British Cyclosportive 3
Posted on Thursday 5 July 2007 by Naomi Wolf
I was talked into doing the London Sportif by a few people at work and after a little bit of arm twisting I agreed to give it a shot. 200km (120 miles) is a long way, but it’s the Tour de France and a once in a life time opportunity so I could not say no.
I was very worried, even though I’ve been cycling for years in many ways this event was a first for me. This was the first time I would be cycling without my partner Keith. This was the first time doing a sportive, the first time cycling with 5000 people and the first time cycling in an event with a broom wagon. Would my legs hold up for all 200km, would I be able to keep in front of the broom wagon.
The day of the event came and I had a 6am start time. There were already hundreds of people in the start feeding line and all of them looked very fit and very fast. There was a short neutral zone through Greenwich park and then you hit the open road.
Having a 6am start time was good because when we hit the open roads, the traffic was light and we could make good time. I managed to cling to some wheels for the first 80km and made some good time. The route was well sign posted and very easy to follow. The first feed station was at 56km, and I just cycled past. My legs felt good and had plenty of water still. I stopped briefly at the second feeding station to get water. The feed stations were not that great, because they only had energy bars and water. I’ve never been big on energy bars, and thankfully I had packed a few sandwiches.
The best thing about cycling this sportive was the supporters on the road side. Most of the route had people on the road side cheering us along.
My time was 8 hours and 21 minutes which is a personal best for 200km.