Race 20: Northern Rock Cyclone, Newcastle, 25/06/2011

My first long road ride for months and it was 108 miles with 7400 ft climbing. A nice day out for the Northern Rock Cyclone with the Skedaddle team. We all looked very smart in our shiny new kit.

It was raining when I arrived (at 06:50!!!) but luckily it cleared and had stopped by the time we set off. I had my raincoat, arms and gillet in my pockets as I have had some bad experiences with road rides this year! But it was really warm so I carried it all for absolutely no reason. When the sun came out it was rather too warm, we all got daft cyclist tan lines where we got burnt.

We set off in a pack at a rather brisk pace and were averaging 19 mph by mile 35. Then I got a puncture. Really annoying but given we'd passed about 20 people changing tyres, it was inevitable that it would happen to one of us I guess. I thought I was toast but Anne Woods and Ian Wingfield kindly stopped with me. Ian even did the pumping for me, how nice is that!

It took us ages to catch up to some of the other Skedaddlers after the puncture stop. We never did catch up with some of the boys as they were long gone. I was feeling OK until the middle section of the ride. I tend to get this on long rides. When there is no end in sight and your legs are getting tired I seem to lose the will completely. Anne was strong the whole way around, she is brilliant at endurance, didn't slow down at all.

So in that middle section I was feeling my legs, having not done any long rides for months, I could tell. It didn't help that my gears were a complete mess so I was trying to stay in the big ring the whole time, fine for a short ride but tires your legs on a big one! Miles 70 - 80 sometimes I had to shut my eyes and force my legs round up some of the hills. It was quite rolling so they were popping up all over the place. I hope there were no photographers on those bits! I did the counting thing too to make sure my legs kept their rythmn. In the end the gears wouldn't change at all so we stopped to have a look, it turned out that the front mech had slipped and it was bashing on the chain ring. We didn't have allan keys so flagged down some nice young men and they lent us some.

Then I ate a gel and it ripped longways, covering my arms, legs, shorts, bike and gloves in a sticky mess. It's amazing how much is in that little sachet when it spreads all over like that! I licked it off the places I could reach (even tried my legs but it's quite tricky licking your own legs whilst cycling!!) but there was a lot left over and I was a sticky mess for the duration. My hands sticking to the brake levers etc. The part I did manage to eat was really tasty, it was a bannoffee torq gel. Highly recommended. And it was like someone turned on the lights! All of a sudden my legs felt fine again and I was good to go.

We came storming to the finish for the last 10 miles, 20 - 25 mph on the flat. Our total average speed was 15.6 mph so not too bad given the lack of endurance rides this year! Everyone at Skedaddle had a great time. They had about 30 riders in total so a great turnout.



Time for a rest

Mingling with the best