The Imperial Century A Month Challenge Chatzone

[ianrauk]

This months qualifying ride done and dusted with the Oasts and Coasts 300k Audax.
Leaving at home at 4am to cycle to the start. Boy it was cold and windy. This was going to be a tough ride. About 100 hardy souls left Meopham at 6am into thankfully a north wind pushing us at a rapid pace south stopping for breakfast at Uckfield. Now heading east the wind made for harder going. To Battle, across the marshes to Hythe, climbing the twin thigh burners of Capel Le Fern at Folkestone and Dover Hill past the impressive castle. Now we were heading north. That's when the headwind hit hardest, making for hard and slower progress. The glorious Key Lime pie at the stop at Deal made up a bit for the hard work the wind was putting us through. But once we got to Minnis Bay we thankfully turned west which made for much easier going. Stopping at Herne Bay at 7pm for more fuelling (A sausage roll and Jam Roly Poly and custard for me and massive feasts of fish and chips for my cycling companions. By this time, Herne bay was treating us to a most stunning of sunsets. Now it was really cold, the temperature had dropped quite a bit. We were all feeling the cold. Through a car busy Whitstable we hit the Graveny marshes. Flat as the proverbial pancake but prone to headwinds. Luckily the winds was with us and we traversed them at a rapid pace. Climbing up the downs in the pitch black we picked up a couple of other fellow Audaxers and we were now 5. Making our way along the Pilgrims Way over the Medway and a few more little lumps before arriving back at base at 11.30pm. I still wasn't finished though as I had another 15 miles back to home. Walking through the door just after 1am.
A long old day on the bike, a cold one, but a great one never the less. A massive thanks to Tom Jackson for the brilliant route and organisation and even bigger thanks to my 2 cycling companions for the day, Tony and Hugh and all the other riders I spoke and rode with.
So, scores on the doors.
220 miles for the day. (354km's for my non UK friends)
Imperial Century Month 161 in a row.
Imperial Century #338

That's France over there

Herne Bay

Reculver

Bluebells

Key Lime Pie at Deal

 

[13 rider]

Still in Aprils done but did fear the worst ,cycled up to Whaley Bridge on Tuesday to stay a few days with my sister who was on holiday . Did 77 miles going up did think about extending it but the thought of more hills put me off. I wasn't feeling great on Tuesday then went down with a proper cold but with the only today with favourable weather I plotted a route trying too do as little climbing as possible but get the distance still did 5800ft of upness a real slog at the end but I'm over the line 101 imperial miles

 

[Supersuperleeds]

May done. Glorious weather, rode south east down to near Stratford, loop back round and headed home, 103 miles and it was warm enough (eventually) for short sleeves. Will update the logging thread later.

 

[robjh]

Got May's ride in yesterday, Saturday 4th.

One of our local cycling groups was doing a 90-mile ride along the Norfolk coast from King's Lynn to Great Yarmouth, and I decided to extend that by riding the 50ish miles up to the start to meet them. I set out at 4am and was treated to a magnificent dawn as I rode up the empty main road through Ely and Downham Market, and arrived in very good time at KL at 7.30. I found an early-opening café and had breakfast while waiting for the others to arrive by train.
We then had a great day riding through North Norfolk, on minor roads parallel to the coast, but avoiding the main road which gets very busy on warm weekends such as this. Had a spate of punctures near Sandringham, then a first snack break at Binham Priory, reaching Cromer about 1.30. It was absolutely heaving with Bank Holiday crowds here and we didn't get down to the seafront, but sat on a wall with some takeaways.
At Happisburgh we stopped for me to assess the current state of coastal erosion - I've been coming since 1984 and places that I knew then have disappeared into the sea. Then we finished with an increasingly mad dash for Great Yarmouth to try and make a train, which we nonetheless missed. Luckily they were quite frequent but we still had to split across two trains as our 8 bikes exceeded the limit for one.

I finished on 150.1 miles.
Number of consecutive months with a 100+mile ride : 65. Number of 100+ mile rides ever : 144.

At Cromer - me in orange at front