Over the winter I decided to get some turbo miles in. Not something I’d really been interested in doing before, but given we had a bit of a severe winter it was an easy decision. I was a late convert to ‘garage miles’ but was convinced by everyone that signing up to Zwift was the way forward. Unfortunately, I’m a bit of a techno numpty so it took a while to get it figured out. It didn’t help that my work laptop firewalled the software, so I had a bit of a game setting it up. Even now I only get to see a selective view, as the firewall stops me from joining group rides or races. Not exactly optimal or sociable, but it was good enough.
Still not sure I enjoy sitting on my bike and sweating like an idiot in my garage. It’s never a particularly pleasant experience, but everyone assured me that it would be good for my fitness on the bike. So I introduced myself to FTP tests, conditioning sets and lots of other gems that people had put on there. At least I was getting time in the saddle during some freezing cold months.
The one and only bike ride I did outside was in March with a fellow cycling mate who’d cycled up Alpe D’Huez the year before. The weather forecast had looked fairly decent for a couple of hours of riding in the morning but after half an hour the rain kicked in and it became decidedly ‘unfun’. Useful to catch up with Stu, but not enjoyable having to my thaw my fingers out when they were drenched and frozen.
Roll on the good weather.
Even though these are pretty much on my doorstep, I’d never actually ridden in the Peak District. I’d heard about some legendary climbs in there such as Winnatts Pass and the Cat and Fiddle, but never experienced them firsthand. What better way to get to know them than enter a 113 mile Sportive as a leg test ahead of the Alps.
I’d originally planned to ride this with some of the Lichfield Tri lads but I got gazumped by family stuff so I entered another version of the Sportive a week before. I managed to rope in one of my old rowing club mates, Andy, to do it with me. As it turns out, two others from the rowing club also turned up on the day so there were four of us sharing the delight of 100+ miles of relentless hills. And it was relentless.
I knew it would be tough, but I didn’t realise just how hard it would be. The hills just kept coming throughout the ride. Winnatts Pass came up fairly early on in the ride and it was short and sharp at 9.4% incline for 2km. Holme Moss was the next major hill, 7.3% for nearly 5km which was a pretty big test. At 75 miles I was feeling dead. My legs weren’t too bad, but I was getting so uncomfortable in the saddle. God knows how the tour riders manage to do this kind of things for 2 or 3 weeks. My ass was getting ripped to shreds!
I was very close to throwing in the towel. I was seriously considering stopping at the last feed station and calling a taxi back to my car. Luckily, Andy told me to stop being a wimp and get on with it. He was right of course. The last big climb was the Cat and Fiddle (so called as there is a pub of that name at the summit). This was 10km of climbing at 3.3%, much more like a long drag Alpine climb, but at a much lower incline. Getting to the top of that was a bit of a relief. The ride to the finish wasn’t exactly flat, as nothing is in the Peaks. But a ‘bit lumpy’ was far better than the previous 85 miles.
Job done. 3500 metres of elevation and over 8 hours in the saddle was mega tough, but at least it gave me some insight in to what a ride in the French Alps might be like. Just needed to get a new backside and I’d be fine.