This year I booked the Thursday off work and 3 months ago I got cheap train tickets back in preparation. All I had to do was find a team to ride with.
I had a diy audax ride planned if a team couldn't be found but 400km on your own at the start of April is hard work.
Fast forward to last week, I managed to get on a team from Norwich as a couple of riders couldn't make it.
Thursday morning I was out in the shed still adjusting the bike after only 2 rides on it. I eventually got away before noon for the ride over to Cambridge to catch a train the rest of the way to Norwich.
The S/Westerly did help me some of the way but it wasn't a fast ride over. I got there at 15.00 but didn't have to wait long for the train at 15.15
The rush hour traffic wasn't too bad in Norwich as I left the station, but I wasn't in it for long and took the lanes to Rogers house just south of there.
An evening spent of pasta and red wine is a good preparation for a 24hr ride.
The alarm went off at 06.30 and after breakfast and quick team photo (Thanks Ian) we were off back to Norwich for a receipt at the Tesco atm for the start at 08.15.
It was a headwind for the 1st leg down to Bungay and across to Mildenhall for lunch, despite this we were still pushing a good avg speed of 24kph. Baked spud with beans and cheese was consumed and we were off again.
This time into the flat open areas of the fens, this meant no hiding from the wind when we had to go into it but a really good tailwind when going the other way.
By 18.00 we were at the 200km mark and the average had crept up to 25.5kph. We found a pizza/pasta place that opened up their restaurant area at the back of the shop for us and another longish stop for lasagne and chips was had.
Some of the team put on dry and warmer clothes for the night section of the ride. I decided to keep mine for York, if it rained over night I wanted dry stuff to wear on the train back.
The flat lands of the fens slowly started to disappear as we got the other side of Boston and at 23.00 we found a pub to sit down at for nearly an hr to get warm.
Back out into the cold night but it didn't take too long to warm up again for the section through Market Rasen and keeping to the left hand side of the wolds to keep away from the worst hills. You still have to climb over part of them though and the hill before the Humber bridge crossing was quite a shock after 300+km of flatlands. I led the way through Barton towards the cycle path as it is not easy to find and I'd done it a few times before. The next section up to Beverley on the dual carriageway was starting to get hard as I was starting to get tired. A quick stop at another garage helped but the hill out of Beverly up to the highest point of the ride didn't.
I was starting to weave about on the road a few times and was finding it hard to stay awake and balance the bike. A quick stop to jump up and down got me going again just as Ian had come to find out where I was.
Next stop was another garage in Howden. This being the 22hr mark/stop we had to wait for 30 minutes before getting a receipt and had to do at least 26km in the last 2hrs for the ride to be completed.
Away again for the last section up the B road to York. This was actually about 36km but we got there with 15 mins to spare.
It was then down to the pub for coffee, fried food and a couple of pints at 09.00
A good way to finish a ride.
The rest of the day was spent mainly in the station waiting for the 15.57 train. I'd booked a late one as I wasn't sure what time I'd be getting there, as a team member or on a diy ride.
There were 6 other bikes on the train, 5 of which being AUK members. 2 managed to get off at Peterborough amongst the hoards of football supporters leaving me, Judith and Ritchie to fight the rest of them at KingsX.
I pushed the bike from there to Euston station as I couldn't be asked to ride(it's close anyway)
and just missed the first train back. The next was only 15 minutes later so not a problem.
I finally got home just before 21.00 on Saturday evening totally knackered and wanting a drink :-)
A quick walk around the garage soon sorted that though and it was a fairly early night as I had to get up for my local 20 mile ride on the Sunday morning.
Total distance for the ride was 80km on Thursday over to Cambridge.
423km. 24hrs in total with 18.13 cycling time and a 23.2kph avg
I really enjoyed the ride and meeting people in the pub afterwards.
I'm looking forward to the 4th weekend in April next year already and hope to get on another team. If any will have me!!
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