - not like that mate.

Anyway, totals: 51.6 miles, 2201 m ascent, 3h43 total time, 3h35 moving time. Not too bad.

Then of course I had to get home - should've gone via Hazel Grove (flatter) but sod it! Get over that hill to Whaley Bridge :)

Got home at about 3pm, pretty knackered. Ate lots.