Highclere Happiness - Blowing my own trumpet

Somewhat tired. Very happy. Just come back from completing the South Downs challenge a.k.a. the Highclere 115.

The Map
The Route Profile


Had been v. nervous about this because never done a "cyclosportive" event before but in fact it went fine after the first mile. First mile was bit of a disaster as somehow I ended up at the front of my group, came to the first bend, saw the marshal waving, lost concentration and before I knew it my head was hitting the tarmac. Luckily my sunglasses absorbed the impact though I left one bit of them behind as a remounted, somewhat in shock and had a hard ride to rejoin the group.

After that though all was pretty good. My start group happened to have some good riders in it and we stormed along overtaking loads of people. (Glad to report I did my bit at the front.) Unfortunately one guy punctured and his team-mates stopped to help him so our group cut down to two and then just me.

Nonetheless made it to the first check point in just over 2 hours, averaging almost 20mph, which put me well on course for my target time of 6hr55mins. Second leg is a bugger, all up and down and, today against the wind. I set of alone and did not really get into any group throughout this stage until caught up by some fast bods 10km from the next checkpoint. They stopped to refuel, I pushed on and made good time hooking up with a couple of people along the way. At the 140km stage though I was getting tired and very happy to be overtaken by the fast bods train which I latched onto. The drag up to the final hills was into the wind again but even so we averaged 30kph.

Just before the final hard climbs I dropped off the group. It was mission accomplished in terms of getting my target time as I had only 20km to go and an hour and 20 mins to do it in. The fast bods were obviously fitter than me and I was worried if I tried to keep up with them I might overdo it and crack. So I took things as easy as is possible over the climbs and got to back to Highclere safe and sound.

My end time was 6 hours 22 mins, comfortably inside gold standard for aging hippies and even a gold for young whippersnappers and 15th overall (at the moment). I looked to be the 3rd or 4th 40-49er. (The first 50-59er was 17mins behind so I have a future challenge).

Very very happy with this....