On Sunday I rode the second sportive of my cycling career in the Kilotogo Mercia in Motion and my longest distance to date (94 miles).
Having learnt from my previous mistakes in the No Excuses ride, I was well hydrated and fuelled up, so much so that I had 5 trips to the loo pre ride! It was another cold and breezy one, but luckily without any rain, with winter gear certainly the order of the day. After a stumble on the start line, (which I'm blaming Matt for knocking my gear lever) we were off. As per the last ride I hit the front and strung the group out to make it less of a bunch. I unfortunately lost Mike at traffic lights but he caught up with me a few miles shy of the first feed stop (34 miles) as he descended from Cannock like a demon descending pork pie. A quick refuel and we got on our way. The legs were feeling good and the moving average was a very respectable 18mph. We pushed on and Mike lost my back wheel about 10 miles shy of the second feed stop. We regrouped at this stop (66 miles) with the average still at 18mph and after a bottle refill, gel, half a banana and a soreen snack bar we were on our way to Ironbridge. This was unfortunately the last I saw of Mike til the end. The climb out of Ironbridge was steep and sharp. As I neared a couple of people helping wave traffic past, I looked down and guttingly saw 5.5mph and shouted, "I could walk up faster!" The legs still had plenty in them and after witnessing the aftermath of an awful collision between a competitor and a Freelander on a sharp descent in Bridgnorth (maybe a Hazard warning next year Kilotogo and the rider was luckily ok apart from a few cuts and bruises and a chipped tooth), I chain ganged along with another rider to Pattingham. This was where the struggle started. The roads were a steady climb back to Aldersley and the northerly winds were hitting speed hard. The last 10 miles were pure attrition but you just have to grit your teeth and dig deep. I had set a target of completing in 6 hours. I was over the moon with a moving time of 5 hours 27 minutes and 9 seconds and an average speed of 17.2mph.
The results from the ride are here. I was given an official time of 5 hours 45 minutes and 21 seconds with feed stops and traffic/junctions. This gave me a silver time despite finishing 99th in the 305 particpants. I am however discounting the top 29 as I'm pretty certain they did the short route and Kilotogo themselves feel no-one would have done the course in less than 4hours 40minutes, so actually I was 70th.
