Exmouth Exodus

[argdraw]

Anyone who missed it missed out, this was my first organised night ride.

All seemed very relaxed, and Tea stops where Excellent, lovely hot veg stew went down very well at mid way.

I set this ride as a bit of a personnel challenge, one I unfortunately failed, I started well, rode from Slough out to Bristol, left at 9am, arrived at 6pm after a leisurely 100 mile day, had a nice mixed grill at Channings Hotel, who didn't seem to mind at all that their garden was full of an ever swelling crowd of cyclists, people started moving about 8.30, and I joined a group which left at 9pm, it didn't appear that a mass start was going to happen, probably just as well, as there was still some light traffic in Bristol.
I was lucky as I ride with a head lamp at night (handy for mountain bike orienteering) which meant by luck I could read my route sheet and map, tip if you've not done a night event, its dark having flood lights on your bars, still makes it tricky to read a route sheet.

The drop into Cheddar was exciting, especially the one corner where the cat's-eyes are missing!
First tea stop, I admit I didn't notice the 'honesty' box, but did put in extra at next stop to make up, when I realised the system.

Hot veg curry at North Curry, wasn't expected but went down great, Fast happy service by the tea staff, what more could you ask for at 3am !!
next tea stop was 7.4miles further on than I expected, apparently its how Audax runs sheets are written, on the plus side, was even nicer getting a hot drink, when you think you missed a stop and are going to have to go without.

5am sun was coming up, great views, but I felt very cold, was an odd feeling, my body felt ok, but my brain was going fussy.
Dropping down toward Otterton, there was a cyclist coming toward me ! no not a wrong turn, it was 7.30am and the locals where stirring,

Yettington, that's a nice hill, at the time I thought route planner was a tad sadistic to put it at end of the ride, you climb it then it drops down and fights back... several times. to follow however is a nice coast down into Exmouth, In my excitement I got lost, so had a short tour of the town, oops, eventually finding the coast and the breakfast stop 210 miles into my ride.
I followed the main road out of Exmouth, then the A road toward Lyme Regis, 15 miles out and I felt like I done all the nights climbs over again, I appreciate now just how flat the route had been.

I stopped and laid on some grass at the top of one of these climbs, and got 15 mins sleep, before a car stopped and checked if I was ok, apparently they had seen me when driving past, and came back to check, (very nice of them), I carried on to Illminster and joined the A303 the newer dual carriage way bits have a 'hard shoulder' cyclepath not pleasant but straight and more level than the local roads, the older narrower bits are just nasty! I had intended to use the local parallel roads, but some of these would entail crossing the A303! risking lorry wash blasting me into the undergrowth I could live with, trying to cross that road would be dangerous.
Having learnt from earlier, I climbed deep into the hedgerow off the side of a roundabout, and used my carry mat, and got a good hours sleep, this was between 3-4pm which was when the sun was trying to boil me dry, feeling much refreshed I headed on to the Cadburys, and was lucky enough to catch a cream tea, as what had obviously been a fete, was being packed away, at 7pm I called in the cavalry, and my wife drove out, and picked me up at Amesbury at 9pm. 310 miles in with 68 to go! maybe a 380 mile weekend was ambitious, but it was fun, the Night ride was excellent, everyone was friendly and out to enjoy it. If you don't occasionally challenge yourself, how do you know what you can do?

I learnt at least 2 things, The Exmouth Exodus, should be added to my calendar, and the A303 is crap for cycling on.

 

[Glover Fan]

This was my first ever night ride, I had done 8 miles the night before to check that my lights were all good and that I what I could expect to see.

I was like a kid all day, really excited about what was about to come about. Got a lift down to Clifton Downs at 8.30pm and rode down with my father in law towards Channings, saw quite a few small groups already leaving. When I got there I understood why, wow! What a load of cyclists in a built up area! What was so spectacular was that there were loads of passers by and member of the public watching the cyclists set off as well.

Had a quick pee and dropped in my quid for the route sheet (which I didn't need). Set off at 9.05pm in a fairly sizeable group, would hazard about 20-30 of us had set off at the same time. Was nice having an urban aspect to the ride. I could tell I was full of adrenaline and excitement I felt so good on the bike and considering the time of night did not feel tired at all.

Quite a few of the group missed the turn for the Avonmouth Bridge, luckily I know the area really well so shouted to warn them. There was some confusion after the bridge, but we all got through OK. Went through the lanes to Clevedon, in fact this was the worst part of the ride in terms of potholes. Potholes and gravel everywhere, even though this is part of the Avon Cycleway, you'd have thought the council would have sorted it, but hey ho.

Quick dash towards Burrington which was looming beyond the dim moonlight, there was a wedding party going on at the bottom of the climb so we all had a bit of a sing along and then set up the first major climb, I just popped into the lowest gear and span my way up the hill. There were a couple who gave a pretty good effort up the hill, but I muttered to my mate that they will be suffering later (we later overtook them at the bottom of Woodbury Common). I was absolutely boiling up to this point, I wore bibshorts, baselayer and windproof top, but I had unzipped my top. As soon as I got to the top of the coombe I had to zip it up as I was getting pretty nippy. It was at this point I first felt tired, not physically but mentally, like my body knew it was about 10.30pm and my normal bedtime. Luckily shortly after we had the lovely descent into Cheddar and an excellent tea stop at the bottom, had a couple of bites to eat, but was mindful of the fact that being near the front of the pack I didn't want to consume all the food!

Looked at my watch and was surprised at how quickly we was making progress - only 11.30!!! Set off again and felt free as a bird - I left my helmet at the tea stop. Doh! Went back and got it and set off again.

Rather uneventful stage between Cheddar and North Curry, bar a front tyre blowout on my father in laws bike on the rapid descent from Wedmore, he hit a stone at about 30MPH, I don't know how he managed to bring the bike to a halt, but he did and so we repaired the puncture and carried on. The next 20 miles were flat as a pancake and fairly rapid. At this point I should probably make a public thanks to the chap in the Audax UK jersey and the guy on the mountain bike who were pulling about 6 of us past High Ham towards North Curry, it was nice to have a little respite from the largely un-noticable headwind. On the small climb just before North Curry I had a little bit of adrenaline and raced to the top of the hill - something I regret about 10 miles later.

Got to North Curry at 1.45am and the lovely little hall was bussling. Smelt the Vegetable Stew and promptly bought a bowl and a bag of haribo. That stew was absolutely devine and although it felt odd eating something so wholesome at 2am, it was absolutely delicious. Rested for half an hour, before I started to feel the onset of sleep, so got up chatted with a couple from Bath and set off again.

The next 10-20 miles were the toughest of the night for a multitude of reasons: -

• It was 2-3am
• I ate way too much at North Curry
• I gave a bit of a large effort just before North Curry
• I was only ever about 10 miles from Chard where I know there was a bed if I needed it.

My legs felt full of lactic and going past Taunton Racecourse I felt awful. My riding buddy wasn't feeling great either so had noone to gee me up a little. I knew Blagdon was looming and despite growing up in the area had never cycled up it, so didn't know what to expect. During this difficult period I dug out an emergency SIS Berry flavoured Caffeine gel. Got to the bottom of Blagdon village and felt the gel kick in. Stuck my bike in the lowest gear and spun, I could feel the lactic draining out of my muscles and suddenly felt fresh as a daisy. As I approached the hairpin I stood on the pedals and made a graceful ascent up Blagdon, I passed a couple of cyclists who were pushing their bikes up the hill who moments before had zoomed past on the flat, that also made me feel good.

It was at this point I was expecting a tea stop. I didn't particularly need one, but nevertheless it didn't appear anyway of which I completely understand considering the amount of people on the ride. Besides the ride was free and I bought supplies with me anyway. So I stopped for a pee just after Smeatheharpe and ate a couple of fig rolls.

BTW, Smeatharpe is an awful road, i've always hated it. Really exposed and a gradual gradient and a poor road surface although it seems to have been resurfaced very recently.

The last 30 miles were generally silent, I was now feeling quite tired and had a bit of stomach ache, it was gradually downhill all the way to Otterton. As Woodbury Common came into sight the sun was threatening to rise. Like the person above I felt the climb at Woodbury to be sadistic, it had about 5 false summits as you could never ascertain the top from the landscape. When I got to the top it was at that point it dawned on me (excuse the pun) what I had achieved. A lovely descent down into Exmouth and got to the Harbour View Cafe at 5.55am, but most importantly before sunrise which made me feel good.

Ate a sausage sandwich and had a lovely milky hot chocolate and hung about for 3 hours for our lift back. Got a 2 hour kip yesterday and a very much needed sleep last night.

Did I enjoy it? Yes. Would I do it again? Maybe.

High point: - Blagdon Hill
Low Point: - Just after North Curry.

Thanks to everyone who organised it and put in their time unfunded to put together a fantastic experience and food stops.

 

[Baggy]

Pleased to hear the majority of you had good rides, and chapeau to you argdraw for taking on all those hills afterwards!

Ian - yes, I think that everyone involved in helping enjoyed it, though the trauma of setting up in Cheddar and finding our newly-purchased LPG bottle was actually empty might scar me for life. Without Maggot's local knowledge it might have been a tea-less affair. Imagine!

It's always magical moment seeing the first headlights streaming down the Gorge towards us. It was slightly disturbing when it became a non-stop wall of light at about 12.30am, but User76 and Simon's tea-wrangling skills kept everything ticking over nicely.

It's a shame we couldn't get to the second tea stop as early as we'd hoped, our trusty sweeper came through Cheddar at about 2.00am to let us know there were still a few left on the route behind him, so we made sure they were topped up with tea and got away at about 2.30ish. Popped into North Curry to top up on water, milk and snack supplies, and then headed back out. Think we were up and running by about 5.15am and caught just over half of the field, so am sorry some of you who were disappointed.

With any luck we'll round up some more volunteers next year, which means we'll be able to have a tea stop at the Luppit end running from about 3.30am, rather than relying on us doing our mad dash across Somerset - either that or everyone will just have to pedal slower!

There were about twice as many riders as last year, between 240-260. We served about 235 drinks at the first stop, and 120 at the second. I never want to see an unsliced Soreen, Swiss roll or fruit cake again.

Thanks go to all those of you who rode it, and made it a fun night out for us.