Hampshire Hilly Hundred - A Few Lessons

Quick Note - Over the weekend just gone I rode the Hampshire Hilly Hundred. I posted a very brief account of the event upon returning home.

Since then I've had time to mull over the day and draw a few conclusions from it. Hopefully I'll be able to use these lessons learned on the Dragon and of course during the Etape later in the Year.

Hampshire Hilly Hundred - A quick recap:

Weather - Cold and wet with a bitter North Easterly which gave the impression of a 360 degree headwind
Course - Hilly....... funny that given the name of the event
Distance - 100 miles...... who would have thought it?
Ave HR - 152 BPM
Ave Speed - 28.0 km/h
Total time - 5hours 42 mins = Silver Standard (just missed the gold... booooo!)


Onward to the lessons:

1) Drink and eat more

I struggled in the last 20kms which I put down to having only consumed a little over 1.5 lts of fluid and 3 gels

I had no energy and what's worse I didn't have a clear enough head to realise I still had an unopened Clif Shot Blok which I didn't use. Even stranger is the fact that at some stage in the last half hour I must have taken it out of my back pocket but then failed to open it as upon finishing I found the opened packet tucked inside the upper right leg of my bib shorts.

I can only assume I was too knackered to open the packet and rather than litter the road or put it back in my pocket I'd stuff it up my shorts for safe keeping. Strange....

2) I can hold a wheel

I shouldn't admit this but I've only a handful of small group rides under my belt. Well actually having completed this sportive I can sadly announce a grand total of 6 such rides during my entire cycling career.

That said, I felt strangely at home in a group. At the front, in the middle and at the rear... everything seemed ok. Of course I sat at the back for at least an hour to watch and learn before pulling through and taking my turn. This perhaps wasn't to everyone's enjoyment although rather selfishly it suited my one of my aims of the day.

Of course, riding in a group of 10 isn't exactly the same as the Peloton on Etape day buy hey. Some practice is better than none and I've still got the Dragon Ride to get some more miles like this before the big day come July

3) It's better to check the bike at the start than half way up a hill

I must have knocked the front mech in the car or perhaps somewhere along the first few miles of the course as approaching the first hill of the day my beautiful machine wouldn't change out of the big ring.

A quick stop. A quick play with the mech with my multi tool (only packed at the last second) and I was off. Naturally I'd rather have avoided that in the first place. Stupid, stupid, stupid

4) Sign in nice and early

I arrived to collect my timing chip nice and early. I only queued for perhaps 10 mins. Those people arriving later were left outside in the wind and cold for... oh I don't know half an hour perhaps? Anyway. This cant have been ideal, can it?

5) For the most part, people are quite nice

Yes there are always a few a-holes in any sport / workplace / pub and this event was no exception. Of course thankfully this wasn't the norm

As a relative newbie into the cycling I've often held the belief that, unlike runners, cyclists are all hard work nor play and business business business. Sure. Some are. Same goes for anything although the more I ride the more I enjoy it and part of that is the people whom I find myself riding with.

Warm, friendly and helpful.

A rather pleasant day truth be told.....