 |
| Route fm Grindleford : 1,16,17,18,21,19,22,20,11,9,5,13,12,15,3,6,7,8,10,,4,2. And relax! |
What an amazing day and to be honest what a surprise.
All I'd done since Tuesday was stretching really - been feeling very lethargic and legs just ached. Lots!
I wasn't optimistic, but a coffee in Grindleford cafe first soon sorted Dave n me out.
Setting off in glorious autumnal sunshine - it was clear that it was going to be a fantastic day in the saddle no matter what. Heading out from the start, my legs were filled with lactic within 100m. Not a good sign and typifying what I'd been feeling all week so not unexpected. Things didn't get any better as I went up Sir William Hill either. Going up hill has never felt this bad!
Anyway, thoughts of jacking and having a scenic ride came and went. I saw a guy heading to control 1 in front of me on a Whyte. Soon caught him up, but as soon as he saw me behind him I caught the racing glint in his eye. Right ! That's it ! I thought - nothing else for it but to try and welly it up the hill and see what happened. Thankfully from that point on, legs felt pretty good, not great.
The route evolved as I went on and soon noted how a sweep along the top, down the left along the bottom then up to Wellington Monument followed by an inner loop over the Calver quarries was a logical route choice. Pleased I spotted it as it did seem to flow all the way.
Beaten in the end by Oli Holmes who I more than expect to beat me as he's a top elite rider (and he doesn't pay for his Orbea bikes!). Oli's route was similar but he slotted the 15 pointer in near Pilsley. I couldn't even see a BW marked on the map, so instead of this one I did the awful 'rocky' one for 10 pts up near the quarries.
With hindsight, I think if I'd have missed that one out I would have got 10pts less, but not lost 13pts in being 8 mins late, so may have ended up with 295pts instead of 292pts, but it's irrelevant as Oli got 308 or something.
Hathersage Outside afterwards topped off by a blue skies drive home and very very very tired legs AND arms! Not felt that empty for a while.
A good feeling though.
Beat Killian, Andy Douglas, Pat Higgins so very pleased with that.
Results here