'an annual, physical, motivational and navigational challenge; a group ride to experience, endure and savour the diverse geography, history, weather of the country ... every minute of the year's longest day on two wheels'
Essentially, Olly Moore had the great idea of filling up a complete day with a doable monster of a ride from coast to coast. Set off as the sun rises in the east and arrive before it sets in the west. Simple.
It took Olly three attempts to crack it, but now it is one of the classic under-the-radar events with no entrance fee, no free tee shirt, no support and no prizes. All you get is your name on the website and asked for a donation at the end to help fund next year.
There be a few harmless trolls on the cycle forum's who say that he could have picked a better route. They may have a point but I think they have missed THE point. THE point is that it was Olly's original idea (and not many of us have them), and I believe that it starts at the geographical boundary where the English Channel ends and North Sea starts and finishes at another boundary - between the Bristol Channel and the Atlantic. Originality and meaning. Nice.
I like prep - although I have never prep'd quite as many supplies for one ride !
That is our three feet long cold box and it doesn't include the stuff that was in my pockets already.
We arrive on the Isle of Sheppey at 20:00, miss the briefing, eat an average meal, drink two beers and then have three and a half hours sleep before assembling at the sea front to check bikes and sign in at 04:20.
It is already light, but it's not sun-up (which we don't actually see thanks to the cloud) and so we shuffle about waiting for the official start time. And .... at 04:44 we are off, 300 riders in dribs and drabs. Two of our group are up the road, leaving the other five. One of the five gets a puncture and two others stop with him, unknown to the rest. So, just a mile in we are already in three groups, but we know where we are going and will all re-group soon.
Martin and I approach the bridge off the Island and on towards the Medway towns.
Or first planned stop is at Costa coffee in Bromley as it opens at 07:00 - by which time we are all in a nice group and I enjoy a latte and toasted mozzarella, tomato and basil panini in the morning sunshine. 07:17.
The trip from Bromley, through South London is thankfully uneventful but it is hard to keep the momentum going as we hit, what appears to be, every red light for miles. Uneventful, that is, until we get on a short section of the A3 running south towards Richmond Park. We approach a set of lights and Martin and I drift to the outside lane having checked traffic (and the other guys in the team) over one shoulder. Unfortunately we checked over opposite shoulders and the bikes converge slightly, my front wheel catches his back one and over the bars I go. Pilot error. Sore elbow, sore knee and broken handlebars now held together by the bar tape. No worries - only 148 miles to go.
Through Richmond Park, Kingston and Hampton Court and then along the river on quieter roads. I grab a couple of under-the-armpit shots of the guys as I push the pace westwards whilst I know that I still can.
Martin, followed by Johnny, who appears to be indicating that I am No 1.
We head south West around Bracknell and then off towards Newbury and Bramley (the official half-way, sign-in point) and the mild headwind, that was forecast, picks up a bit. Not really what we need.
We sign in but don't stop as it is busy and we don't want to waste time getting stuck with the other riders and support vehicles. Our safety vehicle is fifteen miles down the road at a quieter spot and so we are off. As we leave the car park and turn right, this is now my longest-ever ride. Despite best efforts over the last six months, Alex and I have never found the time to fit it anything longer than about a hundred miles, so we pedal off into no-man's land.
We leave the leafy lanes of Berkshire and drift off towards the area north of Salisbury Plain and the sky opens up, the sun comes out and the wind feels just a bit stronger. A couple of the longer hills feels harder than they should do with the wind in your face and to compound matters I get the first attack of crampy-legs at about 140 miles. Alternating between 'in' and 'out' of the saddle keeps me going forward but I am unable to do my fair share at the front for a while. I give myself a stern talking to, pull a face, and am back in the game after ten minutes or so.
We are through Devizes sometime during the late afternoon. Actually I have no idea when it was but we have been pedalling for freakin' hours. We are rocking towards the last quarter now and two more bouts of the leg cramps come and go as we head for a small but spiteful climb at 173. All those hours on the single-speed pay off and we are up it after a few minutes. It's slow and it's not pretty but it's behind us and we are all up it in good order !
A long, long, gentle-ish, mildly boring, headwind climb to Cheddar Gorge follows and I put some time in at the front again. As soon as the tarmac points downwards, however, I am at the back as the rest of the team pedal off. I am a few seconds behind them at the bottom and we re-group. I still can't see the point of pedalling down hill ?
And that was it in a nutshell. We have about twenty miles to go but we know we will finish before sun-down, so there is a relaxed atmosphere in the peleton. More head-wind to contend with but we get the first glimpse of the sea and mentally it is all down-hill.
As we spin into Burnham on Sea, my Garmin runs out of power 250 metres from the finish and we freewheel down the jetty for the obligatory finish-line shot.
Martin, Alex, Simon, Johnny and Simpson. 21:03 on the Longest Day, 2015.
Personal Stats - 207 miles, about 15:15 ride time I guess, max speed 40 mph, average 12.53 (incl stops - so a bit faster average ride-speed), Calories expended 14856 (according to Garmin), Calories consumed must have been 15000 as I was the same weight the following day. I had 16 x 750cl bottles of various re-hydrants (new word and I like it), three chilli chicken wraps, six raisin granola bars, three bananas, one panini, one latte, two cinnamon and raisin bagels and two chunks of flapjack that I was still chewing the following Tuesday (thanks Martin). No gels, no drugs, no pre-packed sugar-rush booster blocks and no Cliff bars. I am a clean athlete.
Sore legs, sore arse (especially) and a sore elbow and knee (the ones I damaged on the A3 but didn't feel them until I was in the pub). Broken handle bars, battered wheels (built for someone less substantial I'll wager) and one lost water bottle. Apart from all that it was just another great day on a bike with good friends going from A to B for the sake of it.
Now, don't think these things are easy, if they were anybody could do it ! You do need to train but you also need to plan, and Chase the Sun is an exercise in being organised. Not just the build up and training, but the pacing, the feeding, the hydration, the rest stops and the support arrangements. Thank you to all my team mates who helped along the way with advice and encouragement and got me through my first event of this type and massive thanks to Graham and Lee who supported us, without whom we may not have done it. Even more massive thanks to Molly who allows me to participate.
Would I do it again ? Not sure as there are many other things to fit in. The Crossing or the Fred Whitton ? Who knows ...
Chapeau Olly !
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