This was the first Sportive that I had entered in over a year and chose the 115 mile + 5km run option for the day. The event is put on by ITP events which is the same crew that run the Lincoln Grand Prix Sportive amongst others. This was a warm up for Ironman Wales in September and I fitted tri bars to the road bike in preparation.HQ was in a village called Sutton Bennington and the route was basically a large squashy loop of Leicestershire. I started with three of my Wheelers buddies but broke away after about 7 miles or so and rode the last of the sportive solo.
The aim of the day was to try and average 15mph as this what I want to achieve as a minimum in Wales. The climbing for the day was supposed to be over 5000 feet too so conditions would be replicated. I started just after 8am with three other Wheelers buddies but we had split off by about mile 7 as the course began to climb and climb. In the initial third of the route it seemed that all we did was climb and I have to say I really started to like it. No rush, just make sure to get up them without building up the old lactic acid was the order of the day.
There were feed stations and I opted to miss the first one, but was ready for the one at 60 miles though. Plenty of cake followed in the three minutes that I allowed myself inside !
The second half of the ride was a little longer than the first as some joker had changed the signs around and I ended up being sent up a hell of a climb to Uppingham and off course. 9 miles in the A47 put me back in the game and I rejoined the official course for the last 20 miles or so. By the end, I had covered 120 miles, done lots and lots of hills (6400ft of climbing! ) and still had a run to do.
It was hot, hot, hot and I didn't really fancy the run, but did it anyway, on what was an out and back around a cone job.
Final results were 7.55 for the ride & 24 minutes for the 5k so a good days training done and dusted.
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