Well my first cylosportive didn’t quite go to plan. I was going well for the first stage despite rolling roads over the downs into a headwind. I had a good feed of banana, Nakd bar, nuts and squash at the 42k Hackpen checkpoint but decided to swap to the shorter 105k route as I was going to have to slow down a good bit if I was to complete the 190k. I reckoned I could finish the shorter route in the 5 hours required for a Bronze standard.

We swung east at Lambourn swapping the headwind for a mix of cross and tail and I was sailing along quite nicely splashing through the puddles feeling smug I’d put my mudguards back on. Several riders were fixing punctures and somewhere after Welford I felt my rim bumping and realised it was my turn. So there went my Bronze but never mind. I checked the cause of the puncture was no longer present and fitted my pare only to find a lot of pumping was getting me nowhere. I had punctured my only spare and was not feeling at all smug now.

Lucky for me well equipped AUK Jeff Ellingham appeared and lent me one of the two spares he was carrying and eventually I got going again. It took a good while to get back up to speed though and I eventually got to the finish in 5hr 28m which was not over impressive though I was pleased with my average rolling speed of 14.6mph.

I got an email in the evening from a friend who had packed on the 190k. ‘We were impressed with your certificate’ he said (I’d not bothered picking it up at the finish). ‘190k in 5:28 – if that’s what being veggie does for you I’m all for it!’ No one who knows me well will ever believe that that though so I thought I best confess 😉