Reigate Rouleur sportive

Cycling my first sportive with the club, the Tour of the Weald, back in April in near-freezing conditions was a great learning experience. I rode it too conservatively on the day, and would have enjoyed it far more if I had had the confidence to go a bit harder. With this in mind I picked out the Reigate Rouleur on the first weekend of July to have another go at a sportive. The course looked really good – a combination of lanes around Surrey I’d never ridden, a grand loop around the Sevenoaks Weald going past some fancy country houses, pretty villages and a reservoir.

Myself, Steve Denny, and my friend Scott who I’d ridden the Tour of the Weald with, all arrived at the start with the same thought: it’s only 8:30 and it’s intensely hot. Steve said the sweat was already running down his back. Scott wasn’t too worried about the sun, being a tough Scot and all, but thought having only one water bottle on the bike wasn’t ideal.

I’d hoped for dry, warm weather, but riding 85 miles – the longest distance I’d attempted – on what was forecast to be the hottest day of the year was going to be a real challenge. Steve Denny was in great form, regularly doing personal bests in the club time trials and getting the miles in in preparation for the London 100. He set off just ahead of Scott and me, and after just 10 minutes he was out of sight, not seen again until after we’d finished. Scott and I rode together as planned, rolling effortlessly along lovely quiet and flat country roads, enjoying the sunshine, and lamenting the fact that there weren’t more hill-free, sheltered areas like this around Hastings.

The route was really well signposted, with orange ribbons tied to trees and bushes to indicate you were still on the right road. There was a pretty wide mix of riders taking part. We rode past a ladies-only cycle club all wearing the same purple and black kit, and there were quite a few other female riders doing the full distance. The Redhill Cycling Club were there in large numbers, storming through to the front early on. We also passed a dad riding with his teenaged son who had a one of those cool looking junior-size racers.

Scott and I had reached the first feed station feeling pretty good, if a bit hot, having got through most of the water we had in a surprisingly short amount of time. There was 1,250 metres of climbing on the route, which it didn’t really seem like we’d covered any of. I was about to find out why - as we came into the Sevenoaks Weald we hit the biggest climb of the sportive which took us over a bridge over a motorway and up into a forest. It was a similar gradient to Battery Hill, and just as tough. It was shortly followed by another long ascent up through more forest and up into a village. Scott is a quick and steady climber so went on ahead on each hill, overtaking riders as if they were stationary. It was impressive to see, and I only managed reach the top with him on one of the three big climbs. I did pass a lot of other riders though, so I knew I wasn’t doing badly!

By the time we got to Toys Hill - the last big climb of the day - I was feeling pretty spent, and was keen to get to the feeding station. Most other riders were feeling the same - I remember slowly crawling past a guy that had decided to walk his nice-looking road bike up. Scott had run out of water by this point, and wasn’t keen on the caffeinated energy drink I had, after seeing the effect it had on me. I was five-espressos-in-a-row kind of wired. When we eventually saw the feed station in the distance I let out an overexcited cheer. Scott said, he was feeling pretty rough now that we’d stopped, but strangely enough not while he was riding. With a bit of water he was back to his usual self though.

Everyone seemed to suffering in the heat, and the only thing to do was just keep squirting water over yourself. I took to doing this almost every mile of the final part of the course – a fast, mostly flat 19 miles. It was a great finale to what was an excellent sportive. We caught up with Steve Denny at the car park. He’d ridden with the Redhill riders over the first half of the course, before they took the mid-route split, and he managed to yo-yo between different groups over the rest of the course. He got a well-deserved silver time band, clocking 135K in 5h 35mins including stops. Scott and I crossed the line in 6h 10mins, just missing the bronze time band by 4 minutes. I will definitely be pencilling it in for 2014, and will push to hit the silver time.

Metin