Controls: Churchend (Dunmow), Cambridge, Whittlesey, Newport Pagnell (Services), 3 x Info Controls, Churchend.
300K ride with my mate Andy Roffe which started and finished in ChurchEnd near Great Dunmow in Essex. Friday night ride. Picked up Roffey from Market Deeping then headed on down to Essex. Had a stop at Birchanger Services where we ate cold pasta and crisps along with a strong coffee in preparation for the night ride which lay ahead. We struggled a little to find the control start, but spotted a small AUK sign near the church which led us to the church car park. There appeared to be around 40-50 participants at most, which took Roffey by surprise, as this was his first audax ride – quite a tough one for a first event, but he’s a strong rider. We were a little compressed for time when we got to the car park, had to quickly get changed and prepare bikes and bags, and before we were quite ready the whistle was being blown to gather at the start to hear the de-briefing.
De-briefing over and we were off riding, starting at 9pm. A fast group went off the front and we were towards the front of one of the following groups just settling down. Riders were a a little erratic and not appearing to maintain a steady effort/pace and, what would turn out to be a common thread, riders were seemingly happy to be followed but then when Roffey and I went round them to do our turn on the front the riders we’d been with would drop back off of our wheel. Strange really. Dusk was soon upon us and we arrived in Cambridge as pub goers were leaving the pubs, no issues with that but for the first time ever my Garmin lost GPS and turned itself off. Irritating, as the whole route was on the Garmin so we stopped to sort it. Re-started the unit twice and then it seemed to be happy enough, so we carried on. The Garmin issue put me off stride a little and then, on the North side of Cambridge centre we saw riders at an Esso Garage, we thought it cant be the first control so soon, and we asked another audaxer if the garage was the 1st control, and he replied ‘you can control here if you want to, you just need a receipt in Cambridge’, so we carried on for 1-200M before asking another audaxer, who confirmed that the garage was indeed the first control, so we turned back to the garage and rested for 15 mins at the first scheduled stop, purchasing some quick bites from the garage, keeping the receipt for proof of passage.
Heading North out of Cambridge we were quickly riding on roads that for sure Roffey knew and for me at least I was familiar with the place names on road signs. Landscape was flattening out in a familiar way and it was interesting to be heading up to the next control of Whittlesey (very close to our workplace), but the familiarity of the roads felt as if it was lost on us due to the darkness of the hour. It’s strange what effect the darkness has on your recognition of what you think you know in terms of roads and landscape. We were riding on and off with various groups, I had to stop for the toilet which dropped us out of a decent group, and once finished we pushed on hard with the wind on our backs to chase back to the group. We made it back on and moved towards the front of the group after a few minutes. Group dynamics were different to what we were used to. There wasn’t much chatting between riders and there was no order or cohesion of effort within the group. Clearly some riders knew eachother though.
Whittlesey control was the 24hr garage where I had a sandwich, granola and yoghurt, fruit juice and a chocolate bar to keep me fuelled for the long night section to the next control at Newport Pagnell services. At the Whittlesey control Roffey got chatting to an ACME rider who was on a Stainless Steel Genesis frame, Roffey was also riding a Genesis (albeit steel) and the two were praising the brand. The ACME rider was a nice fella with the lowest cadence I have ever seen a guy turn whilst still knocking out 30Km/h, he was a powerful guy. Another rider of note at the control was a guy who had a wooden basket on the front of his bike, in which contained a battery and a loudspeaker. Now, I am a believer in the motivational and atmospheric powers of music particularly on a night ride, but this guy had fast heavy metal chucking out of the speaker all the time he was at the control, this just hacks people off particularly at 1am in the morning. Unsurprisingly, the rider left the control on his own.
We left Whittlesey in a reasonable sized group, and I got chatting to a couple on a tandem clothed in the VC167 club colours. I spoke to them for a while and learnt that VC167 was a club that contained a lot of audaxers, and one that had widened its catchment area significantly, presumably due to demand to join. As me and Roffey rolled we kept ourselves chatting and within an hour we had left the group behind, we could see the odd triplet of riders red lights in the distance and as we caught them up we found that they weren’t really bothered about riding with us, so we pressed on at our own pace which was comfortable enough for us. Sunrise came pretty quickly and we were fortunate with a clear night with favourable weather and temperatures.
The night gave way to dawn around 4:30-4:45am and there were some lovely views of rolling mist as we looked for the 2 info controls ahead of the next control stop. We easily found the pub name in Lavendon, and we stoped outside it to record it in the Brevet card, as we stopped an older rider was already stopped and another guy who we had ridden close to back in Cambridge pulled up, the older guy was grumpy and the other guy just seemed to be talking to himself and not of the mind to have a chat with us. Oh well. Again, we easily found the number of the road at the identified T junction, and we again passed the quiet guy from Cambridge and the pub name control. He seemed very fatigued. It was a relief to roll into the Newport Pagnell services just off of the M1. We had a decent stop there with a number of other riders already at the control and a lot more turning up as we finished up. We ate well with good coffee and a needed toilet stop for me. The grumpy guy from the earlier pub control turned up, and his behaviour was a little odd. He was rude with the staff, and impatient for service, and when approached by a female audaxer to ask if she could sit at his table he responded somehow (I didn’t really hear), but she ended up sitting at his table with the conversation non-existent.
Rolling out of the services we were in the last phase of the ride and were in good spirits really. Landscape was getting lumpy and my legs were feeling fatigued, I had to keep topping up with Clif shot bloks and the odd gel here and there and we passed Millbrook proving ground, somewhere I had been for work during my time at Lotus, there was another info control at Millbrook – to identify a width restriction of the road. The countryside was really pleasant and the lumps in the road continued to present challenges to my fatigued legs. Roffey was holding up extremely well, he’s a strong guy and was showing his strength as a rider up and down the lumps.
Into Biggleswade for the next control, there was a café discussed in the route info, (Ziggy’s – just off the high st), but we elected to pass through and control at the garage on the south east end of Biggleswade, it didn’t seem that long since we had eaten at the services.
We were now en route to the next control; the Silver Ball truck stop café at Reed. The morning sun was lovely and warm by now and I was talking myself into an ice cream when we stopped. The homing beacon was certainly on for me and Roffey, we were riding quickly and concentrated on pushing on to get finished. Scenery was nice with some rolling up and downs, but nothing drastic. Several other riders were present at the café, and we passed through reasonably quickly (ice cream was good), just wanting to get to the finish by now. It was more of the same terrain on the way back through to Churchend, skirting very close to Stansted airport once again. We were passing other riders on the last leg, and we were feeling in pretty good shape considering the distance and lack of sleep. Roffey had done very well indeed (for his first audax event), although I knew he would have no trouble.
In summary, a very pleasant ride which had a nice twist to it with starting at 9pm in the evening. The field was quite small, and I suspect in a PBP year this ride would be attended by many more audaxers. I’ll likely do this one again in following years.
