First 100 mile sportive!

The more time I spend on my road bike, the more I love it! That also means the more effort I have to put in to balance all my bikes out. It can be very tempting to plan activities for one bike and completely forget the others. I've been nudging my way closer to a 100 miler each year, last year I managed a 70 odd miler and even an 80 miler but I was having some real niggles at the time and the 80 mile ride was excruciating. I've now had a bike-fit done and I'm a lot more comfortable on the bike, to the point where I'm completely pain free and the miles simple trickle past in happiness. My fitness this year has been better than ever across all my bikes so I decided it was time to finally break my 100 mile cherry and why not do it in style and enter a sportive in the meantime! I wasn't feeling confident enough to do it alone so again it was Buly to the rescue and he agreed to ride the sportive with me.

I'd been recommended the Tour of the Black Country and despite it being a cyclocross we signed up with myself on my trusty Trek and Buly on an orange CX bike. I fully expected him to be strong on the off road sections and for me to then catch up on the road. The plan with doing it together was that we could share the supplies out so I carried the puncture repair kit and he carried the pump etc. He's been doing a fair amount of turbo'ing and riding in general so I figured out of my riding friends, he would be the most suitable!

A sportive isn't competitive, you can start anytime within a set period which takes the stress and worry off arrival time and not getting too caught up in a starting sprint! The route was on mostly quiet roads with some busy sections and plenty of bridleways thrown in as well to keep you on your toes. The weather was fantastic on the day which was a blessing but did present the problem of the bridleways being extremely dusty and akin to riding on marbles. I found the 100 miles surprisingly easy going despite keeping a constant eye on the miles ticking by. The only thing I regret was not taking headphones as I didn't end up seeing Buly much at all so the miles got a little lonely despite everyone being really friendly. As friendly as everyone was, when you have to wait for your friend to catch up every ten miles it's pointless getting too friendly as in about ten minutes they're going to sail into the distance. I managed to keep pushing throughout the 100 miles and could of easily carried on going, in fact the last 5km segment on strava I got the QOM!

There was a real sense of achievement in crossing the finish line, I even shed a few tears and the only thing I regret was not crossing the line with Buly. Time was really slipping away, I wasn't sure he'd even make the track finish so I decided to push on as much as possible to ensure I made it. I couldn't believe it when I looked down and realised my mileage was at approximately 99 miles! The beauty of Tour of the Black Country, however, is that it's a track finish so if the miles aren't quite right you can just keep circling!

I'd definitely recommend a sportive as someones first step on to organised cycling. Everyone was really friendly and the signposting and feed stations really take the hassle out of long distance cycling!