A Long Way To Go

Today was the Evans Ride It from the TCR show at Sandown. 9 miles there, 71 for the ride, 9 back (after a long recovery / rest while I walked around the show). I'm not sure where to begin... Maybe lets go with the stats.

Distance: 89 miles
Climbed: 4790 feet
Time: 6hr 16m

Now on paper I guess that looks alright, especially as its the middle of February. But to be completely honest I'm gutted about the whole thing, specifically how I felt during the ride.

The first 32 miles went ok, felt a little hard but I spent most of the time in groups* (a little more on that at the end) or with another guy which made it go quite quickly. After the food stop the routes split and everyone else around was on the middle distance route (I was doing the long) so from here I was on my own. It got really hard from here, after about 40 miles (so 49 including the ride from home) my legs were not happy. It got colder, wetter and I will admit it was mentally very very hard. It didn't help that near the end (13 miles or so to go) we got to some roads I know well and my worst fears came true when we didn't turn away from the very steep hill I knew was coming. With knackered legs and only 34/25 gearing (the summer bike has 34/27) the 14% slope at the bottom up to the 18% at the top was a nightmare. Thankfully that was the last big hill of the day, but the heavens chose that moment to deposit themselves on my head. It would take too long to explain about the hilly routes I do through the Surrey hills on my long hill rides but trust me, that hill isn't the worst of it and I used to comfortably do it a couple of times on a 100+ miler.

I'm so far from where I was last summer its just soul destroying. I know I didn't have a choice with my "illness", but the one thing I said all last year was that I couldn't bear to start from scratch again come 2010. And that's exactly where I feel I am. Gutted.

* (from above)
Above I mentioned riding with some groups and I can't let something go here without comment. One group was formed of 5 people, mostly older guys including the mandatory very skinny quick guy. I managed to hold onto this group (+/- 20 yards or so) for about 15 miles until the first food stop. They were quick, going a little faster than I wanted to but it was good to push. This isn't anything out of the ordinary of course, the reason I mention it is that one of the members of this group was a girl, who I guess was about 12. She never dropped off, got left, and she attacked the climbs where she couldn't stay in the saddle. I have never seen anything like it, and (as the cynical old sod I am fast becoming) I am not impressed easily. But she (I believe from her Dad talking to us her name is Emma) was quite amazing.