Chase the Sun
This year we decided to re-visit an old favourite and signed up for Chase the Sun. This is a 205 mile, coast to coast ride from dawn to dusk - leave Minster (Isle of Sheppey) at 04:37 and get to Burnham-on-Sea (Somerset) by 21:34.
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The route is 'suggested' but only has one mandatory checkpoint en-route which is the half way check-in at Bramley Hampshire.
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We have done the ride before in a larger group and with vehicle back-up, but this time decided to extend the challenge and ride unsupported, carry what we needed and re-supply en-route.
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The planning started with the basic route, then we added the scheduled re-supply points and then arranged this into a timed ride, factored in the rest stops and comfort breaks to make sure we kept on schedule. Once this was done we then road-tested the various food groups whilst out training to make sure that none of us had stomach / digestive issues as a result of eating fast-food on the move. Finally, we added details of the bike shops en-route just in case.
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At the start of January we already had a plan and had the first training ride under the belt. The first ride was the traditional 'Christmas baptism of fire' ride. Since I have been doing this road riding thing, we have done some great challenges, but it all falls off a bit in the Autumn and I get back on the mountain bike. Christmas is a good time to remind the body what is coming up, so we went off on a 115 miler on December 28th after doing very little for a while and eating / drinking our own body weight every day. We used up all the daylight, but all made it back. We have some work to do.
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We are soon back into training and are out with the Club as well as tagging along with one of the first FNRttC rides of 2019 to Whitstable. Just to make it all worthwhile, we ride home afterwards - another 120+ miles and lots of hours in the saddle.
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We also start to ride sections of the route from home to the start and then follow the route for a few miles. We suss out stopping places to get water, food and so-on and identify a few alternative routes that may save us some time. We gradually move west, riding from home to join the route somewhere and riding the next section. By the time we get to the middle of May, I have almost 3000 miles in the legs and have also found a saddle that I can call comfortable. I have also ridden (and memorised) the first 70 miles of the route from Minster, through London to Chertsey.
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The chance to celebrate a friends 60th birthday in Newbury is too good a chance to miss and I persuade Molly to drive there so that I can ride. Simon and I ride to Bromley to join the CTS route, follow it to Chertsey, he rides home and I carry on through Camberley, Bramley and onto Burghclare before leaving the CTS route and diverting north to Newbury. Another good ride of 120 miles or so on one of the hottest days of the year. I get to Newbury by 16:30 but it takes me until 20:00 to get hydrated enough to start drinking beer ! As the evening wore on, I made up for the slow start.
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With just a couple of weeks to go, I stop riding and we are good to go. The night before, Molly and Sharon drive us all up to a motel about eight miles from the start and we have a quick meal before they take everything home except us and the bikes.
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Fast forward only 5 hours and we are getting breakfast at McD's next door and then we have a steady 25 minute warm-up to the start line.
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When we rode this event before, there were about 200 people, so it was a bit of a surprise when we arrived at the seafront and saw the crowd. Simon and Alex lined up at the back of that white van ...
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As the sun appeared over the horizon, we are off - all 600 of us !
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After a few miles we join the A2 at some traffic lights and, with the prospect of being held up there while the lights change several times to let 600 riders through, we make a small diversion and join the main road further down - no shorter, but we haven't lost any time. It's fast along the A2 to Rochester, then the nasty first climb out of the town and the route then follows quieter back roads all the way to Chiselhurst. We have a planned water stop at 30 miles having chatted up the garage owner to use his hosepipe when we came past a month ago. We then have another planned diversion to avoid the dreaded Star Lane on the approach to St Paul's Cray. This stretch is renowned for the amount of fly-tipping that goes on - everything from grass cuttings to fridges, builders rubble to burnt out cars - you name it. It is puncture alley, so we opt to join the main road through Ruxley and Sidcup and by-pass it all.
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The first recommended stop is Bromley after 42 miles, so we miss that in order to avoid wasting time queuing with lots of other riders. We carry on an extra five miles to Beckenham where there are four coffee shops in a row and we picked the quietest. So far, so good and we are slightly ahead of schedule but slightly behind by the time we left as Mr Barista decided to dump our toasties on the counter instead of bring them outside where we were sitting. Bugger.
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Back into the London traffic and through Crystal Palace (second spiteful climb) and across to Streatham where we take another detour towards New Malden to avoid the horrible A3 and the bottle neck that is Richmond Park. We arrive at Tesco right on time and pick up water and home made chilli-chicken wraps from Toni and Grant. All smiles and in good order ...
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Kingston is busy and we lose a few minutes but make it up along the Thames valley between Hampton and Chertsey. A scheduled 15 minute stop at Costa (70 miles) for another toastie (save the wraps for later) and we are off, under the M25 and towards Sunningdale and Bagshot.
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There's another busy stretch along the main roads through Camberley and then we are back into the countryside, via Yateley for a pit stop at Greggs. The half-way stop at Bramley is busy, the queue for fast-food isn't fast but we anticipated this and ate a chicken wrap and started pedalling again.
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The next stretch is quiet and a good opportunity to get into a rhythm. The problem is that you get into the groove and forget to take any pictures ! We have a slight issue after about 160 miles and Simon falls back on a climb and Alex and I disappear over the hill. By the time we notice, he is no-where to be seen and, behind us, he has taken a wrong turning. We stop and try to call but there is no signal. We quiz the next few groups coming down the road but no-one has seen a random mending a puncture. Bugger. So we decide to carry on slowly to the next scheduled stop at Chilcompton. We eat, resupply and wait. Simon turns up, he eats, we wait a bit more and we are off, but behind schedule.
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The toughest climb comes at 173 miles but luckily it is short. It also marks the start of the long grind up the Mendips to the start of Cheddar Gorge. Alex is full of fire and pulls off the front on one of the long climbs leaving me and Simon to turn and gurn our way up. We start the descent into Cheddar Gorge half an hour behind schedule (but only I know that I have built in 45 minutes spare, so we should still be fine if we keep on it).
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The descent is fast and great fun on lovely dry roads. All good except for the drag race that is coming up the hill in the form of two boy-racers fish tailing round the corners in souped-up, low slung hot hatches. Not so good when we are using up most of our side of the road round the corners and they get rather close. Wankers. At the bottom, Simon is a few hundred yards ahead, as usual ! I soon catch him up and we are off again. It's the home stretch now with just one nasty wee hill that we have both forgotten about. We are cruising along really well and catch Alex up shortly after leaving Cheddar village. Unsure what has happened but the thought of that beer has resulted in us cruising along at 23 mph, swapping the lead like professionals. I did wonder, at the time, why we hadn't ridden like this for the last 190 miles ...
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We rolled into Burnham with time to spare and are greeted by the Mayor, but in fairness he does greet all the finishers. A great day in the saddle - 212 miles, no mishaps and no mechanicals.
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