31/3 Tour Of The Weald Sportive

Cold But ready To Ride!

As we drove up to Staplehurst, myself Paul B and Steve B were worried about the amount of ice on the road and knew that the further inland we got the worse it was likely to be. Was this route going to be safe? After signing in we joined up with Steve D, Metin, Andy, Derek and Metin’s friend Stuart before all setting off together. The air was so cold that our fingers soon became frozen so we all rode gently together hoping to warm up. Just three miles into the route the dreaded East Hall Hill appeared in front of us rising up like the lower slopes of the Matterhorn at around 16% elevation. With cold leg muscles nowhere near warmed up, this made the climb even harder. We were all out of the saddle and plodding our way up when I heard heavy breathing and looked round to see that Derek had caught up with me, I was just thinking that Derek was really going for it when next moment he blew up and had to pull over. Determined to avoid the same fate I carried on steadily riding out of the saddle with the objective of just getting to the top without blowing a gasket, I was just going fast enough to slowly pass Steve D and remain in sight of the others. All that height was lost in a steep decent back down to just 60 feet above sea level. Being a poor decender, Steve D had caught me up and the main group lead by Andy had pulled away from me a little. Over the next 5 miles I slowly lost sight of the leading group but had Steve D for company. Another longer but slightly smaller gradient hill appeared. I managed to drop Steve D and rode on my own for the next 5 miles before recognising the upright cycling figure of Metin in the distance. Having passed Metin it wasn’t long before Steve D caught up with me only for me to drop him again on Goudhurst hill. Having discovered the cause of my noisy derailleur to simply be loose bolts my bike’s running gear was working almost perfectly and the old fashioned 36 spoke wheel I had recently put on the front mad for a much plusher ride than the lighter but harsher square rim wheel I had thrown out the day before, unfortunately my back was letting me down and at one point it was so bad I had to pull over to stretch it. This gave Steve D time to catch up with me and we rode into the only refreshment stop together. Here we met up with peter H who had been in the front group but had had to stop to reposition a cleat. Peter said he didn’t want to ride alone so I rode with him all the way back, leaving Steve D and Metin to their own devices. The route was really well way marked so I switched my Garmin to elevation mode which gave a useful heads up for any more hills. At one point we had to shout out our numbers to an official at the side of the road. Why did they want our numbers we thought? The answer soon became apparent when what looked like a cliff face soon came into view on the profile screen. Yet another large hill was going to have to be overcome and this one looked the biggest yet. Saving our energy on the approach we began the climb of what was to be the highest and longest of all the hills. Fortunately the gradient never reached higher than 6.7% so we were able to remain seated for most of it. What goes up must come down and a very steep decent on a wide road followed. Looking at the elevation profile I could see that all that remained was 3 miles of flat riding to the finish but even these proved hard as they were into a cold head wind and the road surface was that rough high friction surface you sometimes get when the council have laid a surface with too many chippings and not enough tarmac. Finally we arrived back at HQ where we met up with Andy, Steve B, Stuart and Paul B. Steve B had been the first one in having dropped the others who came in together. Within the next 15 minutes everyone else arrived safely. This was a tough but excellent ride, my memory had played tricks with me and I only had recollection of the first hill from 2012, I won’t make that mistake again. An excellent well organised event, we will be back next year.