PH rides the Circuit Breaker - 25th October
Discussion
Gruffy said:
Good call. Far too cold to be waiting for people! We didn't get going until 8:45 in the end anyway.
I caught up with Broster en route, which is now becoming a tradition. Didn't spot any PH jerseys though - probably set off too late.
https://www.strava.com/activities/419978343
Happy with my ride, given the wind today. Climbing a bit better than last year. Would've been a bit quicker if I hadn't fouled up the navigation through Silverstone.
M3John coming into the finish.
You were flying aswell! Good effort. I caught up with Broster en route, which is now becoming a tradition. Didn't spot any PH jerseys though - probably set off too late.
https://www.strava.com/activities/419978343
Happy with my ride, given the wind today. Climbing a bit better than last year. Would've been a bit quicker if I hadn't fouled up the navigation through Silverstone.
M3John coming into the finish.
Enjoyed that, in a masochistic sort of way lol !! Only my third Sportive and my biggest distance by far as 56 miles is my best until todays 85. I rolled out at 8:30 and recorded a moving time of 5hr 15mins which will do for me.....could have pushed harder but not having done this kind of distance before i was wary of running the tank dry !
Don't feel too bad now but my arse after 5 hrs could have done without that poxy approach road......not good and not a great venue for that reason i feel
A sausage roll or similar would have gone down well at the feed stops i reckon, don't really want to see another fig roll for a long time lol, have had much better food at considerably cheaper Sportives !......and why do they chop the bananas in half so they start to go brown and are hard to peel ?!???
This being PH there wasn't really much to report on the car spotting front other than a nice 997 sporting a roof bike rack in the car park and a white Diablo going the opposite way on the route
Spotted no PH garb atall, maybe next time
Don't feel too bad now but my arse after 5 hrs could have done without that poxy approach road......not good and not a great venue for that reason i feel
A sausage roll or similar would have gone down well at the feed stops i reckon, don't really want to see another fig roll for a long time lol, have had much better food at considerably cheaper Sportives !......and why do they chop the bananas in half so they start to go brown and are hard to peel ?!???
This being PH there wasn't really much to report on the car spotting front other than a nice 997 sporting a roof bike rack in the car park and a white Diablo going the opposite way on the route
Spotted no PH garb atall, maybe next time
spiritof'76 said:
I rolled out at 8:30 and recorded a moving time of 5hr 15mins which will do for me.....could have pushed harder but not having done this kind of distance before i was wary of running the tank dry !
That's a respectable time.I probably would've passed you an hour or so into the ride, but I was wearing the yellow retro PH jersey so you may not have recognised it. I didn't spot any other PH jerseys either.
The venue change was definitely a bum deal. Shocking roads in and out, awful car park (walking miles on muddy flinty gravel in cleats or riding and risking punctures) and then the toilets that all blocked up. That was seriously grim. Nice route though. Shame we couldn't coordinate more of a PH social. Maybe next year.
Gruffy said:
spiritof'76 said:
I rolled out at 8:30 and recorded a moving time of 5hr 15mins which will do for me.....could have pushed harder but not having done this kind of distance before i was wary of running the tank dry !
That's a respectable time.
Your time is bloody fantastic 
......guess i need to join the century club soon ! Always did wanna be a Centurian lol 
Edited by spiritof'76 on Sunday 25th October 19:28
I had a great day.
Having bumped into stepaway pre-registration I couldn't find him again so we set-off. I totally understand getting going and not standing around, the cold was brutal this morning.
Sadly I didn't see a single PH shirt the whole day long, we managed to set-off at 8:05 in the end (delay due to one of our guys needing the loo and having to queue for absolutely ages!) I wore my shirt over a softshell jacket and was toasty warm all day once we got going.
Having toyed with the idea of stopping short and doing the standard route we did carry on and do Epic and I'm glad we did. There weren't any challenging hills. One guy in our group was quite slow so we waited around a fair bit and took it easy - but it was a fun day out, not a race so that was fine.
Rubbish photo, but the only one I took.
Having bumped into stepaway pre-registration I couldn't find him again so we set-off. I totally understand getting going and not standing around, the cold was brutal this morning.
Sadly I didn't see a single PH shirt the whole day long, we managed to set-off at 8:05 in the end (delay due to one of our guys needing the loo and having to queue for absolutely ages!) I wore my shirt over a softshell jacket and was toasty warm all day once we got going.
Having toyed with the idea of stopping short and doing the standard route we did carry on and do Epic and I'm glad we did. There weren't any challenging hills. One guy in our group was quite slow so we waited around a fair bit and took it easy - but it was a fun day out, not a race so that was fine.
Rubbish photo, but the only one I took.
broster said:
Did anyone else have the paela at the finish? That's the best sportive food iv ever had!
idiotgap said:
…There weren't any challenging hills…
Everything's relative, I guess. Some of them definitely challenged me!! 
The extra miles I did through Silverstone before retracing my steps and finding the right turn mean I missed the Strava leaderboard for the Epic course https://www.strava.com/segments/10755154 but I still beat the KOM time by 7 minutes. Happy with that. The segment traces still show me giving away bucket-loads of time on the climbs though and then clawing it back on the flats/descents. That's what I need to work on over winter/spring, I think.
Damn it all!
I was within yards of the route today, but without a bike!
I drove up to Stowe landscape garden, and had a lovely day out with the wife. Weather was brilliant, although we didn't arrive until 1130hrs, so can appreciate it would have been colder early on. What local roads we did drive on looked fabulous for cycling, and the terrain, whilst not "Fenland flat", looked pretty benign to be fair.
I'd have loved to have got involved with the ride, but taking my beloved for a nice day out was a higher priority, as she only has the weekends to unwind and enjoy, while I can pretty much ride my bike almost any time I want to. Hope you all enjoyed yourselves!
I was within yards of the route today, but without a bike!
I drove up to Stowe landscape garden, and had a lovely day out with the wife. Weather was brilliant, although we didn't arrive until 1130hrs, so can appreciate it would have been colder early on. What local roads we did drive on looked fabulous for cycling, and the terrain, whilst not "Fenland flat", looked pretty benign to be fair.
I'd have loved to have got involved with the ride, but taking my beloved for a nice day out was a higher priority, as she only has the weekends to unwind and enjoy, while I can pretty much ride my bike almost any time I want to. Hope you all enjoyed yourselves!
Gruffy said:
idiotgap said:
…There weren't any challenging hills…
Everything's relative, I guess. Some of them definitely challenged me!! The extra miles I did through Silverstone before retracing my steps and finding the right turn mean I missed the Strava leaderboard for the Epic course https://www.strava.com/segments/10755154 but I still beat the KOM time by 7 minutes. Happy with that. The segment traces still show me giving away bucket-loads of time on the climbs though and then clawing it back on the flats/descents. That's what I need to work on over winter/spring, I think.
For some reason it didn't record a time for me over that full course segment.
Gruffy said:
I still beat the KOM time by 7 minutes. Happy with that.
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