Race 14: Etape du Dales Sportive

This could have been a lovely ride out, where we could have raced to try for a good time. But it ended up being a windy, wet 109 mile endurance ride that tested our will power from about mile 10! It was spitting rain when we set off from Grassington at 7:30 am. The forecast was windy but no rain so I was just waiting for it to pass and the sun to come out. It never did! All the way to Tan Hill it was the same, the first descent I got frozen into position as I only had shorts, top, gilet, arms and fingerless gloves on.

At the first food stop I made myself some rather fetching gloves out of the plastic that the bananas came in. The lady tied it in knots for me and it made all the difference for the rest of the ride. In fact my hands were sweating in there, when I got back my fingers looked like I'd spent a day in the bath! My feet were also numb until Tan Hill, so I got the plastic that the paper cups came in, and used them as socks - they were perfect for the job. My feet warmed up straight away and weren't numb anymore but also not hot.

I got quite a few 'nice gloves' comments on the way, but I think those people wished they had made some too! The drag up to the Tan Hill Inn was pretty grim. Rain and wind in our faces. After Tan Hill it started pouring down and that's the way it stayed until the end. On one rather exposed part (can't remember where because I couldn't even see anything anyway) it was hailing and it really hurt my face.

Miles 60 - 75 we allowed ourselves some whinging time, as we were really very fed up. But mile 75 was sufficiently near the end that we perked up and became happy(ish). We finished the last 10 miles really rather quickly due to a handy tail wind and because we knew it was nearly over. My legs felt good all day, way better than the Pocklington Challenge last month, maybe  I could feel no pain because they were numb with cold!

In the end we did 109 miles and 10,000 ft climbing, mostly into a very strong headwind (never quite sure how that works when it's a circular route!) with rain in our faces. It took us just over 9 hours, that's how bad it was!!!

Lisa and I looking strangely happy