Today turned out pretty well. I managed the most difficult part of the day (getting out of bed at 5.30), had my Jordans cereal, 3 cups of coffee and headed off. I forced myself to take it easy up the hill out of Sherborne. Nearing the start I got a bit worried as the ride there had taken a bit longer than planned and I was nearing the 7.00 start. I needn't have bothered as there was a lot of last minute confusion due to people picking up their registrations so the start was delayed by 15 minutes.
Riders set off in groups according to expected race time. First group was 5 hours. I was not up for this but when 5.30 group was announced I moved forward and started off. Timing for this event was best of the 3 sportives I have done. You have a tag on your ankle and just roll over a mat. Dead easy.
I was glad I had done the recce the day before as the first climb came as no surprise and allowed me to move up various groups until I found one that I felt was around my pace. I stuck with this group for the first 20km or so until we hit Alfreds Tower, the first climb of the day and the one with steepest pitches. I had a bit of luck here. My gearing was proving a bit tricky, especially changing down to the low chainring on my triple. I tried moving to this at the start of the climb but it would not budge. Luckily there was a brief flat section, just enough for me to unclip my right shoe and kick the chain over. Reengaged I set of and found the climb not too bad at all. My Powertap came in really useful as I used it to try and keep in the 300-350W range that I knew I could sustain for the expected duration of the climb. (Interestingly the stats I downloaded later showed I had averaged 316W(334WNorm) with a 5 minute peak of 337W(347WNorm), pretty much smack on target and pretty close to my 5 minute CP5 PB of 355W
At the top of the climb the group had thinned out a bit and there were just 6 of us left. We carried on as the route took us over a scary bit of gravel path past the front of Stourhead House. Lucklily my Vittorio Corsa KX tyres stood up to this test as they did everything else during the course of the weekend. (This was not the case for lots of other unfortunates, I think this event had the highest number of punctures I have yet seen).
Our group pretty much stuck together for quite a while. After a couple of hours I noticed my average watts so far were around 215W, much the same as that during my last 100mile training ride. So I knew I was in the right zone. Just short of 2 hours a couple of people went off the front of the group. This was as we were heading into Wells, start of the second big climb of the day. They headed up the hill and we followed. Again the Powertap was great and I kept up a steady pace hitting the top of the hill without too much difficulty. I then led the group in pursuit of the two ahead. One got away but we reeled the other one in and carried on to the second feedstop.
My policy for feedstops so far has been to ignore them as I carry enough food to keep me going and I dont like losing my rhythm. This is especially the case if the feedstop is, as often seems to be the case, at the end of one descent and the start of another. This was the case today. The rest of my group stopped put I pressed on, planning to take it easy for a few minutes to see if they or another group leaving the feedstop would catch me up. So I started climbing at not too hard a rate. Then I noticed that a lone cyclist was ahead of me. At my current rate of climbing I was keeping a pretty steady distance from him so I upped my rate a bit and started to close. After a while I caught him and followed up the hill, hoping we could work together as most of the rest of the course was downhill/flat.
However I got the impression he was a bit miffed to be caught and when we got to the top he put on several spurts I guess to get me off his back wheel. This did not work and I passed him a few times just to make the point that I had no problems keeping up. Then we came to Cheddar Gorge. I know, from later discussions, that the chap was local and he tried to use his local knowledge to leave me on the descent which I must admit was pretty hairy. However I was feeling pretty good and the bike was feeling solid as a rock. (Combination of the tyres and IT Sword bars). So I swooped and followed him around twist and turn, even overtaking a few cars as needed.
Eventually we got to the bottom. Due to traffic he got a lead of 20m or so on me and tried one final effort to pedal away. But I was feeling fine so closed the gap and at this time he pretty much accepted he was stuck with me. So we started to work together a bit, the more so as we spotted a small group ahead. We gave chase and eventually caught them as they slowed to follow a tractor. I was ahead and slowed to join them but the chap I was with saw this as a chance to leave us behind and sprinted past group and tractor. I sprinted to join him and this woke the group up and they joined us. Now we were quite a crew and we sped along happily to the finish.
I guessed my time to be around 5:25 which I was happy enough with. I felt fine with plenty still to give. My first point of call after the finish was the bike maintenance stand, very kindly furnished by Somerset County Council. I left my bike there requesting that my triple be fixed as I was sure I would have need of it over the next 2 days. I then headed for the refreshment tent to get lots of food inside me. Discussions there confirmed that tomorrow was going to be wet. So next stop was route organiser. I asked him how the Sunday course compared to Saturday. He said it would be easier, with nothing as steep as Alfreds Tower. This confirmed me in my decision to go single (NOTE: This info proved to be a lie).
I returned to the bike stand to get my bike. This had a new outer casing on the rear mech and a full set of gears that worked. All done for free!!! Many thanks Somerset (I felt a bit guilty that I would be spending all my money that weekend just over the border as Sherborne is in Dorset).
Having a working low gear made the ride up the steep hill back to the hotel easy. I returned to my room to find the Saturday DT waiting. So made a pot of tea , settled into a warm bath with my paper and phoned Mrs M to relay the days events.
Had yet another amazing meal (with extra pasta) and an early night.
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