Cake Envy

After last week's "No Excuses" ride, I dipped out of the Sunday morning Verulam club ride, it was cold and wet, I was tired.

Imagine my horror when I view the Strava  rides of those who went and 

realise the destination was a marvellous Belgian patisserie. Not the usual class of cakes for a Sunday.

I resolve to put in an additional ride on the Saturday and head to the patisserie shop in Ware.

A lovely easy ride, nice and flat, ambient weather.

Success

What cakes

The prize

On the return journey, I get a puncture.  (It was a thorn, NOT the additional load)

I help by taking pictures!

No Excuses!

Recently Stuart went to the bike exhibition in London.  A high risk venture, as there are significant spending opportunities there.  Fortunately, however he just purchased the one gadget.  This thing in the picture below.

I don't know what it is called, but it is used to show us that our bikes are still firmly attached to the roof of the car.  Personally, I believe that if the bikes were to fall off the roof of the car, the sound of screeching metal might be a clue.  Also, you can look out of the window and check they are still safe!  (Actually, that picture is just to demonstrate that it is sunny today!)

Anyway, we are off to Huntingdon racecourse for the start of the Wiggle "No excuses" sportive.  We'll be doing the 41 mile standard ride.  The epic route is 80 miles and I don't think I'm ready for that yet.

The great thing about this ride is the flatness of the route, only 1,000 ft of climbing so it should be easy.

I thought this would be a great sportive to start with, due to the lack of hills, however, I hadn't factored in the wind.  No, I haven't been feeding Stuart lentils, the area is so flat we started off in a terrible headwind.  A really strong soul sapping headwind, and the temperature is only 2 deg C.

I really struggled for the first 10 miles or so, I know that +2 deg C is not cold by Montreal standards, but it pulls down the enjoyment factor of the ride quite significantly.

At 18 miles there is a feed station and a hot cup of coffee hits the spot.

Feeling revived, I am much happier on the second half of the route.  The temperature has doubled to +4. Woohoo.

I even decide to stop and take a few photos.  Stuart who has been monitoring the average speed of the ride on the Garmin is a little perplexed that I have disappeared and he has to wait.  I explain that I have been taking pictures of sheep.  "Sheep?"  He is incredulous, but I happen to think they are quintessentially English and worthy of a photo!

I also stop to take a picture of some thatched cottages and a happy cyclist.  I hadn't realised just how many thatched cottages there are in the Cambridgeshire area.  Obviously a well planned route by the Wiggle team to take us through such lovely countryside.

The journey back to the start is fabulous.  Downhill most of the way, plus a tailwind.  Marvellous!

At the end of the ride we are awarded medals, and I am very chuffed with mine, I think I have earned it!  

Unfortunately, our average speed was 11.1mph and I need to ride at 11.8 mph for the London Ride 100.  Work to be done!

The turning point

Last week Stuart and I heard that we had gained places on the London Ride 100 cycling event!  This was pretty good going, since 80,000 people apply and there are only 20,000 places.

One minor detail.  It's 100 miles not 100 km!

Sadly it's time to switch my Strava over from Kilometers to Miles.  Speeds seem so much faster and distances so much further in kilometers, but I now need to measure my progress in miles.

I'm going to have to do some pretty serious training, the event is now less than 6 months away.  Over the last couple of weeks I have done lots of spin classes, in the hope that they help me keep up on the Verulam Club rides.  

There is a good turn out this morning for the ride.  Despite the fog, the temperatures are reasonable and there is no wind, so a pretty good day for a ride.

Our destination is Vanstone Garden Centre, and over coffee and cakes the conversation turns to all the lovely training rides that we we'll be doing shortly, now that there is a hint of Spring in the air.

I had no idea how many rides and Sportives there are all around the UK, at least one every weekend, and all in fabulous locations around the country.  Here is just a small selection of what is on offer.

Our ride today was only 34 miles, (I appear to have quite a long way to go on my training plan).  However, I was very very chuffed that I managed not to get dropped on this ride.  The spin classes really seem to have paid off!