Southern Gold
I’m wallowing in the half-comatose mix of exhaustion and elation that follows a long day in the saddle. Early this morning I was up to ride the Southern Sportive, a 155km route starting and finishing at Petersfield in the South Downs. It was a good, tough event that for me nicely rounded off a season.
The organisers set three time targets:
- Gold – 5hrs 40mins
- Silver – 6hrs 19mins
- Bronze – 7hrs
(Check the full ride stats for a more detailed breakdown.) I made gold, and was chuffed with my time of 5hrs 34. In the end I was lucky, because at around 75km the large pack of riders I was in took a wrong turn and headed way off track. We lost ten minutes, but this could have been worse were it not for a few boys up front with GPS. In the event we nearly had a pile-up as the map-readers applied the brakes.
My form today was strong, but could have been better. I felt good on the hills – packs that I was struggling to keep with on the flats were falling away on the climbs. This I attribute to my north-London hill training sessions and low weight (11st 6 on the day). For my benefit next year, I think the main element missing in my training over the past two months has been long rides of 5hrs +. The last time I rode longer than 5hrs was 3 August. Early this year, when I was training for the Dragon Ride, I rode long every weekend, not doing much by way of high-intensity training. At 180km, the Dragon was tough, but I finished strongly. Today I rode faster, but lacked strength between 100-130km, and if it hadn’t been for a couple of riders who dragged me through the final 25km I might not have made gold.
I think in advance of next year I’m going to start a new cycling blog. Online cycling communities frequently seem to be poorly-designed, hard-to-search, forum-based sites that I get fed up with quickly. Plus, a cycling blog that follows a five-month euro-sportive training plan should be interesting for other riders, right?
Note: originally posted on the main blog.