Some northern bloke pedalled a few miles .. Ian A ride report ... 😁

Race the Sun

Our objective: Ride from the coast in the East of England to the coast in the West of England between sunrise and sunset.

One NEV member, two of his family and four amigos assembled at various points during Wednesday and Thursday (Somerset, London, Essex) and by Thursday evening were all in Southend-on-Sea for some carb loading (washed down with a small amount of hop and barley based energy drink) before an early night at the Holiday Inn.

The six riders loaded their support kit into the van and set off at 04:15 on Friday. We headed to the beach for sunrise at 04:38, and the race began – 201 miles to go, 16:49hrs until sunset, with eight planned rendezvous points with the van for the riders to refuel.

By 08:00 we’d rolled through Essex and the East End, and after observing the local commuter cyclists we picked up how to weave through London traffic, ignore traffic lights and zebra crossings, and generally cause a nuisance of ourselves. We’d just about got the hang of it before we crossed Putney Bridge and the traffic disappeared.

After a close encounter with a deer in Richmond Park, the early morning haze cleared and the sun came out as we continued our journey along the Thames Valley. We made our third stop just before the halfway point at about midday, by which time the sun was well and truly shining and it was hotting up. We suffered our one and only puncture on this leg, but the tubeless setup worked perfectly and there was no need for an extended roadside stop.

After leaving Wellington country we continued west through Wiltshire, passing the white horse (I always thought it was much bigger than that, but maybe we were a long way away!). We also suffered our one and only mechanical issue, with a shifter failure repeatedly turning a 2x11 set up into a 2x1 – not great timing when the more difficult bits of climbing were coming up and fatigue was setting in.

As we passed through Devizes and approached the Somerset border the heat began to take its toll and one of the riders began seriously cramping up. Fluid, crisps, gels and sweets had little impact and it was clear that there was no way that he could finish the course before sunset. A tough decision was taken at the next stop - five of us fueled up for the remaining 30 miles, foregoing the final stop so that the van could stick with the struggling rider and make sure he got to the finish one way or another.

We rode the easy way up Cheddar Gorge and after taking in the beautiful winding descent (dodging the goats), the main group was left with about 14 miles on the flat and well over an hour of time left. The five of us rolled down to the seafront at Burnham-on-Sea just after 21:00, and after taking celebratory pictures at the water’s edge retired to a local hostelry for rehydration. Just as we finished our drinks our sixth rider crossed the line – he might not have beaten the sun, but he completed the ride!

Pizza and more rehydration followed, before a night in caravans and the journey home on Saturday (apologies for missing the club rides!).

Massive well done Ian A and fellow bike buddies

Team NEV