Norwich 100

Today, I got up extremely mega early to make the 106 mile journey by car to Norwich to take part in the Norwich 100 mile bike ride put on by the British Heart Foundation as a charity fundraiser.
It was a baking hot day from the off, and I made sure that I covered myself with 'never fail' P20 sun lotion!
I found Norwich Cathedral easily enough, but cut my last toilet stop a little fine, so started 5 minutes later than my allotted start time of 7.15am.

The ride can be summed up in three parts :

0-43 miles - Part of the largest peleton I have ever ridden with. It was impossible to ride on my own, and to be fair there was a fair bit of giddyness on the part of my some of my fellow competitors, so the pace was kept strong at 17.9mph average. The heat didn't seem to be affecting me, and I felt good. There were no real climbs of note, just some pesky rises to negotiate every now and then. I rode with Great Yarmouth CC for most part 'the dappies' as I called them (they were sponsored by dap).

43-71 miles - At 43 miles we pulled into the halfway compulsory 30 minute stop which was annoying as I was riding well. Once I had served this 'time penalty' it was back onto the road, where I ended up in a tit for tat overtaking exchange with some Texans for 10 miles, and the caught up with another group of dappies which I settled into. At about 69 miles, I started taking turns at the front, but by 71 I had accidentally pulled away from the front of the gang and disappeared up the road. This section took in Norfolks seaside resorts and Cromer looked really inviting !

71-100 miles - I managed to spend at least 60% of my time down on the tri bars and each time I did, the speed ramped up and the average overall had a good boost. I took it in turns with another rider as we formed a two man attack, making sure we overtook the shorter route riders who had merged onto the course. I still felt really good as we arrived back into the Cathedral grounds.

Overall ride time 5.29.32 excluding the 30 minute stop - so very very pleased with that, and to get my second century ride in for the year. Next up is Woodhall Tri next Sunday........