26th April - First Century of the Year

A gorgeous day saw Cherry and myself join fellow skaters Tom and Christophe join up to take part in Hackney CC's round Chelmsford ride. There were about 30 -35 of us that set out from Lea Valley Ice Rink heading north towards Buckhurst Hill and our first stop at the High Beach tea hut. At this point we split into 3 groups, with Tom and myself attempting to stay with the fast group led by Kier and Cherry and Chris taking the slow group. I figured that I'd see how I got on with the fast boys and if I couldn't hack it, I'd drop off and join the intermediate group. All was going OK but I started to struggle at Toot Hill. I'm not built for climbing and when 4 of the group are skinny little teenagers with far too much energy it wasn't a surprise to see me falling off the back of the group. Still it wasn't too bad and my extra weight was helping me to gain ground on the subsequent descent. Unfortunately, just as I recaught Tom on the next small climb by using this extra speed, I failed to change down in time and my chain came off. I stayed upright but by the time I had the chain back on and had flipped down through the gears, the group was already out of sight. that meant I also had to stop at the next junction to see which way to go costing me more time. I guessed which way to go at the following junction in an attempt to save time but guessed wrongly which I realised as I reached Ongar.
Looking at the map, I decide my best option was to head straight up the B184 through Fyfield before rejoining the route just before Leaden Roding. I got my head down and made pretty good time but with no idea as to the whereabouts of any of the groups I figured that my best bet would be to continue to the halfway stop, so I continued on alone. However, a pleasant surprise was waiting in Pleshey as I caught the fast group who had stopped for a 5 minute breather. No rest for me as we all headed straight off but I did get the chance to sit in the slipstream of the group for a while which helped a bunch. Fortunately the only remaining climb was the one up to the halftime stop so when the kids went sprinting off, Tom and I just slugged it out to the summit and a welcome cup of tea. Just to rub in their climbing superiority, the kids headed back down the hill to race up it again. Gits!
Somehow the slow group made it to halftime before the intermediate (worse map reading skills than mine it seems!) and Cherry said she was pretty tired. I was a bit concerned about just how much her legs were trembling but a quick shoulder massage and some food and drink seemed to revive her pretty well.
I'd thought about joining the intermediate group for the second half but I too as feeling better after the break and decide to try and stay with the fast lot again as did Tom. That didn't last long as once again we were getting blown out the back on climbs and though I could get back to about 15-20 metres away I couldn't seem to bridge the gap and somewhere around South Hanningfield we decided that we'd let them go and continue at our own pace. We caught them agin as they had stopped in Ingatestone but it was only temporary as by Hook End there was just Tom and I and a recumbent rider. By now I was on familiar territory so map reading stops were less and aside from a quick stop in Chigwell Row for some lucozade we made good time to the finish arriving at about 5.30 (apparently only 20 minutes down on the fast group). Tom carried on to West London and I took a slightly rambling route home in order to bring up my first 100 mile ride of the year (5hr52min for the record). Cherry and Chris finished just over an hour after us, tired but happy.

Route