If you go down to the woods today......(well the Forest actually)

So last week I posted on the eve of the New Forest Super Series Sportive, full of anticipation for a long day in the saddle. As a cyclist, you become obsessed with the weather & even though I'd checked the bbc weather website umpteen times for the start point Brockenhurst & it did say heavy rains & 16mph winds....for some reason I was in denial! Even when the organiser's posted this on their facebook page.......

We drove down to the New Forest in glorious rising sunshine, thank goodness, they had got it wrong after all - phew! Waiting at the start with my two wingmen Andy & Andy, I was excited to be getting out into the beautiful countryside. On the New Forest official website there is a whole section dedicated to the joys of cycling in the area, it promotes safe & gentle cycle routes where you can experience open heathland & sheltered woods. It's especially magical in the spring when you ride through bluebells, taking in the stunning landscape & historic villages with the wonders of newly born baby animals at the roadside - it sounded idyllic & so welcoming!

This is what I had envisaged

When the rain started about 45 minutes into the ride, the drops of rain glistened off the bluebells & it felt quite cool & refreshing on my face this was going to be a great day........when the wind began to drive that rain into my very core for the rest of the 4.34 hours I was riding through this magical place, I can confirm there is no splendour to the open heathland - just a hideous feeling of vast exposure & the sheltered woodland, does not provide sufficient shelter!

And as for the lovely local welcome, well it would seem that some of the residents of the New Forest don't take too kindly to those cyclists that the website invites to enjoy "their" National Park. In Boldre, one of those picturesque historic villages the website so lovingly promotes, tacks had been thrown onto the road & along the whole route approx 1,000 route signs were vandalised in an attempt to sabotage the ride. Not being with the elite riders at the front does have it's advantages as we weren't directly affected, but many people suffered punctures & falls as a result. Luckily no one was seriously hurt, but they could have been. I guess if I'm being really open minded, I can understand that 1,800 cyclists coming through your village might be a bit inconvenient, but 1 day out of 365? Surely we can all live & let live? It never ceases to amaze me how small minded, thoughtless & malicious some people can be, potentially putting people's lives at risk to make a point.

This was the reality!

Anyway, despite the weather & the drama & the fact that a week on, every item of clothing I wore that day is still drying out, I did actually enjoy myself. Due to the weather we switched to the shorter 50 mile route & I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly it went & how strong I still felt 10 miles before the end.......except the 50 mile route, wasn't really 50 miles, it was 58.9 miles to be precise. Let's just say, there wasn't much chat going on for the last 8.9 miles - it's so weird how psychology plays such a big part in long rides. At mile 49 I was riding strong, thinking I could have easily managed the 80 miler, then realising I had another 8 miles left, my legs turned to lead, the less said about my bum the better & the wind & rain definitely got harder & colder, infact at one point I was pedalling down hill, trying to get some speed up so it would be over as quickly as possible & the rain actually felt like pins in my face - nice!

But I can confirm, a pint of peroni (and I must confess a marlborough light) have never tasted as good or as well earnt as the one I had when we got to the nice dry & warm pub as close to the finish line as we could find!

So, I'm feeling encouraged, that I can complete 50 miles comfortably (not 58.9 though!), but my ride is 330, on 3 consecutive days, so there's still some way to go - in actual terms & metaphorically.......so training continues! I read somewhere this weekend, that as long as you can do 75% of your event mileage comfortably before the event, you don't have anything to worry about - so that's 247 miles I have to get comfortable with, this week I've clocked up 132 miles which I was quite pleased with - so that's just over half of what my "comfortable" mileage should be, in twice as many days..........hmmmmmmmmmmm!!! I think I've still got a long way to go - quite literally.

Thank you to all of you who have so generously sponsored me - apologies that I haven't thanked you personally yet, I am having a problem with our online giving provider CAF - they will only give me information regarding our donations on a monthly basis, so if you do hit the donate button, please drop me an email or a text (publicity@cmia.org.uk or 07793119064) & let me know, then I can thank you properly.

Thanks again for all your support, this week I'll post about the project we've just finished & hopefully some exciting news about some forthcoming projects we are planning for later this year - if I can fit it all whilst trying to gt to the magic 247!

Gx