Ouch. Legs still hurting four days later. That was the hardest bike ride I’ve ever done. I managed to get a ‘Gold Standard’ in my age group, just scraping in under 6 hours. Bad cramp attacks on the later hills slowed me down quite a bit towards the end and I ended up 128th/417. Its Not A Race of course… A well organised sportive and glorious weather helped.
And yet that was only practice…
Some of the more experienced (and cash rich!) members of our club are doing one of the big Continental sportives this year, the Etape du Tour, La Marmotte, the Maratona Des Dolomites. Me, I’m aiming for the Wiggle Magnificat on June 3. Doesn’t quite stack up with those others, but we are talking Tour de France stage length and climbing: 127 miles, 8,000 feet of climbing. A proper ‘timed challenge’. 3 weeks to go, so this weekend I’ll be trying for 120 flatter miles, and next weekend will be a ‘taper’ that is, shorter rides to let my body rest a bit before the big one. After that, Blenheim and perhaps an Audax.
bemused 