The Dragon Ride

Distance: 74.5 miles
Event Site: http://www.dragonride.co.uk
Time: 04:04:31
Position: 18/755

The final sportive before the Etape and it was another fun camp over event for Kelly’s Heroes. This time we were in south Wales, stopping over at Porthcrawl.

We arrived early enough at the Brodawel camp site to get in a ride. Mark and I covered 15 miles of uninspiring tarmac to and from Port Talbot. We ended up turning back and joining up the the rest of the guys flying kites on the beach.

After dinner we wot a little bored at the campsite and decided to see how many people we could fit into Jon’s tent.

Cabin fever had well and truly taken over so we headed for the beach for an evening stroll.

It was an early start on race day, the Welshman snoring in his caravan made sure of that! I awoke to Phil cooking up some porridge; this man’s a camping legend! Our intention was to arrive at the start early enough not to be the last rider off the line. Not so, the traffic was queuing off the M4 slipway. There were a lot of cars but the marshals kept the traffic flowing and the car park accommodated us all.

Mark and I had done an unusual thing and forgotten our race numbers; think we’re used to collecting them on the day. Luckily we were able to get replacement numbers and chips at registration. The queue for the start brought home how big an event this was. A queue of about 2000+ riders snaked its way from registration for about half a mile to the start.

The start was fast with Tim and I picking up and breaking from large packs for the first few miles. Things thinned out on the first climb, more so after one idiot pulled to the side to fix a chain – taking out several riders in the process. The pace stay high, helped by the superb safety bikes keeping the route of cars.

We soon reached the first of three main climbs. This one was an average of 7% so a good test for the Etape. I settled into a good pace on the lower parts and was able to drop it down a cog for the remainder. I over took a lot of other cyclists and felt good cresting the summit. The descent was awesome; long, fast and with some sweeping curves. I managed to get up a good turn of speed and found myself overtaking more people and a few cars. Bit of an eye opener seeing how people react on descents. There no guarantee that someone will hold a line or that someones not approaching you at speed.

Heading into the valley Tim and I put our heads down and motored on the smooth tarmac. We had to slow ourselves down at times and remember to eat.

On the final big climb I started getting small cramps on the outside of my knees. I had to take it easy on the lower part and watch Tim pull ahead. After 10 minutes my legs felt better and I was able to drop a cog and chase Tim back down. By the top I was only 50 or so meters away.

Tim pulled ahead on the descent and my cramps got worse on the flats. I eventually caught Tim but my quads soon started cramping and I had to drop back again. Spinning for a while and standing on the pedals helped. The last couple of miles were seriously fast, 30+ mph, and I managed to finish only a minute behind Tim.

See the Cyclo Sport event pics.