Mice at the Races. On your Marks, Get Set Gooooooooooooo!

This racing thing has to stop.  For the second time in a month I found myself in a race. A real one. I was part of Team Conway (which has nothing to do with a friend of mine in Wales!) in the  FT Sportive. http://humanrace.co.uk/event-information/cycling/financial-times-london-cycle-sportive/50km-route

Conway transport http://www.fmconway.co.uk/ are very proactive in ensuring their drivers have cycling training to understand what it's like to ride a bike so close to one of their trucks.  Similarly they are very proactive in demonstrating to cyclists what it's like to drive one of their trucks and regularly do Exchanging Places - giving members of the public including cyclists the opportunity to sit in the drivers' seat and see what they see. 

An invitation to be part of their Team in a 50k open road race around South London/North Kent seemed such a good idea at the time! As the days went by it became clear that two of our team of five were particularly competitive and were in it to win it!  I met up with one of them on Friday to try and manage their expectations. "What sort of rolling average are you thinking of" I asked "Oh, about 16mph" came the reply.  I knocked that one on the head! - the fastest I had ever done was 15mph on a 20 mile section en route to John O'Groats last year.  The best I could offer was 14 mph but I would, I  reassured him, give it my very best shot. He seemed happy with this!

The night before the race my nerves were winning me over. I hardly slept. The realisation of it all - what was I doing? Who did I think I was? kept leaping in and out of my head.

The weather was on my side.  Summer was going to be here for one day only! 24 degrees! I headed to Dulwich Park for 08.30 to meet up with the rest of my team.  Some of the longer races were already at the start line.  It looked so serious!

Team Conway had a plan! Two of our number would disappear to the front to do their stuff (I suggested they should aim for a 22mph rolling average!) and the remaining three of us would work together going us fast as we could.  Having watched the first day of the Tour de France yesterday - this was going to be a doddle. Except slower!

The route took us up Crystal Palace, down to Elmers End (30 mph woohoooo!) up a hill through West Wickham, down the other side and up to Biggin Hill.  Thanks to my team mates, Michael and Wendy we were actually overtaking people!!  

As we neared the halfway mark just past the Biggin Hill mast we saw a gazebo full of lots of cyclists.  Excellent - a stop.  Except we didnt.  Michael actually sped up at that point to avoid any confusion! That was as close as we got to a rest!

The weather was absolutely fantastic.  Blue, blue sky - it was the hottest day of the year!  The route was equally stunning, rolling hills, beautiful countryside - if only there was time to take it in! Or indeed take a photo - but that was definitely not an option! We were haring along too fast to enjoy it - and some of the road surfaces were shocking.  It was lovely cycling in and out of bright, bright sunshine then into shaded lanes with green, leafy rooftops.

Retracing the route back to West Wickham whereupon there was a puncture in Michael's tyre. He asked us both to carry on and he would catch us up.  Not wanting to let him down we pushed ourselves as fast as we could even though it would bring us closer to Anerley Hill.

Hills are so many things to a cyclist. A challenge. A threat. A mind game. Achievable. Unachievable. Terrifying.  Luckily for me a friend of mine taught me how to spin so I just drop into the lowest gear and spin away.  If I'm overtaken (which I am) I dont worry about it, I just look at the view, let my mind enjoy the scenery and keep spinning.   And there I was at the top! I put my lungs back in and Wendy and I shot down the other side. Just as we wondered which way to Herne Hill Michael caught us up and took the helm. Into the velodrome where we did a lap to the finish line. 

29.5 miles in 2hours 9 minutes with hills! Not bad! The cat eye said average 14.7 mph! I shall wait for the official timings later.

The race was over. A great day run by Access Sport http://www.accesssport.org.uk/ whose modus operandi is to bring sport to everyone. Two of their patrons, Olympians Rebecca Romero (track cycling) and Greg Searle (rowing) had been on the ride - it turned out we had over taken them!! Over taken them?! I was in shock. Then I realised that they had been chatting in a pootle kind of way rather than busting a gut like me! I was so over awed by the while thing that I actually went up to them both to ask if I could have my picture taken with them! They were both so kind and gracious - Rebecca even said that she had been puffing not chatting along some of the climbs which made me feel really good!

Two of my team took advantage of the massages available - I thought about it but then realised that with the night rides I do - expecting massages at the end of them would be a bad habit to get into!!

I met a great group of peeps, climbed some hills and had a ball! I also had a fascinating chat with one of the transport officers for Southwark who was an inspiration with his  insight, initiatives and great understanding of cycling in London.

Cycling has so many different opportunities - never did I imagine I would be in a race with such accomplished peeps.  To think that three years ago my life was powered by petrol and now it's powered by porridge!

Now I can concentrate on the Tour de France - absolutely incredible thing to watch - Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish and Team GB 2012 we owe you a great deal.  Not forgetting Chris Boardman who has done and continues to do sooooo much for cycling (and I love my bike!)  

 It was a fantastic day, huge thanks to Conway and Humanrace - and of course my fellow team mates!

The rest of the pics are here