8/3 Kent Invicta Audax - Where is Zed?

Brilliant Weather For A March Audax!

A few weeks ago I bailed out of the Mad Jack audax, leaving JV, Nick,  Nigel and Jon to complete the ride without me (in rain, and sleet!), for which I deservedly received two Big Girls Blouses'
I managed to lose one of them by riding high in the league table despite a week of almost constant rain but it would take one big audax to shake off the other one

Enter the North Kent Invicta Audax with 63 miles and 6,000 feet of climbing , it would pale beside the Mad jack but could hold its head up high having a hill density of 92 feet per mile which classifies it as a 'leg breaker'!

I knew that Diego and Malc C were going but on arrival we were delighted to find Jon S and Peter Baker there as well.

Waiting For The 9:30 Depart!

This was an unusual style of audax as you could sign up on the day , the route was a single 31 mile route of two laps (one anticlockwise and one clockwise), and strangest of all none of the riders were allowed to leave the area, everyone was set off at 9:30 in one big group. I thought this was an excellent idea as straight away we would find ourselves in the 'thick of it'.

It never ceases to amaze me how easily riders can get separated from each other. Within one minute of setting off we discovered that Malc wasn't with us? was he behind or in front ? We rode at a slow pace to give him time to catch up but then decided he must be ahead of us rather than behind, sure enough five minutes later we found him waiting for us at the side of the road. Having ridden at a slower pace we were outside of the main bunch but being hardy HSLCC riders, were confident we could catch up with the main field.

We were following a gpx from last years course on my garmin. The weather was wonderful with dry roads and sunshine. This is the first time I have used my colour screen Garmin Touring  in bright light  and found it difficult to see the route, I had to turn the back-light almost up to maximum to see the pink line but knew this would drain the battery. I found myself pinning for my old simple garmin 205 with its black line on a grey background that could be easily seen in strong sunlight with no need for a back light.

Ascending our first little hill there was a fork in the road, about a third of the audaxers went down it but the others ignored the turn. The garmin indicated we should take the turn, so why were so many riders ignoring it? We decided to be good little sheep and follow the main  herd up the hill but the incessant warnings from the garmin convinced us to turn back and take the turn, only for us to change our minds and race back up the hill again, lol. Trying to catch up with the main bulk of audaxers we pressed harder on the pedals. Our little group became a little spread out with Diego and Jon only just visible in the distance. Another warning from the Garmin informed me we were off course, we should now take a turn on the left! A friendly rider from Faversham was also convinced it was the turning on the left. There was no way to tell Diego and Jon who were now out of sight, so we took the turn, hoping to meet up with them at some point on the trail.

Our Garmin problems were now pretty much over and the three of us (myself, Malc and Pete) were able to settle into a nice steady rhythm. None of us were interested in answering the annoying audax questions such as  'whats is the colour on the door of the house by the large oak tree' etc, but we would get our cards stamped at the checkpoints just to let the organisation know we were OK .

Six miles into the route we had to descend the notorious 'Yorks Hill' The road was in a  bad state with gravel and mud, plus there were lots of other riders (from another cycle event) struggling up it so it was bit hairy and I had to continuously press on the brakes all the way down. I knew next time we were here we would struggling up not flying down it.

We had to stop when Pete had his first puncture .As we were sorting it out an old guy wearing an ancient cycle top with a large Z on the back , riding a strange upright bike came past. We said 'hello' to which the reply was just a  grunt and a disdainful look that made it clear he wanted to ignore us. Puncture fixed we soon caught up with Z and sprinted past him to show him how superior we and our bikes were .

The route was wonderful with such varied roads and undulating hills. The road past Igtham and its Tudor mansion deserves special praise as it headed North towards the downs. Before long we were on a long fast decent towards the start. Unfortunately Pete picked up another puncture. This gave the poker faced Z the opportunity to ride past us again . There were lots of riders on the other side of the road, these were riders who had set off on the second lap of the course (the clockwise one)

Reaching HQ at the scout hut we gulped down several cups of tea and half a dozen biscuits trying hard not to look in Z's direction who was also there supping tea through his stringy beard. I checked my garmin and was disappointed to see power down to just 44% which left me little choice but to switch off the back-light even though this would make it difficult to see the line.

Peter declared that he felt unusually tired considering we had only just ridden 30 miles. We put this down to the fact hat he had unwisely gone out on a particularly fast Friday night ride. I felt fine but in the back of my mind was the thought that we were only half way and that  in the last 6 miles we would have to get up York's hill.

Taking a right out of the HQ we had to start climbing up towards Otford Mount. This was a brutally long steep hill that I would say was equivalent to three Stonestiles back to back. Malc really struggled up this climb and myself and Pete were concerned at how he would cope with the rest of the clockwise loop. We needn't have worried though because despite struggling, Malc kept on plodding away and apart from this first hill was never too far behind us.

Don't Worry Malc Only 3000 more feet of climbing!

Much to our surprise we seemed to be making better progress on this second loop. The leg muscles were well fuelled and nicely warmed up. I felt really good and was loving every moment of riding my dependable Caad 8 .Despite  the decent pace we were surprised when our fumbling around looking for audax cards at the next checkpoint gave the mysterious Z a chance to catch up with us again. Malc went out of his way to say hello to him but was just met with a blanc stare . The checkpoint was followed by my favourite type of climb, an endless drag and a moderate gradient, a chance to finally get rid of Z?

Unfortunately Z caught up with us yet again while Pete suffered his third and final puncture. The sun had now clouded over and the temperature was beginning to drop , it was time to put the tights back on and to switch on the front lights.

Sprinting past Z we knew that only one major obstacle remained-'Yorks hill'. As we reached its lower slopes we all fell silent knowing the inevitable pain that lay  ahead .  I could see riders further up the hill dismounting but was cheered up by the sight of a friendly middle aged husband and wife team (we had chatted to them earlier) on their tandem riding up the slope. If they could do it so could we! Unfortunately the tandem soon ground to an abrupt halt when some dead leaves got caught up in the rear dérailleur and being close behind I nearly fell having to make a sudden lateral movement around the stricken vessel . Malc then voluntary dismounted leaving just me and Pete to struggle up the final and steepest part of the climb .We just barely managed to keep the pedals turning round and arrived with our hearts pumping so fast it felt like they were in our throats.Looking around I half expected to see Z right behind us but there was no sign, finally  the ancient Z had been defeated!

From here the last six miles were tremendous fun as we rapidly lost all that hard gained altitude and dropped down to HQ

At HQ, Diego and Jon had kindly waited for us, so we all able to swop accounts of the day.

This is one of the best audaxes I have ever done (and hard enough for me to have shed that blouse!) and as long as the roads are dry I can thoroughly recommend you try it next year, just watch out for Z!

Steve C