With the weather not looking great for the ride, a couple of mates and I rode the 100 mile 'Chase the Rising Sun' (not that we saw it!) overnight sportive from Hunstanton to Southwold.
With a start time of 21:00, we arrived at 18:00 so we could enjoy some fish and chips and give them enough time to digest before the ride started.
There were, so I was told by one of the local Lifeboat men, about 500 riders registered, and more signing up on the day, so it made for a decent sized crowd in the clifftop car park. As we waited, a couple of B52's flew overhead. Quite a sight..
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Ready for the start.
It was hard to decide what to wear for the ride. We'd loaded all sorts of clothing into the car with the idea of guessing the forecast until 05:00 ish.
The fact that the organisers were giving out free waterproof phone cases should be a big enough clue as to what we were heading in to!
Still, I stuck with the legs and packed a waterproof jacket and sealskinz socks, hoping it was a good combination. We rode in decent weather from Hunstanton to Wells next the Sea, then into the tail end of some showers. Not bad enough to worry about though. At least I'd left the mudguards on the Defy 2 so I wasn't getting sprayed on.
The route is quite flat apart from the 20 miles from Weybourne to Mundesley. Even those hills aren't a mega challenge though. Just enough to you down a bit, especially with the gentle headwind we had all night.
Several times, we were buzzed by bats. Lovely creatures. Never quite seen, and passing in a blur. One nearly bounced off Dave's helmet before veering skywards just in front of my face!
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A mile or so before the 50 mile feed station at Bacton, the heavens opened, A proper bit of rain! When we pulled in, it eased off a bit, so we drip dried for a while as we surveyed the water bottle top up flavours, jelly beans, chocolate brioche, bananas and jaffa cakes in abundance before getting a coffee and having a few bits to eat and a banana and some jelly beans for te remaining 50 miles. I've not done lots of Sportives, but this one was the best so far. Mind you, the sports hall floor and cleats was not a good combo, with quite a bit of Bambi skating going on!
As we were leaving, and I'd dried out a bit, I put my waterproof on lest I got a bit of windchill. It was a good choice, as it turned out, as it did drop a few degrees. Not 'cold', just nippy.
About 5 or 6 miles on, Dave had a visit from the p*nctre fairy. We spied a gateway to pull in to to be off the road, and were happy to find that it was the entrance to a cowshed, and the whole lot was deep in cow sh*te. Happy days..
Not wishing to crowd Dave but still to be of help, we shone our lights in his general direction from a distance away as he changed the tube
I mean, what are friends for!
From there until Gt. Yarmouth, the weather was a bit better, but soon deteriorated into drizzle and heavier rain. I was a bit in front, and missed a right turn sign. Half a mile on, my phone rang and I was told not to be silly and stick to the route. Once back, we were on our way through the town and heading for Lowestoft. A lot of these places, Cromer, Gorleston and Lowestoft are where I go for a stroll and eat ice cream when I'm at work, so it was nice to pass through on a leisure basis.
With the rain still precipitating it down, we were on the last 15 miles or so, and on a 16mph average, which would be quite a result for me. Once we hit a few windy bits through houses and 'traffic', I dropped to 15.9 and couldn't quite get the elusive 0.1 over the last mile. Never mind, eh... Still a good average for me over 102 miles!
Happily, by this time the weather had improved, the rain had stopped and the wind had ceased
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The end.
We did miss the sunrise (behind the clouds) by a short while, but put that down to the p*ncture fairy diversifying in her/his efforts to spoil a good ride.
Due to the expected business at the finish line car park, we'd arranged to meet Garry's wife, driving our support vehicle, at Southwold Pier about a mile back. Once there, we got the camping stove out and rustled up some bacon rolls and coffee........ And a beer. Well, what's wrong with a beer at 05:00 on a Sunday morning?
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As I'd not been quite wet enough overnight, I thought I'd have a paddle..
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Finished on 102 miles, average 15.9.
Quite happy with that.
https://www.strava.com/activities/606695973
