Today was the No Excuses Cambridgeshire Sportive, starting at the East Of England Showground on the west side of Peterborough. Id travelled down the day before and was feeling a bit ropey if I’m honest. I put it down to too much coffee that morning as it felt just like a caffeine high.
In the morning I was still feeling rough but it was more like a hangover, with me feeling a bit queasy. Thankfully I was ok to ride but I was glad UK Cycling Events (UKCE) had closed the Epic Course due to ice on the road, as the way I was feeling, the 52 mile Standard Route would do just fine.
I took my time getting ready as I knew the event had been put back an hour due to below freezing overnight temperatures. I thus arrived at the venue around 10am and by the looks of it, everyone else had had the same idea as it was heaving, with cyclists everywhere!
I registered and headed off to the start line queue, chatting to a few other riders while we were waiting. The lady from UKCE who was in charge spotted me and shouted over a cheery “Hello John”.
All too soon we were off and riding out into the countryside to the west of Peterborough. The Standard route had had a route change too due to early morning ice but the signs were spot on and really easy to follow (guess who had forgotten to load the route onto his GPS!).
The countryside was lovely and rolling, but nothing very steep and with big wide vistas everywhere you could see. Lovely for cycling through, especially as I was not firing on all cylinders today.
About 37 miles into the ride we arrived at the single feed stop on the route in a lovely village called Great Gidding. I was loving the village names in the area, all very quaint English names – my favourite was Orton Brimble!
After the feed stop, it was a relatively easy 15 miles back to the finish line. The only tricky bit was a very strong easterly wind and no hedges to hide behind, which made parts of the route hard going.
Back at event HQ, I was delighted to be presented with a custom event medal which looked very nice indeed. I was expecting a generic WIggle medal so this bodes well for the rest of the UKCE events this year, fingers crossed.
I had a nice latte, chatted with a few other riders and then headed off home, happy at a great ride and my first sportive of the year complete.
Route: click here
You must log in to post a comment.