Lionheart Sportive – 22-Mar-2015
Sunday 22nd March saw me achieve a big goal in completing my first ever century ride at the Lionheart Sportive!
It was chilly to start off with and a bit breezy at times, but overall I couldn’t have asked for a better day weather-wise. My longest ride this year was 111km last weekend around the Mendip Hills, whilst this was going to 50km further. I was definitely nervous setting off, as it was a big step up in distance.
Its difficult holding back at the start of such an event. I felt good, and though I was trying to take it easy, I found myself spinning up the hills, hitting some quite high watts. I had already decided to stop at all of the four feed stations. There were a few climbs on the way out, followed by a timed hill climb up to King Alfred’s Tower. I hadn’t been up here before, and was in for a bit of a shock as the gradient creeped up to 25%. It was definitely a case of bottom and gear and standing for me.
Everything was going smoothly up to the third feed station at around 80km. At this point, you were tempted by turning left and being back in 20km, or facing another 80km to the finish by turning right. I stuck to my plan and turned right. I caught up with a small group and sat on the back for a minute. At this point I found the effort a bit too easy, and decided to chase down the group a few hundred metres ahead. I forgot how much easier sitting at the back of a group was, and accelerating past, I soon found myself stuck in no man’s land. I ended up having to work hard to get onto the group in front, and could already feel my quads complaining. I decided then to just sit at the back and not worry about pace.
Around 95km in we came to another short climb. I stood up to accelerate and suddenly felt my right hamstring spasm as if it was going to cramp. I eased off immediately and limped to the final feed station around 115km. At this point I’d have happily jumped in a broom wagon, such was my panic about cramping with almost 30 miles to go. I realised I was dehydrated so drank and drank at the stop and filled up both bottles. I took my time coming back, easing off the watts on any inclines. In the end, I slowly ticked off the remaining miles with no issues and was delighted to cross the finish line. According to my Garmin, I’d covered 162.3km in 6 hours and 5 minutes with around 2000 metres of elevation.
There would have been no problems covered another 18km. I felt a bit sickly with all the gels I’d been shoving in to try and recover, so still need to work on my nutrition strategy. Still, it was my first ever century and I was delighted.
