Yesterday saw my first entry into a 100mile sportive and this well and truly lived up to the name Big Dipper - I seemed to always be travelling at either 40 or 4mph. I also, as the image may suggest, got very very lost. In the end, I crossed the line having done just over 80 miles and only having one re-fuelling stop.
I got to the 40 mile marker, rang the organisers to see where the first stop was only to be told it was at mile 27 so I was obviously at least 13 miles off course somewhere. They managed to navigate me back onto the course but I had missed out some of the ride(including the much-needed water stop). It seems from talking to other riders that a Garmin is a vital component of these longer sportives but at £300+ they aren't cheap.
I bumped into lots of other people on my travels that were similarly lost and it seems that people had been tampering with the signs. I also read on the webiste this morning that one cyclist even caught a driver turning one of the arrows the opposite way. For the slower(est) cyclists like me, I tend to be at the back so any tampering occurs long before I drag myself around the course. Not much fun!
It was refreshing though to know that I did over 80 miles of very hilly riding and felt fine, I would not have been daunted at doing another 20 miles and the only problem I suffered on the day was cramp, brought on by dehydration due to the lack of a water stop.
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