I have signed up to my first sportive today. Its called the
Autumn Epic and starts and finishes in Knighton in Wales.
"The Autumn Epic is a European-style cyclosportive, starting in Knighton in the Welsh Marches on 5th October 2008, and taking you through the superb scenery of the ancient county of Radnorshire. The route in 2008 will, as in 2007, be a little longer than in previous years, at over 150km, but with a similar amount of total climbing (around 3000m)."
As you can see, its rather hilly and we've (My mate Ed is also doing it) probably taken on more than we can chew but the cut off points see very generous and the last person finished in around an 11mph average last year so fingers crossed, we can beat that. If not then I'm sure we will learn loads from it.
As the kids were away, I had the day free. I rode to Dad's and Littluns and had a coffee with my friends before setting off to Richmond Park. My aim was to ride the three laps and get an official time I can work on over the coming months. It was sunny to start with but the clouds rolled in and it rained for a while. Getting my bike wet for the first time was unnerving.
As well as the rain, it was quite windy especially up the first uphill stretch going anticlockwise from Roehampton gate. I complete the first lap in 22 minutes which seemed ok. I pushed on into the second lap but the wind was stronger and then it rained which slowed me down. The second lap was done in over 24 minutes which was disappointing. I tried to go a bit faster on the third lap and I was doing ok but had to slow down a couple of times for deers and cars. I finished in 1:09:10 (average of 17.5 mph) which is quite a bit off what I was hoping for but gives me a target I'm sure I'll break. I did 38 miles in total.
