Following the enjoyable day out that I had in Milton Keynes back at the start of last month, I tried my hand at a second cycle sportive , this time the Lincoln Grand Prix sportive held the day before the famous Lincoln GP cycle race.
There were two distances on offer – a 56 mile route or a 93 mile route – I picked the 55 mile route as this tied in nicely with my training plan, and was a little gentler on my legs as well in a week where I have completed both a triathlon and a half marathon length training run.
The weather was set to be appalling for the event day, with thunder storms expected and a solid spell of rain lasting for most of the day – it certainly was shaping up to be a gloomy day. Taking the anticipated bad weather into account, I decided to use my yellow Carrera training bike again rather than get my newer and much lighter carbon racing bike wet ! ( The weather although threatening rain most of the day remained dry in the end up until the very last 20 minutes !).
I arrived at the start area at Bishop Grossteste College very, very early and was surprised to see that it was already busy – indeed in my time of registering and then queuing again for the timing chip, the whole room became rammed with people and it became very apparent that the organisers had maybe underestimated the sheer numbers of people. When I left to get my bike out of the car, there was a massive queue just to get registered which snaked out of the building.
So, from there it took a little over fifteen minutes to get the bike ready, attach my number to the handlebars and arrange my pockets etc. At a little over 8.15, I passed by a marshall who scanned my timing chip and I was out on the course heading through the top half of Lincoln, to exit the city on the east side heading towards Cherry Willingham. I think I was again a little over excited at the start and found that I was cycling very quickly through the city, however once out of the centre and onto the country roads the adrenaline had subsided and I began to ride sensibly.
The 56 mile route broke down into three distinct parts from the information on the organisers web page – the first section was a flatish 16 miles, the second section had all of the elevations and too lasted 16 miles, and the third section was the home leg which looked faster with an overall downhill profile before rising sharply as you re-entered Lincoln, finishing with steep clims back into the Castle area to finish.
The plan was to ride on my own to re-create the conditions I will face in Austria, and to not benefit from the slipstream of other riders with an aim to average 16.5mph. Phase one of this was completed, as I rode at a good pace for the first hour as we made our way though Short Ferry on our way towards Gautby before turning North for the second hillier leg.
Now, the second leg looked very hilly on the profile graph on the website – the truth is that I didn’t really notice any hills as such, just some slow ascents and overall found it undulating at worst. At about halfway through this section, and 26 miles overall, there was a refreshments stop serving coffee and the like, and I popped in momentarily to top up my water bottle. Once back on the road, there was just another 6 miles or so to negotiate before we reached the highest point on the course which was at Sixhills. Again, this landmark was reached ahead of schedule and from there it was pretty much all downhill. I rode with a couple of blokes for a short while, and then traded places back and forth with another chap until we reached Faldingworth and then finally Welton.
By this point my legs felt tired, but I knew that there was only about 7 or so miles left until the finish. I also started to have some pain in the front of my foot which seemed to ease when I took the foot out of the pedals and stretched my toes a little. Finally, I made my way back into the city, down Yarborough Hill and up the very steep Carline Road. The very last stretch saw a climb of the very wet and slippery 1 in 6 gradient Michealgate climb before getting a marshall to swipe my timing chip again to signify the end of the event. The organisers then directed us back to race HQ for some free soup and sandwiches ............................ .....mmmm....lovely ! Taking into account the water stop, and the time spent at roundabouts and traffic lights, the actual time taken was pleasing and the average was nearer to 17mph ! Out of 152 starters at this distance, my time was 59th quickest, so a pleasing turn out all round !
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