Spring Onions

On Sunday 14 March the South Western Road Club organised the Spring Onions Sportive, a distance of a mere 100kms or about 63 miles. Starting at Leatherhead the route headed south via Abinger Common, Walliswood, Ellens Green and on to Wisborough Green near Billingshurst and then north to within 3 miles of Godalming, then through Albury before climbing Coombe Bottom Hill and returning to Leatherhead.

Five riders from the club entered; Bob Townley (DNS?), Stuart and Ben Pearce, myself and John Beer. I didn't see Stuart or Ben, but John passed me riding off from the start with a group of riders as I was arriving at the leisure centre where I signed in and joined the next batch of riders to be set off. By this time it was 14 minutes after John at 09:28, a most acceptable time of the day to do an event. One of the riders in the group was Matt of Pearson Cycles and soon we started to enjoy a chat at the back of the slow group when after a couple of miles a SWRC rider came flying past. Without a moment's hesitation Matt (who was with his father) agreed that they needed to be riding at a quicker pace and off we went after the new leader. This was not a great idea as I soon found that the pace was a bit too quick especially as we still had over 60 miles to go!

I remember arriving at the top of White Down Hill and enjoying a very swift descent. With some trepidation braking hard to make the hairpin at the bottom and hoping that my brake cables didn't snap! After I crossed the A25 I recognised that I was now on the hilly 50 course and making the long ascent up the steady climb to Abinger Common. I was riding on my own at a comfortable but energetic pace. Soon the benefits of riding in a sportive became apparent; a well sign posted route means no stopping to check directions and lots of riders to chase down to keep my interest. As I descended down south of Leith Hill there were several riders fixing their punctures including Matt and his Dad. I knew that they would soon be back on their bikes and riding at a faster pace than me so I set myself the challenge of beating them to the finish. Of course I didn't stop to tell them that the gauntlet had been laid before them and I only had about 50 miles to go. Oh dear!

I soon passed a tall cyclist who I noticed decided to take advantage of my "petit" (well I would like to think so) slipstream. After a mile or so he did the gentlemanly thing and passed me and I took full advantage of his much larger slipstream and soon found that I could stop pedaling and still be dragged along. He told me that he did the same ride last year and wanted to beat 4 hours but he had spent too long at the feeding stop. We agreed to have a go at beating 4 hours....a second challenge. The feed stop arrived; in a field was a man holding a hose to refill our bottles and near him were several boxes of bananas. Here I saw John again briefly and whilst I was eating a banana and filling up, without me noticing he took off on the return leg. I was soon back on my bike with a third challenge...to catch John.

Within a few miles we were climbing again. A long hard drag of a climb ended with me on my own again. Without a murmur I had dropped my tall companion. Rather than stop I set about chasing down John and soon met up with two other riders who without any encouragement were happy to ride at my pace. After several more miles I saw a group in front and soon recognised our distinctive club kit, at the back of the bunch. I rode alongside John and commented how easy it is back here. John agreed and then pointed out that the group had been following the two ladies at the front of the pack for some time and it appeared to be a good arrangement! It was fine for a short while but I had two challenges to achieve so I went to the front and picked up the pace. John followed and we two upped through Albury until Coombe Bottom Hill, at which point my legs started to remind me that this was the longest ride I had done for some months and I had probably done more than they wanted to. John gradually opened a gap as we climbed. The photographer was perched by the side of the road next to the sharp left bend which felt like a 1 in 4. John was now over the brow and I was in danger of losing him. Knowing that John is a cautious descender I set off hard. I caught him before the main road crossed the route and then we two upped again to the finish...although on reflection I don't remember John coming passed to take his turn in these last 3 miles and I do remember trying very hard at times to shake him off!

We finished and we were signed in and at this point I found that I had cycled the course in 3 hours and 57 mins, although the official time makes no allowance for the stop, so I did it in 4:02, at an average speed of 16mph. The fastest rider did it in 3:18, but then they must have been racing! The slowest in over 6 hours, and I guess that they probably weren't///and were perhaps tempted by one of the many pubs. Stuart did 3:44, Ben 3:53 and John 4:16.

It was a hard but very enjoyable route and I will be planning to do it again next year, although perhaps next time I will not do a 25 miles off road ride the day before.

Steve


Edit:
Link to the result from the SWRC website here:
http://www.swrc.org.uk/word_docs/SpringOnion2010Times.xls

It opens/saves an Excel spreadsheet when you click on it.

Stuart and Ben Pearce are listed in the result - though Stuart doesn't have the club name against his. Steve seems to have been lost from the paperwork!!! (the paperwork got mucked up as the brevet card they issued to me was for S Taylor number 305, even though my number was 306).
Lisa

As links don't seem to be clickable in comments - the pics site:
http://sportivephoto.thirdlight.com/gallery.tlx

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