Clee to Heaven 120km Audax

Clee to Heaven Audax

I signed up for this audax because it was organised by Beacon, a local club I'm a member of and occasionally ride with. I'd previously ridden several 100km rides but nothing with this amount of climbing. I had the route loaded on google maps in my phone but was concerned I would get lost. I'd wasn't used to navigating myself on rides having previously just followed other cyclists on group rides. I even remembered to bring a tupperware box full of raspberry and amaretti cake. I memorised the instructions for the first 10km or so by following the route on google street view. I started in the second wave of cyclists leaving Belbroughton but soon found myself cycling alone having failed to catch up with the faster Beacon riders. I was joined by 2 riders from Twyning cycle club who kindly rode with me for the rest of the route. Arriving at Ray's farm we had our cards stamped and joined the queue for refreshments. A coffee and a millionaires short cake were just what I needed, topped up with an energy bar to keep the glucose in check. The next section was the toughest and included a particularly steep climb. Seeing other riders around me kept my motivation up and I stayed on the bike to the top. Soon after I discovered that my strava had stopped recording so hadn't included the hill climb! Back at Ray's farm there was time for another coffee before the last leg home. The intermittent rain required several stops to put on then remove jackets. Then back on again for the ride back to Belbroughton. I somehow had a burst of energy in the final 20km hitting that ideal glucose range. Arriving back at the HQ cold and wet but triumphant I handed over my brevet card for checking and filled a plate with cake and scones. I'm very grateful for Martin and Andrew for riding with me, without their support and encouragement I may well have not made it to the end. I was exhausted, the thought of riding an additional 80km just seemed beyond me. Maybe if I chose a flatter route I could do 200km ride.

 

Levemir reduced from 8 to 2 units on the morning of the ride, with 2 units of novorapid for the mid ride stop and 4 units for the post ride cake.