Wednesday 8 July 2015

The Eye Of The Tiger

CTC 90th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION RIDE - 5th JULY 2015


In March, along with some Cottingham Road Club (CRC) colleagues, I had done the 50 mile Spring Standard ride put on by the Cyclists' Touring Club (CTC).

The ride and the event had been very enjoyable. I wrote a blog about it. I was even invited to write a blog about the next CTC event because ...there was nobody else to do it. Unfortunately I couldn't attend so that was that.

However the planets were aligning again on the 5th of July when the CTC was holding a 90th anniversary celebration ride. The distance would be 90 miles. Did you see what they did there ?

The timing couldn't have been better.

After the CRC charity ride I had lost focus somewhat.

Imagine if you will the plot of Rocky III. A veritable Shakespearean masterpiece about an athlete who had started from nothing and through sheer hard work and determination had got to the pinnacle of his sport. However complacency had then set in. He allowed himself to get distracted, his preparations were compromised and his contests were not true tests.

 Er hello ?! The parallels with my situation were spooky. I had just done a 140 mile ride so surely a measly 100 miles in London in August would be a piece of cake ? I took my foot off the gas and my hands on that cake...and cheese and crisps and what about a few beers ? Hell yes you deserve it ! You are The Champ !

I did a few rides after the CRC charity ride but they were not very taxing and I wasn't pushing myself. In a surprisingly short time scale I had put on about half a stone and lost quite a bit of fitness.

If I were to come up against Clubber Lang now I would be toast and my corner man would have a heart attack. I never did like that guy anyway.

I came up with a 3 pronged plan of attack :
  • Get the eating under control. In particular give up the cheese....again...except on pizzas because that doesn't count
  • Start doing rides that were going to push me and hurt me again.
  • Look at another big ride leading up to Ride London.

Removing cheese from my life was tough. I wanted to rebel on many occasions shouting

"I don't give Edam about Ride London I need cheese !!"

Thank goodness for the occasional pizza which kept me sane.

I reeled off 3 CRC Tuesday night bike rides on the trot where I was dragged up all the local hills, dragged along at break neck speeds and then just simply dragged along.

Then it was time for CRC meets the CTC round 2. Seconds away. Ding Ding !

THE ROUTE


Starting at Hessle Rugby Club on the north bank of the Humber the ride would come over to the south side and head over to the River Trent at Keadby Bridge. From there we would go south along the west bank of the Trent and then all the way down to Gainsborough. At Gainsborough we would cross the Trent again to the east side and travel north along the river until Susworth. Then a turn eastwards to Caistor via Scotter, Waddingham and Moortown. Finally back north again to the Humber Bridge via Kirmington to the finish.

Patrick & Steve Getting Themselves Motivated !

I was doing the ride with CRC members Steve and Patrick. The weather was glorious when we arrived at the rugby club.
Tea & Coffee

We carried out the usual pre-ride protocols.

Registration - check.

Tea and coffee - check

Sunbathe on the grass - check

Suggest only partly in jest that we not do the ride at all - check

Shall we bother ?
Slag off CRC members who were not there - check

"I thought Charlie was doing this ride ? Where is he ?"
"Tosser ! "
" Adam said he was doing this ride as well. Where is he ?"
"Tosser !"
 
Patrick consulted the directions that had been supplied for the ride. Two "control" points were identified at Dovecote Cafe near West Stockwith and at the Arts & Heritage Centre Cafe in Caistor.

Registration
I assumed that proof of making these points would be required in order to get our buffet on return to Hessle Rugby club.

"Where are our cards ?" I said.

"What cards ?" said Patrick

"Surely we need our cards stamped or something at the control points. Where are they ?!"

"Stop panicking I'm sure we'll get our buffet"

"Hey unauthorised buffet taking is a very serious offence. You think these people won't cut up rough ?! Think again my friend ! "

THE START


The Start - It Was Dog Eat Dog
As 8.30 approached we reluctantly got up off the grass and got on our bikes. A group of about 15 went to the start line elbows out jockeying for position. It was pretty ugly in there let me tell you.

Sheila acted as starter.

"OK if you want a time when you've finished I'll give you a time. Off you go !"

We started climbing up the hill out of the rugby club towards the main road and when we got there myself, Steve and Patrick were at the back and the rest of the group were rapidly disappearing into the distance.

I know what you're thinking. The new scourge of the peloton. Mechanical doping. Some of those water bottles did look a little on the large side.

So we settled down to going at our own pace. Across the Humber Bridge and up "heart attack hill" as Steve put it or known locally as Gravel Pit Road. Then through South Ferriby and along the A1077 heading for Winterton before taking a right to get on much quieter roads going to Thealby and Normanby.

Steve Gunning It Downhill On The Way To Normanby

Whilst I had the written directions in my pocket I had the route on my Garmin and as is the modern curse was following it slavishly. 

That was until it became clear that the course file may have been hacked by North Korea. 

Just past Normanby Hall the Garmin instructed a right turn which I slowed down to take until I noticed that a right turn would just take us into a field. 

We were a little more suspicious of the Garmin instructions after that.

Across Keadby Bridge
As we approached Gunness we saw a group of cyclists ahead of us in the distance. We didn't think it could be our CTC group as they had shot off so fast at the start. They must have been miles ahead by now.

As it turned out it was our CTC group so either they must have slowed down or we must have speeded up.....yeah,  I guess they must have slowed down.

We made the junction just before Keadby Bridge. I was keen to get ahead so I could take some pictures of the group with the GoPro so we went past.


Hi Remember Us ?
In our enthusiasm to get past we nearly blasted past the left turn we needed to take to get onto the west bank road of the Trent until a helpful shout from the back

" LEFT !!! " 

After that we were quickly caught by the group and we settled down to keeping our heads down in the middle of the pack.

The villages rolled by quickly and smoothly. Derrythorpe, West Butterwick, Owston Ferry and West Stockwith. Then we pulled into the scheduled stopping point of Dovecote Cafe.

In the Cafe I was expecting a stern looking person in CTC uniform holding a stamp saying in a comedy german accent,

" Ver are your papers ? I vill stamp zem ! "

But there was no such thing so I guess there was no formal control, signing in or stamping. Then Steve came back from the counter holding a blue chitty with a number 12 on it.

"Hey, what is that ?!" I said " I thought you said there were no cards to be stamped, what is that then ?"
 
Then a young lady came out with a cup of coffee

" Number 12 ! " she shouted.

"Over here " said Steve waving his blue chitty.

"Look just calm down Alan you don't have to get anything stamped. You are going to get your buffet at the end. Just chillax will you "

"Why don't we get going ? " I said sulkily

"Alan stop sucking the joy out of everything you'll end up turning into Charlie ! "

Jeez not The Grinch himself. That was a sobering thought.

DROPPED BY A 72 YEAR OLD MAN


So we left Dovecote Cafe all together and carried on towards Gainsborough. I tried to be a bit more sociable and got chatting to a few more of the group.
Departing Dovecote Cafe

Having crossed the Trent again at Gainsborough we then hugged the east bank running up from East Stockwith, Wildsworth, East Ferry and Susworth.

The pace was pretty quick. We were doing a good 19/20 mph. One of the group, Dudley, I was told is 72 years old. He was coping with the pace no problem. Brilliant.

An Iron Man
Patrick, however, was spending more and more time at the back. Was he on the ropes ? I went back to him to offer some encouragement.


"Hey Patrick there is a 72 year old man in this group. If you get dropped you'll never live it down !!"

No there's no need to thank me Patrick. You are welcome.

I decided to do one of my dashes to the front and then fall back again to get everyone on the GoPro. As nearly everyone didn't know why I was doing this they must have just thought I was a wally.

At Susworth we turned right and started the eastward trek to Caistor.



Riding Up The East Bank Of The Trent
We had been through Scotter and Scotton and were on our way to Kirton In Lindsey when Patrick's chain came off.

I went back to assist, otherwise known as standing there and hoping he sorts it out himself. Steve held back as well.

The rest of the group carried on up the road.

I must confess this irked me slightly as previously I had gone back to see if one of the group was OK when he was having some bike issues.

Where was the quid pro quo ? But it wasn't exactly a club ride or a group ride was it ?

The Cafe At Caistor
We just happened to be riding with these guys on a 90 mile course.

Also to be fair I think they just didn't realise we were gone.

However, fuelled by moral indignation I gave it the beans into Kirton and then struggled up the hill to catch them up so that I could ask for a regroupment.

They stopped on the other side of the A15 to allow Patrick to rejoin.

Pretty much as soon as we got going again it was clear that Patrick wasn't going to keep up and I wasn't going to ask them to slow down again. It was time to throw in the towel.

We would let them go and ride along as a threesome.

So around the Waddingham area we became the three amigos again.

Just in case Patrick was feeling bad about the situation I decided to give him some more encouragement

"We just got dropped by a 72 year old man you tosser !!"

No, honestly Patrick there is no need to thank me.

A SUSTAINED DOWNPOUR

 

At Caistor we had definitely broken the back of the ride. There was only 20 miles to go now. As I had started my Garmin when I left the house I was looking at doing my second 100 miler now. 

Patrick In A Sustained Downpour
We stopped at the cafe in Caistor for some refreshments. 

We caught up to the main group briefly but as we were just tucking into our flapjack and chocolate cake they were off.

There was talk of having to get back to the rugby club for 4 pm in order to get the buffet. I didn't think we were going to make it.
  
Steve Contemplating If This Was A Sustained Downpour

We set off from Caistor and after the initial climb out of the town we then enjoyed the long gradual down hill sections on the way to Kirmington. 

The weather had been fantastic all day but now I could start to feel a few spots of rain, then a few more until it was raining hard.

I stopped to put my rain jacket on remembering the words Annette had left me with that morning 

"You won't need that rain jacket, it's not going to rain ! " 

Feeling smug I carried on.

"What would you call this rain ?" asked Steve. " It's definitely more than a shower, but it's not like torrential is it ?"

"Well it seems quite torrential to me Steve" I said as I dodged the small inland seas that had developed on the road.

" I think it's more of a sustained downpour " said Steve. " Yes a sustained downpour. Put that in your blog when you write it "

"Ok mate ...thanks "

Whether it was a shower or a downpour or a typhoon , the rain was giving me an unexpected problem. I had lathered myself in sun tan lotion before the start and the rain on my face washed said sun tan lotion into my left eye. My eye began to sting quite badly. For quite a while I was riding along with one eye closed.

I explained my difficulty to Steve and got no sympathy or reaction at all. 

Oh yes the question of whether we were in a sustained downpour or not and you couldn't shut him up. 

But concern about me being blind in one eye..nothing !

THE FINISH

 

Once the sustained downpour was over we were practically home. A short while later the wonderful sight of the Humber Bridge came into view and what's more we were going to get to the finish before 4 pm. Just.
 
I tried to get us to finish together like Team Sky crossing the line in the 2013 Tour De France but it was like herding cats.

You'll be glad to know there was plenty of buffet left and it was very nice too.

Myself and Patrick had a beer whilst Steve who's body is a temple set a shining example and had water.

Patrick said that was the fastest 100 miler he had ever done and he was over the 16 mph average. All joking aside he had done brilliantly. I would never tell him that to his face though.

He also pointed out that I had never done a 100 mile ride without him which was true. I did indeed owe him a debt.

Whilst I was in a slightly inebriated state Patrick shamelessly tried to canvass for a good nickname in the blog. The "Golden Bullet " was proposed by Patrick optimistically.

I think Patrick is one of those cool guys who should be known by a single word or maybe like the artist formerly known as Prince just by a symbol or a letter or a number maybe ?

But what number would sum up that epic ride and the part that Patrick played in it ?


"72"Enjoys His Beer


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2 comments:

  1. Chris from the CTC wanted to post the following and due to technical difficulties I am doing it for him

    "Really enjoyed reading the report. My experience on such rides (where you are given a route sheet or whatever) is that you're on your own - or at least within your friendship group. So personally I wouldn't expect anyone to hang about for me if I struggled to keep up:


    http://cycleseven.org/cycling-kit-how-low-can-you-go


    http://cycleseven.org/ctc-standard-rides-gus-campbell-memorial-ride


    Oh, if Patrick is going to have a road jersey made up with his new nickname let him know this: our man Dudley is actually 77."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Apologies for getting Dudley's age wrong. 72 is what I was told in the group. It's a shame because I think 77 is a cooler number than 72. However Patrick will have to stick with 72 as that is what was said on the day. We cannot rewrite history ! By the way ...77 ! Amazing.

      I appreciate the comments about being on your own and I hope that it comes across that I acknowledge that there was no need for them to hang back as it wasn't a club or a group ride. I was just writing how I felt at the time. Thanks Chris.

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