There are links to the weekly round-ups next to each week if you like to see more details. Here again is where you can donate your money for the ride so please click here.
Training and bits to know.
Before this ride, I am sitting on the sofa working out what to do if my bike is not ready but I know it will be hoping this is something that will work out. Somehow it always has with me, which chills me out. Other then this and the six weeks where I was waiting for my mountain bike to get fixed I think the training has gone well.
If you like to read more on the training then I would like to direct you to the following as these are the weeks since I went for a ride.
These are my thoughts on other rides I have done.
My plan for the ride.
I am just going to take it hour by hour. I would like to cover the frist 10 miles in about an hour. I know this will hurt but then after that, I have a good chance of riding to the end within the time limit. As there are about 13 hours to do the 75 miles I think I will be doing it in and around 10-12 hours so that means I need as much time as possible to complete the ride.
The day before the ride.
This how my bike looked in the morning.
I am sitting there waiting for the part that I missing and would like to get it as there is quite a bit of work left to do on my bike. I am at the moment a nervous rake. This might be more excited for the ride, more than nervous as I hope to ride around the track. I am hoping to get there at 6:30 as this is something that will take me all day to do. I am not as fast as I hoped I would be and not riding the bike I am using is also something that is not great. Waiting for something is what I hate doing, and if I know it is going to be late as I hope to be up early for the ride the next day is where I hope I am not working on my bike late into the day.
Something else I need to do is check the weather as it might be raining in the afternoon and there are things I would love to know how bad it will be. As this will slows me down but it is something that will add a challenge to a harder ride. I love cycling and would love to do more riding as well. This is how my bike is looking with less than 12 hours to go before I hope to take to the start line.
Before the ride
I am up before 4pm as I have a small checklist of things to do before going to the start line, and not sleeping does not really help. My mind is know just on the ride and how this is going to feel once I am riding. I know my bike is set I am just hoping that it will least thought out the ride and nothing goes wrong. I was waiting outside so I can get moving asap which I did. When getting there I was amazed at how many more people were there. It was looking at a sea of helmets.
The ride.
I left at a good pace as there was alot of road to start with which I did at my normal road rate. Then getting onto some nice off-road sections that are not really tough. As there are alot of people how to start to overtake me. As I am slower on the offroad. Once I hit the 1 hour make I was well into the ride and had done 20 km by this point, which amazed me. As I thought I would be only around 17km. By this point, I have started to slow down and was going at my own pace what is important as I can ride and get to the end of the ride easy as it goes.
Then once I was a bit closer to the edge of the city I was able to go at a much more even pace which is great for this type of riding. I was going through woods and tails which was great fun. There were also sections that went through some nice undergrowth. There were more road sections then I thought there would be, but they did connect some good off-roading sections which were fun to ride.
I was going well at this point I was starting to find it a bit hard as I went out harder than I should have. I was not really thinking about any hills and then I got to the about 35km in when my bike decided to stop working. I had the derailer, axle and hanger for derailer all have something go wrong. Which did amaze me as this was the main reason for me to stop my ride. Which was too bad, at the time I was thinking at the time where the frist hill was and it turned out I was actually just riding up it as I was going along. I did not find this out until I was waiting for a pick up as I pulled out of the ride as there was too much wrong with my bike to keep riding.
I had alot of people overtake me as I am a slow rider and this is something I would like to work on and get faster at it. I would also be doing alot more training with distance and speed as this is something that will help with the time I was doing. I will work this out other the next few weeks. Right know as I write this I am feeling a bit left out as I should still be riding and getting to the finish.
The photo above is the moment that my ride was over.
I would also like to thank all the people that sponsored me and say I am just as disappointed at not finishing as you are. I would love to have finished and got to Brighton I was on track just this mechanical was a bit too much to recover from.
Joe
Gillbanks Photography Blog 