Iwein says

The Dragon Ride started at 5:45 am for me, after a very short, hot and sweaty night. Saturday had been a scorcher and our bedroom had not cooled down much.

I got ready to pick up Dave, Simon and Larissa, had some muesli and a cuppa, and we set off for Bridgend at 6:45. We got there an hour later, 15 minutes before registration opened. This meant we could avoid the usual queues at registration and at the loos.

Larissa spotted a guy with a real espresso machine in the back of his van, so lattes all around it was. This was big mistake number one. Coffee makes me really hyper, and can apparently make me cycle very fast (for the first bit of a long ride anyway). After this I didn’t really drink enough water, or ate enough. Big mistake number 2.

Getting ready for the start we saw a few more familiar faces: Graham from Bath CC, Martin who I’d met a few weeks before riding out of Bath, Tanya and Katherine from the Bristol tri lot. As we set off, I felt really strong. I don’t think I’ve ever cycled like that before. We were flying along, at speeds of over 25mph.

This is when I came off. I was drafting Simon and Dave, who were drafting Other People. These Other People didn’t signal stuff in the road, hence none of us had any forewarning about the traffic cones that all of a sudden appeared. Both Dave and Simon managed to only ride over their bases, swerve and stay upright. I only managed to avoid traffic cone number 1 and 2. Number 3 acquainted itself with my front wheel, while I was getting to know number 4 more intimately. Number 4 kindly stayed underneath me as i was sliding to a stop which meant that the damage on my person was only a ripped glove.

I picked up my bike and span the back wheel: fine. Spun the front wheel: damn, race over. On closer inspection it was only the tire that had come off of my rim, so that was quickly repaired. Dave had kindly come back to see if I was all-right, and on our way we went.

When we hit the first climb I noticed a strange noise from my back wheel. A broken spoke I thought. I stopped to check, but no all spokes were fine. Next climb (and next drop in gears), the sound was back again. I worked out that it was actually the derailleur stroking the spokes. Bent hanger (and hopefully not bent derailleur cage). This meant I didn’t have the use of my lowest 2 gears (if I didn’t want to break any spokes that is, with 80 miles to go). Cog number 3 and 4 were no real good either because the chain kept jumping between them. Oh dear… I had some 18% climbs to look forward to as well.

After the first hour (average speed of 20.5mph) There was no way I was going to keep this pace up. This was when I realised I had made mistake number 3. By mile 40 I felt absolutely spent, with another 55 to go.

The heat was really getting to me by now. I had a headache, I had to force myself to eat and drink. I couldn’t face all this sugar, it was making me feel nauseous. At the same time I knew I had to eat, and it had to be sugar. It must have been a (mild) sunstroke. Or something. I constantly felt like I was catching up with my food and drink intake, instead of being ahead of the game. Some moments I was on the verge of bonking badly. Mistake number 4.

I set myself little targets, things to feel good about. Mile 50, we’re over halfway. Another fruesli bar. Mile 60, that’s 2/3rds done. Another fruesli bar. Mile 70, it can’t be far now, only 25 miles. Another fruesli bar. And so on. At the feed stops I made myself eat the bananas. I was gagging for something savoury, like oatcakes or nuts or something. Only bananas available though. The smell of bananas makes me feel sick now.

I started singing a little song in my head I had learnt as a boyscout (translated from dutch). “One” (pedal), “two” (pedal), “three” (pedal), “four” (pedal), “five” (pedal), “six” (pedal), “seven” (pedal), “This is going all right” (pedal), “This is going better” (pedal), “Another kilometer” (pedal). It’s a very repetitive thing, it gives you something to focus on and a rhythm to pedal. 2 hills further I was singing “centimeter” instead of “kilometer” by way of some bizarre joke.

I was getting worried because I was out of fruesli bars, and I really couldn’t face another banana (which i had picked up at the last feed stop). I told myself that at mile 72 I would have to eat it. Mile 72 was at the bottom of a climb, so I delayed it to the top. Halfway up I was bonking, and sat down for a bit to eat my banana. Maybe force it down would be more accurate.

15 miles from the end I started having severe cramps in my upper thigh. It would start at the bottom of a hill. I would rise out of the saddle and bang, everything seizes up. I had to get off the bike and walk for half a mile to let the cramps subside. Credit to the organisation: within 5 minutes of walking a marshal car appeared asking if I was allright. Lots of passing cyclists asking the same question as well.

Any hopes of me getting back within 6 hours were well out of the window by now. Now every mile was a target. ONLY 9 miles to go, this is easy now I told myself. ONLY 8, ONLY 7, … My altimeter was telling I had some height to loose before Bridgend as well. ONLY 3. And then the hill up to the common appeared.

Oh well I thought, just like the hill home after a hard club ride. YOU ARE NOT GETTING OFF YOUR BIKE, I shouted at myself. YOU WILL CYCLE UP THIS. And I did. Somehow.

Some guy appeared behind me on the way in to Bridgend. He drafted me for a bit, then overtook me with a mile to go. That was demoralising.

I got around in around 6 hours and 50 minutes chip time, 6 hour and 13 on my computer for a total of 96 miles. Average speed was 15.4mph.

Will I be back next year? You bet.

On the whole, very well organised and sign-posted. The only let down was that I would have liked some savoury food at the feed stations (for which i would be happy to pay extra). I didn’t see any food at the finish either.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 20th, 2005 at 10:50 am and is filed under Cycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.