Today's ride was a viscous bitch of a ride - definitely one for the record books for me. From the start I had an odd feeling of apprehension. There was a pretty big group - about 10 riders, but this swelled to about 15 as we picked up the 9am Potter's Bar group. I was told that we were heading off to the Chiltern Hills again and there were a few 1st category riders in the bunch who were feeling antsy.
After a brief 15km warm-up, we fell into a working on-and-off the front pattern along the fairly flat road towards the first of the Chiltern climbs. Our speed grew faster and faster until we were flying along at 40-50kph INTO to the wind. At this point about 3 guys turned off for a shorter (and easier) ride. I was tempted to go with them, but I wanted to see what riding with the top guys was like... if only I'd re-considered.
We discovered that the first climb of Gaddensden was being resurfaced, so the guys took off towards Ivinghoe and some even nastier climbs. The first one took me by surprise - a gradual incline to what looked like the summit and then a sudden, sharp turn onto a pretty horrible hill that climbed for 3km at around 7-8%. I was dropped here, but one guy tailed back and drafted me back into the group. The effort of the climb and the chase to get back into the group left me exhausted, and as soon as we caught the group, the next climb started - 1 mile of the most evil incline I've ever seen - 15% according to my Garmin - so bad in fact that halfway up I had to put a foot down for 30-seconds. Grinding away on my 39x23 at 8-10kph I eventually made it to the top and found the the re-grouped bunch at the bottom of the hill.
I was the slowest of this group and felt bad for them having to wait and to make matters worse, going down a tricky little decent a few miles later, my multi-tool somehow found its way out of my saddle bag and dropped onto the road. I had to go back and pick it up and then the chase was on, getting back into the group in about 5 minutes while they were coasting through a small town. The group leader said to everyone at this point that it was time for big-ring and no more stopping.
The hammer, in this case, was well and truly dropped - flying along with a slight tailwind along undulating open road, I was just hanging at the back for dear life. A gap opened up a rider ahead of me and suddenly we were two riders sharing the pace trying to get back into the 'race'. After five minutes or so of chasing, my back wheel punctured and the guy I was with didn't wait - understandable, but I was in a state - totally knackered. I changed my tube and carried on.
I realised when I got to the next intersection that I'd be riding home alone as I didn't know which way they went. By my calculations I still had another 40-50km to go, but I didn't know the area and found myself a bit lost. The map function of my Garmin 305 helped me get my bearings and I headed towards the south-east with a nasty little cross wind slowing me down. I stopped at a garage to refill my bottles and took off on a lonely and painful ride back home. I felt devastated, but soon fell into a sort-of rhythm and eventually arrived home after riding for about and hour and a half by myself.
Today was another painful lesson and one that I won't forget in a hurry.
View this ride data at Motionbased.
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