Rated Event: 97.778%
Herbie wrote:
Tour of Wessex 3-day Cyclo Sportive details:
Always love a trip down the A303, with all its reminders of Glastonbury Festivals, West Country holidays when I was young and with our kids, then the great Kula Shaker track (now going through my head - gonna have to play that now!). However just getting to the event was a small achievement, as although I predicted bad traffic on a bank holiday weekend to the West Country, last Friday's A303 was a nightmare despite setting off at 2pm. Road works as usual, but also several crashes seeming to involve just the one vehicle and the central reservation - that and people rubber-necking Stonehenge!
Stayed at the Unicorn Hotel right in the centre of the event start town of Somerton, the historic capital of Wessex. A nice, slightly run down (Youngs spend some money) small inn, with great staff and food, and brilliantly accommodating - but, hey, it did have Wifi! The whole place was booked out to riders, their families and event organisation - the town, not just this hotel!
General:-
- Pendragon run a superb event, catering for 2,500 riders, and many camp with families in tow, at the sports ground.
- HQ is the town sports complex with loads of facilities, though I'm glad I didn't camp!
- Local Rotary Clubs provide a huge marquee for food and drink all day
- Shimano Service, Trek and local bike shops have an avenue of shops/workshops
- 2 pro Shimano Service cars with tons of kit, and wheels plus 2 complete bikes on each roof rack; plus a Shimano Service m/cycle with tubes and 8 wheels; continually drive the course
- Several m/cycle safety riders and medical cars
- Lots of other companies provide coffee, pizzas, other food and sports nutrition
- Fantastic routes, signage and variety, though pretty lumpy which limited being able to stick with groups for too long as everyone climbs at different rates; but because of the numbers there was always someone around to share the work with.
- Rider number and disposable timer chip come in post so no registration, just ride!
- Great event info, brochure, and maps which I printed A4 beforehand. which was lucky as their waterproof one with all 3 routes was too small to read, but good info on back.
- Innovative stuff like 2 bongo players on the 2 toughest climbs each day; when you hear them, worry! Trek beanbag marquee to just chill in.
- 3 feed stations each day for the long ride, and well spaced with longest to the first.
- 9 masseuse operating non-stop from 1pm until the last person is done at around 7pm, at £16 for a 30 mins tailored massage.
Sleepless first night. Not really because of the karaoke and party in the inn garden, but probably mostly nerves.
Stage 1 (Saturday - north & east):-
Route: 107 miles, 2,198m/7,210ft of climbing; Somerton - Glastonbury - Somerset Levels - Cheddar Gorge (bongos) - Wells - King Alfreds Tower (23%, bongos) - Longleat Estate - Stourhead - Somerton.
Weather was raining for 70% and spray and floods all day. Amazing seeing Glastonbury Tor across the levels in the mist and rain. Rear wheel went out of true after Alfreds Tower at about 55 miles, and then at 60 mile feed I realised a spoke was pulling out of the rim. Decided to limp on, but at 73 miles the wheel nearly collapsed and the inner tube exploded...on a descent into Mere. Luckily I was only doing 20mph. Now 3 spokes pulling out of rim, and completely unrideable. Phoned org and they said Shimano might make it to me but there had been a crazy amount of incidents, so it might just be long wait for broom wagon. Hoping I might get a wheel back HQ to at least be able to do the next 2 stages, but then my hero turned up on a Shimano m/cycle and whacked in a spair wheel. After losing an hour and getting v cold, wet and stiff I was off again for the last 34 miles.
Finished in about 8:50, grabbed a bacon butty and joined queue for the Shimano guys to set the bike up better and beg to keep the wheel for next 2 days. Then a bit of a rush to make dinner back at the hotel. Followed by sleepless night despite the Saturday night crowd being quieter than before.
Stage 2 (Sunday - south & east):-
Route: 116 miles, 2,255m/ 7,398ft of climbing; Somerton - Cerne Abbas - Black Hill (bongos) - The Piddles - Lulworth & Durdle Door - Lulworth Ranges (bongos) - Purbeck Hills - Bullbarrow Down (should have been bongoed!) - Sherbourne - Somerton.
Weather was fine, but mostly chilly until the sun came out properly in the last 2 hrs, and there were lots of floods and surface water. Nice to feel the sun though, and it felt a much kinder route. Took me a while to ride off the aches from yesterday, but got going pretty well.
Finished in about 9:00, another bacon butty, but then managed to get a massage that I'd missed out on on Saturday - until I had this I was seriously wondering if I'd be stepping down to the medium route the next day. The fun at the hotel tonight was a drag act, but somehow actually got some quality sleep in. I think the daily riding in Tuscany was starting to come into its own!
Stage 3 (Monday - west):-
Route: 112 miles, 3,219m/10,560ft of climbing; Somerton - Bridgwater - Quantocks 18.3%, bongos) - Minehead - Dunster Castle - Porlock Toll Road (so long and scenic, bongos) - Exmoor - Exford - Wimbleball Lake - River Parrett trail
Weather feeling warmer but no sun until we finished. Fast start but then Just relentless hills, and fearing Porlock despite knowing it wasn't the steep ascent, it turned out a bit like doing 6 or 7 Box Hills; in fact the Quantocks 2nd climb was the worst in the 3 days. Realised I had to renew the rear brake blocks so had set off in the latest start group, but the decision point for the medium route was too soon to choose to 'fail' rather than fail trying - so, onward. Once over Porlock the route lost height before getting onto Exmoor, and then was steep roller coasters for 30 miles. After the last feed it was all 'downhill', and got into a really good chain gang all slightly worried about the finish cutoff. Just lost them on the final hill before descent to Somerton. Last 5 miles were some of the longest I can remember. Finally came in 22 mins before the cutoff, in about 9:08. All I could do was grab a huge coffee and sit - I had no appetite or energy. Had to ride back to the hotel, swap the Shimano service wheel off and drive it back to the HQ. Took some time but eventually felt like eating, and then a beer, and then another....made some good friends on the road and in the hotel, and caught up with some I've met before.
Total/Summary:-
335 miles, 7,772m/25,168ft of climbing (mostly with 25 lowest sprocket on loan wheel)
- My total time about 27hrs (times not yet on website); I missed silver for my age group by just 8hrs (ahem!, no pretentions of that having been possible then!).
- Just a great event, but one I would only have attempted again if I had failed this time! Although there is the option of mixing and matching any of 47 combinations of ride plan.
- Although the Gran Fondo Stelvio was the toughest one day sportive that I've done, this is the hardest thing I've done since Paris-Brest-Paris in 1983.
- All the people I knew beforehand that did it failed to do all 3 days full course; for various reasons inc. just having done it before and not needing to kill themselves again.
- I was pleased with my last day's time as most people I talked to who did do it had been around 2hrs longer than the times for their previous 2 stages.
- Rode in some of the best countryside and views Britain can offer, and on the whole very good road surfaces.
- A funny on the way home: 2 soldiers in a tank had stopped in a lay-by on the A303 to buy strawberries!
- Got that out of my system now then.
- Would not have got fit enough to do this without the encouragement of Team Shamley, Tim's chiropractic maintenance (and the 2 Emmas, sports therapy), 3 Legs Cycling training DVDs and programmes, and having found great digestable nutrition from Elivar! Oh, and my wife, Gillian, my Mum and Da.....
Time on Two Wheels
Weeks to go until event: less than 5 weeks
