Three Fields 100km audax
Well that went pretty well.
Decided to cycle to and from the Alfreton start to extend the day a bit and give the car a rest, which gave me a nice hours ride of about 18 miles either end of the event. The ride home needed quite a bit of digging on some of the uphill sections, so don’t think I’ll try that next weekend with the Roses to Wrags 200
Got there in plenty of time as the ride over went a bit faster than expected, so made some inroads into the tea and biscuits. After a nasty right turn coming out of Alfreton the route settled onto some quieter rolling roads before joining a main A road. Here a reasonable sized group formed and the speed went up a fair bit. I’ve not ridden in a group for about 18+ years so it was a quick learning curve, don’t think I did anything too stupid. Fast pace was kept up all the way to the first control at Bothamsall, which had some wonderful cakes.
The next step was a bit more rural, with a big climb up to Laxton coming in a little too soon for my liking. Fell in with a small group and we rolled along nicely. Got to Gossips in Southwell where the food looked excellent, but the queue less so. So grabbed a can of coke and sweets and started off again. Long uphill drag all the way back to Alfreton, with the fun of filtering through Kirby-in-Ashfield as well. Rolled back to the start after about 5:15
No real problems. Bike didn’t seem to be having any problems, though there does appear to be a squeak depending on how I angle my feet when pedalling. Guessing I need to adjust/tighten some cleats. Nothing too major seemed to hurt at the time or keep hurting for long afterwards. Main bits of suffering seemed to be my feet (possibly another clue to check cleats) and my neck (not sure how to strengthen those muscles).
Hopefully it will all scale up for the 200 next week.
And now for some pointless stats:
