White Rose Classic 2009

Mal and I stayed in a lovely little spa town called Ilkley. On Saturday we wandered the town and eventually had dinner in the Bar T’at ale house before heading to bed at the nice but pricier than I usually do, Craiglands Hotel.

The next day I left early, eating only a sandwich from yesterday and an instant coffee in the hotel. Mal went up into the local hills to explore. I’d planned to grab more food at the start but wanting to start soon to avoid the heat got the better of me. This skimping on breakfast would bring my unstuck around the 100k mark.

The White Rose Challenge (formerly Classic but they split from British Cycling) long route was 182k and had a rather large and annoying for fat buggers like me, 3850m of climbing.

Route: Ben Rhydding, Askwith, Farnley, Norwood edge, Blubberhouses, Greenhow Hill, Grassington, Kilnsey, Kettlewell, Buckden, Oughtershaw, Hawes, Garsdale Head, Dent Station, Newby Head, Ribblehead, Stainforth, Malham, Airton, Cracoe, Burnsall, Appletreewick, Bolton Abbey, Langbar, Middleton, Ben Rhydding.

The ride was much touger than the Dragon Ride I’d done a couple of weeks beforehand. I’m so glad I took the good bike to this with a 27T and not the Rubble with its 23T. The hills were steeper and some of them were probably just as long AND steeper. It really did require quite a bit of effort to make it over things like Fleet Moss (589m, highest road in the Yorkshire Dales apparently) and the descents were much trickier (more fun, but there were a few riders with gravel rash at the end) than the straight, wide Dragon’s. I hit 84kph on coming down Fleet Moss and that’s with 20m visibility at the top and before realising my headset was loose. “Damage” was such an appropriate nickname to get from Paul..

I totally fell apart at the 100k mark, somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd feed stations. It wasn’t a full-on bonk but I did just hit a mental and performance wall. I had to suddenly eat and drink a lot more, slow down and just keep the legs ticking over. Moving forward slowly is better than not moving forward at all. I eventually pulled myself together but the damage had been done. It was around here I also noticed my loose headset – my fault for playing with torque wenches days beforehand. At the 3rd feed I borrowed an allen key set off a bloke on a blue Scott (I think) – thanks very much mate! Once the headset was sorted I had a proper stop, sat down, stretched a lot, ate a lot, refilled two bottles, saw Dave Lloyd refilling and eventually started again.

From the 3rd feed to the finish I was doing better. This is normally where I start to catch lots of people that went past me earlier on. I guess I’m a strong finisher when it comes to longer stuff these days. At some point I heard some guys chatting about what gold time was – “7:37” I answered, “I’m on 7:12 what about you?”. “I’m on.. crap we’re nearly done and I’ve got time to get Gold!” and with that I sped off from them, finding new reserves and busting a lung to finish.

I made it within time but I’d forgotten about the Powertap shutting off while I was stopped at the feed trying to recover. I missed Gold by 8 minutes! I beat Ed’s time, which was my goal, but only 7:45 minutes! Come on!

Mal met me at the Ben Rhydding Sports Club finish while I did what I could to recover in the heat (the free meal and a beer helped) before we commenced the trek back to London and the ride home.