There were five of us riding together. As we were late in assembling we all decided to do the shorter 70 mile route. I was hoping to test my body and bike out with a longer ride but it was more important to hang out with the rest of the guys I would begin the Pyrenees with.
My friend, Gary, is experienced in tuning bikes and made some adjustments to mine that were really helpful. The angle of my bars were raised and more importantly I ditched my Shimano cleats for Look Keo cleats and they were far superior.
It was the first time I had ridden for a long period of time in a peloton and it was a great experience. We were able to keep up a frenetic pace with minimal effort ( as long as you were not at the front!).
The route was mostly along winding country lanes through the heart of Hop country, very scenic. There were no major hills to tackle, they seemed to be reserved for the longer ride.
At about 80K I started to flag a little and found it increasingly difficult to stay up with the group, especially as the terrain was more hilly. Luckily for me Gary's gear cable snapped and he was stuck riding the last 30K in low gear. This meant that I had lots of time to recover waiting for him at the top of hills as he started to struggle to get up in what was now a fixed-gear bike.
We picked up the pace again for the last 5 miles and raced into the Castle grounds at Tonbridge to the finish line.
I was surprised when the results came in to find that we were the 14th and 15th fastest finishers in the 100K. I guess riding in a peleton makes a huge difference.
The training is starting to feel like it is having an effect as I felt comfortable for most of the ride and could have managed a further 30 miles quite easily.
Now for six weeks of hills......
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