We're moving the End to End forward !

Training has been going really well and May seems too far away, so we have decided to move our dates for the End to End. After a lot of discussion we have agreed to start on the 26th of August 2011. I rang the bike shop at Wick and they were very helpful, we can send our bikes up by courier and they will set them up ready for us. We have looked at lots of different ways to get to the start, trains, hire cars etc, but we have decided that flying up to Wick is the easiest option, we will fly from Bristol to Edinburgh and then on to Wick. All we have to do then is cycle home. When we first talked about this we thought that we would need 14 days to complete the ride. However having mapped the ride out and looked at where we will camp, it looks like it will be more like 11-12 days (the last day is from Okehampton to Lands Ends, at 102 miles, so we may split this into two days due to the hills, we'll see how we feel when we get there). We have all our equipment now and we are planning to do a camping trip in May to try everything out. Being a bit of a geek I have a spreadsheet detailing the campsites, their tariffs, the daily estimated mileage. I have also mapped the route out on bike route toaster (what a great tool) these can the be uploaded to the sat nav, I just need to work out how to keep it charged up now.

Start	Finish	Miles	Campsite
Wick	Thurso	37.03	Thurso Bay Campsite
Thurso	Lairg	75.56	Dunroamin Camping Park
Lairg	Fort Augustus	81.17	Cumbernalds Campsite
Fort Augustus	Inveraman	90.88	Beinglas Farm
Inveraman	Abington	85.64	Mount View Campsite
Abington	Pooley Bridge	82.42	Waterside Campsite
Pooley Bridge	Croston	75.83	Royal Umpire
Croston	Presthorpe	89.76	Mill Farm Caravan Park
Presthorpe	Clevedon	105.23	Bullock Farm Campsite
Clevedon	Okehampton	87.93	Betty Cottles Inn
Okehampton	Lands End	101.89	Home

New bike and the New Forest Sportive

My new bike arrived and it was well worth the wait. Its a Secteur Elite, I chose this because I could use it for my club rides and it also takes a rack, ideal for the End to End. I had the week off following the Cornwall Tor, so I signed up for the New Forest sportive, 85 miles in beautiful countryside and very fast smooth roads. Again it was a fantastic day and Wiggle was very organised. Registration was not quite as good as the Cornwall sportive, but it wasn't long before we were on the road. I was going really well and thought that I was in for a good time. I met up with a young lad from Wales and we spent the ride taking turns up front, to give each other a rest. I kept telling him I would need to drop off the pace, as I didn't think I could keep going at that speed. However I did, and managed to complete 85 miles in 5hrs and 9 minutes, so if I can just avoid hills on the End to End, I should be ok. :-)

Joining the YOGI's

George has been riding with his local club for a while now and is always saying how much he enjoys it, so I thought I'd give it a go ( though I really wasn't sure about it ). The nearest club to me are YOGI in Plymouth which is approx 25 miles from Looe.
I joined them on a Saturday morning for a 'long and steady' ride of approx 55 miles. Its always a bit awkward joining a new group but I was made to feel very welcome. I enjoyed the easy going nature of the group ride and managed the pace fairly comfortably without holding anybody up. Comparing it to riding on your own, you are riding harder but in shorter bursts with more stops.
The following weekend a 100 miler to Exeter, Dawlish Teignmouth and back was organised. Approx 30 riders turned out which surprised the organisers who weren't expecting so many. Another glorious sunny day with a tough first section up over Dartmoor followed by a long downhill into Exeter.
Another brilliant day and looking forward to the next one.

Cornwall Tor

At last the day was here. Although I felt my training was going pretty well, this was going to be the first opportunity to ride with and measure myself against other riders. I knew the course was going to be tough but felt confident that I could at least cover the distace as I'd already done several 70's, a couple of 80's and a 100 miler. I had fully completed the training program so felt as prepared as I could be.
Again we were dead lucky with the weather, a lovely sunny morning with light wind. George and I set off together but we were amongst a lot of other riders in the early stages. The field was fairly bunched as we hit the first climb and we were quickly separated. Never mind I thought, he'll catch me when we get on the flat.
Well someone with a very sick sense of humour set this course, with climb after climb through the villages of the north Cornwall coast and all the time waiting for the infamous Millook hill. The only flatter sections are in the last third where I fortunately teamed up with a Truro rider and we worked together to keep up a good pace. He dropped me though on the final steep climb with a few miles to go.
I finished thinking I was ahead of George but was not sure - had he gone past me at one of the feeding stations? But no, he came in a bit behind me. We were both on a real high from having made it round such an insane course! It was a great experience and look forward to doing more of these sportives in the future.

The Cornwall Tor Sportive

Well the day has come to do our first sportive, we did a short ride yesterday and it was a lovely hot day. Adie is just back from Spain so this weather is suiting him, but it's a bit hot for me. The sportive was very well organised and Kilo to Go had sent out all the registration equipment and timer tags the previous week, so it was just a matter of turn up and go. I was amazed at how many people were there and such a friendly atmosphere. It was quite cool in the morning so I had worn some sleeves which I could remove if it got hot later, a great buy if you're trying not to carry too much gear. It wasn't far before we hit the first hill and Adie's hill training came into play again, before long he was disappearing into the distance. My plan had been to conserve energy at the start to make sure that I had enough to finish the course. We had one main objective in this ride and that was to finish in front of an old colleague. This was the toughest ride I have ever done, it was just hill after hill, running along the North Cornwall Coast, but I was determined to climb every one of them, including Millook, a 30% hill. I finished in 6hrs 12 minutes, roll on the new bike, which should be waiting for me when I get home. Adie finished 45 minutes in front of me, I really must start to do these tempo rides and hill repeats!!