This was a ride that I had applied to ride in 2016 and I had received positive news from the lottery entry system, securing a place for the 2016 event. However, a nasty incident on my commute home from work one afternoon had seen me fall victim to a hit and run which put me off the bike for a while and impacted my training for the 2016 event. So, I deferred my entry to 2017.
With a year or so till I could ride the event I concentrated on getting over the minor injuries sustained from the accident and I floated the idea of the ride with some friends for 2017 and a few mates were interested.
Fast forward to January 2017 and I was starting to think a bit more seriously about riding myself into shape for the event. Commutes, weekend rides and turbo sessions were on the menu and I was enjoying riding and looking forward to the event.
I had spoken with Nick at work and he had ridden FW a few times before, so him and another mate, Neil were up for riding with me, as they had a friend who lived up in the lakes who would be riding it too. This was great as Neil had offered to drive us all up there and back. Result. More mates, brothers Tom and Bill had also entered the allocation lottery and managed to get places. This was shaping up very well, but unfortunately Mick wasn’t able to train up for the ride so he wasn’t coming with.
Tom had booked accommodation for himself, Bill and myself, and the brothers would be driving up to Ambleside from Norwich the day before the ride, I would meet them there driving up with Neil and Nick. The journey up was great, we had a right laugh driving up to the lakes together, and found we were all on the same wavelength with banter.
Ambleside
We aimed for Ambleside and then moved up to Grasmere to get registration sorted to minimise faff the following day. Registration was simple enough and with all the boxes ticked we headed back to Ambleside for me to meet Tom and Bill whilst Neil and Nick headed off to meet their mate.
It was great to meet up with Tom and Bill and they had chosen decent accommodation for us. There was time enough for us to hang out and pool up our ride food together, then head into town for food and a couple of bevvies.
Ride Time
The usual early start was necessary to be able to make the start time with a bit of margin. A decent breakfast of porridge and raisins was on the menu for me, with the brothers choosing to have an avocado, egg and black pudding number which tickled my gag reflex a little, but a strong coffee managed to overcome the stink of fried black pudding.
Leaving Ambleside for the start town of Grasmere, we joined a steady stream of cyclists heading in the same direction, then we were into the mass start chaos of a big Sportive, all looking for toilets and friends and then faffing about with last minute adjustments to clothing, food stuffing and bikes. The weather was looking great, but at the start it was still a little chilly, so arm warmers and a gilet were on.
We were on a 7am start time, and there wasn’t much hanging about before it was time for the off. The usual chorus of cleated shoes clipping into pedals marked the start of the ride, we were off and I was keeping my distance from other riders and taking it easy. Always at the start of these mass participation events people ride far too quickly and closely. It is common for bits of luggage and lights to come flying off of bikes belonging to the ill prepared, prompting them to stop suddenly and carelessly right in the way of others.
Kirkstone Pass
Once settled in to the first few Km it wasn’t long before we were climbing up Holbeck Lane towards Troutbeck, over the Kirkstone pass. Quite honestly, the gradient was a bit of slap in the face, it was bloody tough going and Neil quickly disappeared up the hill as Nick, lagged behind with Tom and Bill. I carried on at my own pace as it is very difficult to climb at other peoples pace.
Once over Kirkstone pass the descent called for caution, it was very steep indeed and I wasn’t here to be careless and do myself an injury, so I took it steady going down hill. There were several riders overtaking me at what I took to be unsafe speeds. Overall, I saw evidence of a number of accidents on the downhills, the air ambulance was out twice that I saw. We skirted Ullswater and headed up to Troutbeck at the A66 main road. We took a left onto the A66 and enjoyed 15Km or so of mostly flat main road before heading south into Keswick, past Derwent Water and on towards Borrowdale before taking on Honister Pass.
Honister Pass
Several riders with either poor gearing or legs that weren’t strong enough were walking up Honister, it was very very steep and required a lot of concentration to get up it pedalling, avoiding walking riders was tricky too. Once crested, there was another dangerous descent to deal with – which I took caution on. Buttermere, and the first feed station were up the road and I took just a brief stop for a few fig rolls.
Newlands & Whinlatter Pass
The 1st checkpoint that had to be passed through by way of a timed climb up Newlands Pass, and again it was steep. I wasn’t trying to set any records up the timed climb, just concentrating on using enough energy to be able to finish the ride strongly but it was still very tough getting up the steep climb, a certain amount of power is required to drag your weight up the hill.
Descent off of Newlands was another steep one, and very shortly after hitting the bottom it was the start of another climb, this time it was Whinlatter Pass. Many people had gathered along the roadside through the forested sections to cheer the riders on up the climb, it had a very nice feel to it, although the gradient was challenging it was still mangagable. The descent off of Whinlatter took us out towards the more Westerly part of the route, there waere still many lumps in the road but the gradient was a little more relaxed heading through Loweswater and out towards Ennerdale Bridge and Cold Fell.
Cold Fell
Cold Fell was pretty bleak, even in the beautiful weather of the day, I wouldn’t particularly care to be riding in that place with the misery of the wind and rain, so I counted myself fortunate on this day. I was noticing a lot of riders with the Ironman symbol tattooed on their calfs around this stage – obviously they must have been decorated Ironmen triathletes. Coming off Cold Fell and into Calder Bridge the Sellafield Power Station was clearly visible and there were also some views out to the sea which were nice. I was about 130Km in now, and my legs were definitely feeling it and I knew we still had a lot of lumps and bumps to come, but there was still two feared climbs still to get up.
Hardnott & Wrynose Pass
Hardnott Pass was first, a gentle approach which lets you see the horror of what lays ahead from a distance.
As soon as the steep section came people were off their bikes and walking. I tried to avoid them as much as possible and took a path straight down the middle of the road, juts concentrating very hard on staying upright and keeping the pedals turning through the unrelenting road. There were unavoidable and considerable sections of 30% gradient up the pass, requiring a lot of effort and concentration to make it up without stopping or unclipping from the pedals., but I did manage to cycle all the way up it. I was very pleased and there were people who were walking their bikes shouting encouragement. I had a brief stop at the top to let my internal organs calm down a bit, before cautiously taking the start of the incredibly steep descent.
I navigated the descent without incident and just let the legs recover a little by not pedalling at all. Before long we were heading up the last big climb; Wrynose Pass. this was very scenic and although very steep didn’t seem to impact as much as Hardnott did.
Emptying the tank
It wasn’t too long before I was on the decent again and with Ambleside and Grasmere in my sights for the finish I decided to really empty the tank to get to the finish.
A guy had overtaken me on the descent of Hardnott and I’d had him in my sights since then and all the way up Wrynose. I kept him at a distance but when I decided to empty the tank I went past him and I could sense that he had fixed himself to the back of my wheel for a tow. No problem for me, I was on a mission to get finished. Every little lump – I pulled up on my pedals, every little downhill I stood on the pedals and looked for speed. I could hear the guy on my wheel drop back and then re appear periodically and in time with the undulations if the road, he never came round me to do a turn as I think he was on his limit – as was I.
Crossing the line in Grasmere was great, shortly after finishing the guy who had been on my wheel congratulated me on riding well, which was nice. I went and found Neil, who had been finished for an hour or so (great effort) and then we got some hot food in the form of a meal provided by the organisers – some kind of cottage pie I think.
It was a little while later that Nick, Tom and Bill finished. They had all found each other on the course and had been held up on the road near Kirkstone Pass due to a nasty accident. We all had a good catch up at the end before getting our stuff sorted out and packing bikes away in cars. Then it was back on the road to head home. A very tough ride in beautiful springtime weather and some fantastic scenery.
