Sunday metric century

I decided to get my metric 100km challenge out of the way today.

It was a chilly and slightly overcast Sunday morning but I felt good as I'd taken Saturday off from riding so I was well rested. I was picking a new route and was not entirely sure of my bearings so I took along a map of the area I was going to: a town called Hitchin.

At Welwyn Garden City, the number of turnoffs and overpasses left me slightly confused and I ended up circling a large area twice before taking a chance on one turnoff. This lead to a number of round-a-bouts and eventually my turnoff to Hitchin appeared - at this stage I'd covered about 35km which included some aimless circling.

The road between Welwyn and Hitchin was beautiful - lovely rolling green hills and quaint little villages on the way. I passed by one cyclist on the way - an old man who gave me a friendly wave as I rode by. By kilometer 55 I finally reached Hitchin and stopped at a Subway sandwich shop for a break. The people in the shop looked at me like I was alien - I guess they don't see many lycra clad cyclists stopping by...lock up your daughters!!!

On my way back I'd noticed that the wind had changed direction to a strong side (cross wind), making handling a little precarious. I wasn't out of Hitchin for 2km before I heard the swoosh of a group of cyclists behind me. It was a pack of about 20 riders out on their Sunday mission. I gratefully joined them at the back to get some rest and speed in their draft. I got chatting to one of them and found out they were triathletes from St Albans.

I arrived in Welwyn much sooner than expected and split from the group to make my way home. I was already pretty tired from the pace of the group and still had 30km to go into what wa now a fairly strong headwind. This last hour or so was a real struggle and I found myself in a lot of pain. I stopped at a gas station outside of Potter's Bar to fuel up on Powerade and a Snicker's bar and got going again.

By the time I arrived home I was knackered - I showered, ate a lunch of spaghetti bolognaise, watched a DVD and had a very early night. It was a tough but rewarding day for this day was the furtherest I'd gone since starting cycing again a year ago - 105km.