On Sunday 11th August, a few riders decided to ride the 100 mile sportive route, partly to check the route and complete the risk analysis, but mainly because it's a damn good ride.

7:30 Group

An early start for the 7:30 group saw five riders gather on the Market Square at 07.30: Andy, Jon, Simon, Terry and Tony. Gareth arrived shortly afterwards, apparently to try and flog some of his home-made flapjacks. We made our excuses and left him to wait for the 08:00 group and made our way out of town towards Kimbolton.

The first few miles were ridden at a pace we were unlikely to maintain, but the small group was working well together, sharing the work at the front, with Terry doing more than his share. We made our way along very familiar roads down to Spaldwick and to the first challenge of the day at Belton's Hill. Turning left at Barham, we were soon joined by a very patient lady driving a Mini, who quite happily sat behind us, her puppy hanging out the window, until we reached a safe passing point.

At Thurning, we almost took a wrong turn, but quickly righted ourselves and headed north and west to Barnwell. Turning sharply east here, we were starting to ride on less familiar roads, and had settled to a pace that allowed us to enjoy the ride without risking blowing up on the way home. Riding through Elton, I regaled the group with tales of the "best sausage sandwiches ever" on sale at The Crown (sampled by myself, Chris and Geoff on a similar recce last year), but we'd already decided to stop in Bulwick or Oundle.

Another brief detour followed after Elton, before we made our way north to Nassington. Turning east through the village and passing the local church, we met a driver who seemed keen to make us some of the newest residents in the church yard, but luckily we were paying more attention than he was and we made it through unscathed and on to Apethorpe. The riding was beautiful, with rolling roads, picturesque buildings and kind weather. That threatened to change as we reached Apethorpe, with dark clouds forming above and ahead of us.

By the time we'd reached the pretty village of Kings Cliffe, however, the weather seemed to have drifted away again, and heading south-west toward Blatherwycke meant the wind was now giving us a little bit of a push and our legs were feeling renewed strength. The view across Blatherwycke Lake was beautiful, but Simon was concerned that it all sounded a little bit too northern. We were heading south now and Blatherwycke was much prettier than the name sounds, particularly the bridge over Willow Brook. A little odd that they felt the need to advertise that their church was open on Sundays, though.

We elected not to stop for food in Bulwick, but to push on to Oundle, and so we made our way south and east toward Southwick, the wind giving us a very welcome push now. After climbing away from Southwick, we deviated from the sportive route and kept heading south straight into Oundle, where we stopped at the excellent Beans cafe to enjoy coffee, tuna melts and bacon sandwiches while we watched the world go by and chatted with a couple of local cyclists. Shortly afterwards, the 08:00 group arrived and we chatted with them before they headed to the Coffee Tavern to enjoy the treacherous nature of the wooden floor there. We finished our food and set out again, but not before Beans had refilled our bidons with ice and water.

Rather than retrace our tracks, we headed west out of Oundle and rejoined the route near Lower Benefield. The drag out of Oundle had reminded us that while our stomachs, hearts and minds were grateful for an excellent lunch, our legs were less so and the pace was kept steady for the first few miles, not helped by the westerly wind. Passing The Olde Three Cocks at Brigstock, I told the group about my aborted idea for a rather juvenile bike ride that involved visiting all local pubs with the word 'cock' in the name. Aborted because typing "Cambridgeshire Cock" into Google turned out to be a bad idea. Simon suggested, if I ever resurrected (res-erected?) the idea I should called it Le Cock Sportive.

The pace had lifted again at Brigstock, our legs shaking off the lunch stop, but the climb at Old Head Wood took a toll and was the first reminder that a century is always a tough ride. We dropped down to the beautiful village of Grafton Underwood, before turning east to Thrapston. By now, we were on more familiar roads, and were discussing whether to do the full route or take the B645 directly home. After a brief detour and stop in Raunds to top up our bidons (at which point we suspect the 08:00 group passed us), we made our way to Hargrave and decided to do the full route afte rall. The usually-benign climbing at Keysoe made at least one of the group regret this choice, I'm sure, and there were a few longing glances at Bushmead Road as we continued south to Colmworth before enjoying the smooth, fast tarmac of Mill Road and the final push to the Market Square, to find the 08:00 group recently arrived.

A fantastic ride with a friendly, hard-working group on a beautiful route without incident or mechanicals. What better way could there be to spend a Sunday morning?

Andy Mac

 8:00 Group

There were eight of us in the 8am group, although I'm not sure what had happened to Gareth's flapjacks when I arrived on the scene. Gareth and I were joined by Wayne, James and Alisdair in their respective university kits, Geoff, Ade and Joe.

To be honest, there isn't too much more to add to Andy's write up. The Thurning turning was also a problem for us with our Garministas insisting we turn left when I knew it was a right, and I was right. Apparently some GPS units get confused at staggared junctions which have a 90 degree bend. 1 nil to the human navigation!

The road after Thurning while fine did have a few significant craters, so keep your eyes peeled. However, if you're a film history/war buff there is compensation further down the road as you ride by the old WWII airfield of RAF Polebrook. The base was used by a USAAF Bomber group and has an interesting Hollywood connection, but careful, there is Red Herring that had me fooled for a while.

In Bulwick we had another route disagreement. The Garministas were saying left, I was adamant it was right - it just felt right, but the Garmins scored an equaliser. Still my turning would have taken us into Rutland, so it wouldn't have been too bad, well, until we decided to head for home that is.

In Oundle, the Coffee Tavern had been taken over by St Ives CC, but we managed to find a free table for a bite to eat. Energised, we headed back onto the course. The other group, having taken a shortcut, missed the gated road down to Benefield. It is a fairly rough road with sheep roaming free and a lawn growing along its middle, but it is one of my favourite roads to ride. However, today our pace was moderated by a horse enduro event coming from the opposite direction. The routes roads are very quiet with little traffic, but today, after riding 100 miles I think we probably saw more horses on the road than cars.

As with Andy's group, the Keysoe climb, coming at just over 85 miles, caught out a couple of pairs of tired legs in our group. And if you're thinking about trying for the climbs KOM? Forget it, this years 3 Days of Bedford women's road race finished at the top of the climb and the ladies set some very formidable times indeed.  

Good company and a good ride through some lovely rolling countryside. What more could you ask for?

Richard

The Sportive is on Sunday 6th October and you can sign up for it here on the BC website.