Pearson Sportive

A glorious morning, new kit to wear and a lightweight bike to ride a sportive....can a Sunday get any better? (for those who haven't heard I was the one from the 500 entrants who won the Pearson Sportive draw - winning the kit including shoes and helmet, with the loan of their top of the range Carbon Pro for the day - now extended to the end of the week - so it will be with me at Wednesday evening's club 10 TT).

I set off from home just after 8am and as I approached the start at the Royal Marsden I caught a glimpse of John Beer going the other way, I waved but I guess that he would have no idea who I was in the Paerson kit. How did you get on John?

I met a few friends from the Majorca trip, namely Dennis and Roger from the over the hill group. I then bumped into a work colleague, Chris, with two others from our work who were about to tackle their first sportive. Bearing in mind I have the bike for Wednesday I decided not to exhaust myself on the 150kms and chose the 75kms instead. Before I registered, Chris and his friends started and I said that I might see them later on the course. 10 minutes later I set off in pursuit with five Dulwich Paragon riders who were setting a good pace on the flat, somewhere between 18 and 23mph. It was soon clear that following the route was going to be a challenge as the signs were too small and only attached to signposts at the point of the turn without any warning. The route took us past Fanny's farm, on to Outwood, Turners Hill and the longer route went on to Brighton. After Turners Hill I started to think that there should have been a right turn for me to take the shorter route, but cycling in a pack at an enjoyable pace the miles continued to fly past. By the time I arrived at Ardingly I decided to drop off and stop to check the map. Within 30 seconds there was Chris with his two colleagues who had also missed the turn. By this stage we had done about 30 miles so we were now going to double this to get back and it also became apparent to Chris that the 1pm Sunday roast at home with his family might be in jeopardy.

We headed west and north via Balcombe, Pease Pottage, and Faygate where we picked up the returning 150kms route. Chris's two colleagues were struggling at every hill and suggested that Chris and I should go on. As we approached Henfold Lakes I mentioned that this was one of my favorite cafe stops and he agreed to stop for a moment as he had not seen it before. As we approached the lake we came across the KPRC training group who had been training. (Jake - glad to see that you allowed plenty of time for coffee, breakfast and taking in a bit of sunbathing for an hour or so - I clearly missed a good session!). They looked remarkably fresh and recovered. We had no time to stop so we headed back via Little Switzerland, Headley and home, me completing 63 miles.

I am now resting for a few days in the hope that I will be recovered sufficiently for the evening 10 to make best use of this dream machine.