Spent most of the day stripping down, cleaning, oiling and greasing the bike, in the hope that it would last for another 35 miles:
Spent almost all day, except a couple of hours to take Kathryn to a birthday party. Finished quite late, without any real time to test, so hope everything stays together tomorrow. "Where does this part go?" ;-)
Somehow managed to get all the family up, dressed, fed, and ready to go in time. Strapped the bike on the bike rack on the car. Headed off, got to the start point in Manor Park Aldershot, basically on time. Met up with the rest of Team BlackBerry. Checked in. Waited for the first bunch to leave on a different ride, then it was our time to start - 09:30.
Let most of the other riders leave first (it's more fun having people to overtake later!), then set off slowly. Remember this is a Charity RIDE, not a RACE! Attempted to keep Team BlackBerry together despite hundreds of other cyclists trying to leave the park at the same time, much to the amusement of the Sunday-morning drivers. Headed off down Aldershot High Street. Someone shouted out saying "0.35 miles!". Tom replied "that's like 10%!", but was disappointed when we told him it was actually only ONE percent!
Gentle hill down a nice road to Crookham, very pleasant way to start the ride. Kept the team together reasonably well, in fact we very nearly stayed together even when our lead cyclist missed the left turning - could have been embarrassing!
The pubs were all marked on the map and underlined in the directions - they obviously had us sussed! Unfortunately, at this time on a Sunday morning, they were all closed, so after gathering the team up a bit, pressed onwards.
Most of the first third of the course was fairly uneventful. Fairly gentle hills up and down, all pubs closed. Pressed on through Crookham, Crondall... Nothing very steep, but quite a few really loooooooong hills with high hedges and lots of turns so you can't really tell if/when they'll ever end :-/
Overtook team WaitRide who's team captain seemed to be a bit more serious than ours - he was coaching his team saying how it was all much steeper up and down from now on. Bentley, Issington, Binsted, and it definitely was all up and down :-(
The first water station at the 15 mile mark was, in fact, orange - a very pleasant surprise! Having said to each other that we weren't going to bother stopping, most of us changed our minds!
The Marshall manning the "water" station said "halfway point just around the corner, downhill all the way". Bu||$#!+, the Marshall was wrong, the WaitRide captain had been more accurate. Never trusted the marshals from that point on! ;-)
Flying down one of the hills and trying to keep momentum up the next one, ran into man-with-huge-trailer trying to go downhill, granny trying to go uphill, both blocking the narrow road and refusing to reverse to let the other pass. Swines!
4 hills later (yeah, thanks Mr Orange Water Station!), we got to the Red Lion in Oakhanger, alleged halfway point, another planned meeting-point, and again CLOSED. After collecting a few more of the team together, argued we should probably press on as there was no point in waiting at a closed pub. Decided the slower riders would realise nobody was there and press on. Realised some faster riders, ahead of us, had almost certainly thought the same thing!
Couple of miles later, mostly (but not entirely) downhill, Blackmoor Village Hall was offering tea, biscuits, and loos - not as ideal as a pub, but a good place to stop for a rest ("tea and pee") and re-gather the team. Realised we'd done about 21 miles, quite impressed, a bit sore, very hot and sweaty (including disturbing anatomical details from Briggy!) but certainly ready to press on after a bit of a stop! Agreed the next meeting point (another pub, obviously!) and set off at about midday.
LOTS more hills. The roads are even called "Picketts Hill", "Heath Hill", etc! Total swine, real nightmare, passed lots of people walking up hills and felt very sympathetic but determined to keep pedalling. A few nasty turnings - flying down a hill and spot a sudden sharp right, lots of riders nearly overshot and/or ended up in the hedge!
Cycling up a steep hill in bottom gear, looks like you're about to reach the top, and just as you're saying "thank goodness that's over!", turn a corner and see you've got about the same again. :-(
Passed someone saying "I don't mind the hills, I don't mind the distance, it's the sore ar$e that I can't take!". Everyone's definitely very saddle-sore by this point.
Halfway up a fairly gentle hill, and finally find the 30 mile water station at the Holly Bush PH in Tilford... a real water station this time, but more importantly it's our next meeting point, and it's a pub, and It's OPEN!
Stopped for a pint of lemonade+lime and a bit of a chat, mostly about how bad some of the hills were, and the sharp-right-at-the-bottom-of-a-hill-into-the-hedge, etc. Dropped a bit of oil into the pedal bearing which had been starting to squeak quite badly by this point. Waiting for the slower team members to catch up, then Tom pops in and says some of the rest of the team have already cycled straight past - they didn't want to stop and seize up!
Decided to down our drinks, and hop back on for the last 4 or 5 miles - "and only a couple of hills" according to the landlord... Yup, that's all you'd notice in your 4WD jeep, right?
Managed to miss my support party - Estelle and the kids were supposed to be waiting under the trees just after the Rural Life Centre, but it sounds like they'd tried to find the Holly Bush at around the time we'd decided not to bother waiting there. :-(
4 or 5 hills later (yup, thanks landlord, glad we've already learnt to take that sort of promise with a pinch of salt!)...
You've just about had enough of hills, and think things can't get much worse, turn around a left-hand bend and see one MONSTER of an upwards incline ahead of you. Everyone's screaming "Oh, no, I give up! For f... Oh!" as you spot the little pink arrow to the left. A few shouts of "There IS a god!"
Head off down this funny little track, lots of pot-holes, starts to get quite gravelly, "hang on, this wasn't supposed to be an off-road route!"...
Then there's the gate.
... Then getting even more pothole-ish and gravelly, sandy...
Then there's the stile which you had to LIFT your bikes through - What the... Hang on, someone's been re-arranging the pink signs and mucking about, right? Overtook most of Team Wait-Ride again at this point because they really didn't have the tires for this sort of terrain.
A bit more gravel track / farm road, then at last it looks like you're back on civilised roads again. Badshot Lea, and you're starting to smell the back end of Aldershot again. Getting very residential, one last beast of a hill to climb in amongst real town traffic, not very nice but you can almost hear the band playing at the finish line over the sound of the bike squeaking.
Nice final downhill stretch, spot the little pink sign on the right, prepare to fork right, realise it's pointing left, re-prepare to fork left, realise the Manor Park gate is really sharply left, skid across the cobbles, (why were there no Marshals on that last corner?), through the gate into the park, and suddenly you're over the finish line!
Time around 13:50, so about 4 hours 20mins, with quite a few stops.
[puff, pant] "53". "Waterman?", [puff, pant] "yup", [puff, pant] Medal! Goodie bag! Ow, carefully extract myself from the bike, find the first patch of shade with a couple of faster Team BlackBerry people, crash into the ground. Ow.
Well, we did it! What have we got in this bag then? Water, some sort of glucose powdery stuff, cereal bar, pack of crisps, who cares, WE DID IT!. Just don't make me stand up!
Where did the other half of the team get to then? Despite carrying the latest in wireless communications technology, couldn't get hold of them. Later discovered they had stopped at the Holly Bush, but for two slow pints instead of one rushed one!
Sore. I won't go into quite such graphic anatomical detail as Briggy, but it's sort of partly sore bum and partly groin-strain. Well worth it, but I'll wait a few months before the next one thanks!
Cycled into work! :-)
It's not too late to Sponsor Me. I know a lot of you were waiting until I'd finished, just in case I didn't finish, but I've now done it. I still put myself through that agony despite not making my fundraising target. Please make my aches and pains and squeaks worthwhile, please make a wish come true for a critically-ill child. DONATE!
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