Well folks.....that went better than I was expecting. Apart from a sore bum and some very tired legs, I escaped pretty much unscathed.
Camlo and I loaded ourselves, like cattle into Pen R, the penultimate pen to depart, and in it were 1100 other riders. The only Pen after us was T, which had 40 riders in it.
We set off at 8:30am, with blue skies and dry roads, and I stayed with Camlo for probably about 40 minutes, and let the pack disperse a bit, as it was all a bit congested. After about 40 minutes, I latched onto a nicely paced back wheel, of some poor unsuspecting cyclist, and disappeared, without even so much as a goodbye to the wife, into the distance. The next time I glanced back, she was nowhere to be seen, and that was the last we saw of each other till the finish.
I was very conscious of taking it steady, and avoiding blowing up well short of the end, and I kept it pretty steady until 60km in, whereupon, I was introduced to the notorious Tumble.....
This is where I owe you guys a huge debt of gratitude. Thanks to my Bkool training, and my steady start, I was able to power up it like it was nothing. I overtook hundreds of people going up there, and was weaving in and out of silently swearing, sweaty cyclists. No one overtook me on the Tumble, and it just felt great....loved it.
The downside was, it gave me a dangerous sense of invincibility, and I took off like a scalded cat down the other side. I spent the next 40 odd km hopping from one draft to the next, which I can honestly say is nothing like drafting on Bkool. Not once did I shoot straight past them, or brake slightly and watch them catapult over the horizon.
By the time I hit Caerphilly Mountain, the last climb before the drop into Cardiff, the legs were smarting a bit, but you know I love my hills. Stood up on the pedals and emptied the fuel tank into that incline.
I was jiggered by the time I crossed the line, but did it in an official time of 4h 56m, (started my Garmin early, and switched it off late), which was in the top 1/5th, so really chuffed, especially as I thought I was going to blow up.
The food stops were a melee of bikes and bodies, so avoided them, but I had a good dose of Camlo's superfood flapjack, and several chopped up pork pies, 2 bottles of water, and that got me to the end, without even a sniff of a bonk....bit like this evening no doubt. That flapjack is great stuff, Bill, hopefully there'll be a batch made up for next weekend.
The heavens did open at one point, but it only lasted for about 20 minutes, and by the time we finished, we were back on dry roads. Loads of folks with punctures, and saw a nasty accident on the cattle grid at the bottom of the Tumble, where the guy skidded off, unclipping just in time to trap his leg between the slats as he slipped back. I would have offered my assistance, and exercised my first aid at work skills, if I wasn't so bloody selfish...but I am...so I didn't. Besides there was plenty of bodies piling up on him, any one of which could have offered assistance.
All in all, a rip roaring success, and one I would definately do again. Now for a week of recovery, and I suspect next weekend will be a slightly different kettle of fish altogether. An extra 35 miles'ish and an extra 1,000,000ft of climbing.....ish!