Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Well, mission accomplished !!! We woke up to misserable weather on Sunday 3rd October and to be fair wondered if the event would really go ahead ... Anyway Suzi kindly drove me to The Royal Showground in Stoneleigh at 8.30 am for a 9.00 am start and we were greeted by puddles and streams running through the car park and a lot of long faces !! The biggest que was not for signing on but for changing minds - mostly changing from the 50 mile route to the 30 - but i had promissed myself and you guys that 50 miles was the plan and i was sticking to it !!!

I got underway at about 9.10 am and settled into a steady pace trying to do my own thing and not be held up by slower riders and more importantly not be towed along by faster riders and failing through exhaustion !! The roads were very wet and slippy due to wet leaves and also the wind was up limiting some flat roads to 10 or 11 mph when 18 - 20 mph would have been the norm. I had one sponsor ( thanks Jim ) who had set me 'target times' effectivley boosting my donation the faster i went but i had dismissed my fastest expected time of 3 hours as soon as i had opened the curtains !!!

I reached Offchurch, 10 miles in, and this is where the route split into two - the 30 and the 50 mile courses. Some fast-ish guys infront of me seemed to be setting a relitivley comfortable pace and thought i would use them as my 'marker' ... Not !! They went straight over The Fosse Way and i took a right following the 50 mile route ... by myself !! In fact 80% of the riders took the 30 mile option and it was at that point i started to question my sanity, 10 miles in, alone, soaking wet, sore bum and 40 miles to go !!!

The next 10 miles, through Harbury & Bishops Itchington were hard work in to a head on wind and some of the hills had us down to walking pace. Some faster club riders came past and i decided to let them go but took a few scalps of slower riders that i came accross that started earlier than i did. At  Fenny Compton i decided to take a 5 minuite refreshment break, they were every 10 miles but i skipped the first one. Watered up i set off for Priors Hardwick and then on to Napton On The Hill ... There is a clue in the name which reared its ugly head on entering the village. With tired legs that had 30 miles on them we were faced with a nightmare hill, ok, its not the Alps but many took to walking up it but i dug deep and took on board the various signs placed by the organisers "nearly there" "not far now" etc. The plus point to going uphill at about 5 mph is the discent the other side which had the speedo reading 38mph on skinny tires in the wet ....

The two course's re-joined near Long Itchington with about 10 miles to go so there were alot more bikes about and alot more overtaking to be done !! Skirting Draycote Water we headed for Princethorpe and a very hilly run through Weston Under Wetherley and on towards Cubbington. It was at this point i was getting close to 'the wall' and the only thing keeping me going was the fact that my odometer was showing 45 miles meaning only 5 miles to go !!!

The nearer i got to the finish the faster i went and crossed the 50 mile marker in 3 hours 27 minutes which i was happy with considering the weather, with only the one refreshment break at 20 miles.

Suzi was there at the finish line to welcome this wreak of a cyclist home and offer her congratulations. I picked up my finishers medal, tee shirt and a welcome piece of cake and stripped off my sodden kit in the back of the car and dreamed of a long hot bath.

Anyway, thats the story and its all pretty much thanks to you guys ... I had hopped for £250 for the British Heart Foundation but as you can see i have had much more than that and have been very touched by everybody's generosity, So THANK YOU VERY MUCH

 

Neil