Land of my Parents

I am a bit of an anorak with my family's history, and whilst it is true that most branches of our family come from Bristol and surrounding counties, it's a little-known fact (unless you are related to me, in which case of course you know) that my Dad was born and brought up in Swindon and my Mum in nearby Hungerford. So it was double, no a triple pleasure to be riding the White Horse Challenge today. A delightful route tracing a ring of about 90 miles around Swindon. Delightful too because I imagined that all the countryside I rode through would be familiar to my folks, and that they themselves may even have cycled some of it as children. Most of all delightful because it turned out to be a fabulous day.

There are quite a few web addresses in this post, you will need to copy and paste them into your browser as for some reason I can't insert links into my blog.

Now, no-one looks good at 5.30 in the morning, but I looked worst than most. I'd been to football yesterday to see West Ham beat Wigan and ensure Premiership football for another season (I'm not hopeful for 2011-12 though!). More accurately to see Scott Parker beat Wigan all by himself. The rest of the team may has well been the cones although maybe that's harsh. I'm not even going to vote for Hammer of the Year, because no-one else will get any votes, so there wouldn't be any point.

Anyway, I got back late, the euphoria was with me, and because i hadn't seen Mrs MMAM we needed to "talk". So a bit of a late night, but I had been pretty good this week so didn't seem too bad. A pity the weather wasn't the same. After yesterday's scorcher, the day dawned windswept, drizzly and a bit cold. The forecast was for it to warm up later, with the chance of a thundery downpour. So I went for a long-sleeved jersey, 3/4 shorts and a lightweight raincoat for those downpours, stuffed in the jersey.

At the HQ all was very relaxed and the setting-village hall in Shrivenham-was idyllic, lovely, friendly people and about 300 cyclists. Not too many newbies, but everyone was jovial and helpful today, helped I think by more of us greyhairs being in the peloton-there was a distinct absence of macho posturing. Best of all, even though official start time was supposed to be 8.30AM, it got to about five past eight, and a helpful lady said "if you're ready, don't hang about getting cold, you can go", no bureaucratic safety briefing, fantastic, so off we went.

A few easy hills over the first couple of miles were followed by about 20 miles of fairly flat riding as the route swung south-west through Cricklade, before heading south towards Wootton Bassett, scene of the tributes to our servicemen killed in Afghanistan. This was where the wind was straight in our faces, and although I did my turn on the front, it was god that large, fast groups were forming, giving some respite from the wind. For those that don't know, if you ride close behind the person in front (called drafting) you reduce your energy expenditure by as much as 35-40%, which enables the group to go a lot faster as everyone takes a turn.

That all came to a halt as we hit the first major hill at Broadtown, which also saw the first of the four White horses of the route, carved into the chalk escarpment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_figure

The above link is a very useful introduction to the subject of chalk hill figures. When I used to visit my grandparents i was always fascinated whenever we drove past or visited one of these, particularly the one at Uffington, which was last on the menu today (more later).

Once up to the ridge, we then came down it again, heading towards our next hill at Cherhill, and another white horse. The hill out of Cherhill is called "Labour in Vain Hill". But now with the wind at my back, I began to make some good progress, not just up the long drag, but down the hill and along the flat. Through Avebury, site of the standing stones:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury

dodging the tourists and on to what I found the toughest hill of the day-Hackpen Hill and the third horse. Then it was long, glorious descent into Marlborough and a short spell up the A4, before we zipped out into the country again. It was at this point that a helpful Marshall was holding out a bowl of Newberry fruits, just what I needed as I was starting to flag a bit. The second great road name of the day-Chopping Knife Lane, led first to Axford (I think there's a connection, don't you?) before a very nasty half mile at 17% out of Ramsbury, took me to the second feedstop at Froxfield.

I was really good with my eating today, doing it constantly. It helped that the feedstops had a good selection of things, and the jaffa cakes were great early on, before I switched over to Tuc biscuits for the closing stages. I took supplies with me and was constantly nibbling as we dragged up to the M4 motorway before plunging down into Lambourn. By now it was beginning to dawn on me that although the morning had felt like very hard work, I was actually going quite quickly at the 75 mile mark. No doubt it was the food tactics that did it. Not only that, but as we climbed the long gradual road up towards the Ridgeway, I started to overtake a fair number of people.

Down Blowing Stone hill, former home of the eponymous stone,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowing_Stone_Hill

everyone was hard on the brakes because of the main road at the bottom. Just in case we forgot, the National Escort group were there with their flashing lights et al. Aparently last year someone had a nice trip in an Air Ambulance because they forgot to stop.

Next up was Dragon Hill. A pretty steep one, but as I knew that the Uffington White horse was looking down on me, and it was the final hill of the day, I found the energy to grind my way to the top. From there it was plain sailing to the finish, and although the advertised distance was 150km, Cateye recorded just short of 90, with Charlie doing a reasonable job too:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/31209774

I hadn't lingered at the feedstops, and had not stopped at all anywhere else, but was nonetheless delighted to complete the whole ride, stops and all in just over 5 hours 40 mins. To get gold standard for my age group you have to do 5-20, with silver at 6-20. I even came in under the silver time limit for the youngsters-6-00, so I was delighted with that. Although I was in groups for about 75% of the first 20 miles, after that I was pretty much solo.

To cap it all, I don't feel that tired, my neck is a bit sore, and maybe I will tomorrow, or maybe it's the serotonin buzz. An absolutely great ride, and one I can thoroughly recommend. Skip did it a couple of years ago and also got silver, so at least I can match her achievement. Sorry if my delight is a tad OTT, but I am very pleased with this weekend. You don't avoid relegation and get your first Sportive silver category at the same time, very often, do you?

I also have a lovely T-shirt and medal (you know how i love those) with my favourite motif on both.You see, the White Horse at Uffington is one of my favourite places in England, so not just the Land of my Parents, but also very dear to me.