Retired to bed 10pm and had the same night of none sleep as I did the night before Ride London... managed 2 hours continuous sleep with the rest being fleeting drifting in and out of consciousness, ah well if I can get around London I'll get around my own stomping ground OK!
It's the inaugural Velo Birmingham today... 15,000 cyclists riding 100 miles on completely closed roads... not expecting it to be a Ride London beater but after what appears to be a few cock-ups on the organisers part (including a large portion of the route completely changed a month prior to the event!) we shall see what occurs...
Got up at 6 and rode 5.8 miles to Broad Street just after 7, arrived Broad Street at 7.45ish to find... no signs pointing to wave C1... not a great start and good job I know my home town...
Found Wave C1 and waited at the front of the wave where the C1 banner sign was... except it wasn't the front of the wave it was the rear of it hmmm... corrected my position and moved more towards the front...
We wait... tick follows tock follows tick follows tock... our 8.30 start time arrives... nothing happens... we wait more... tick follows tock follows tick follows tock... someone shouts out 20 minute delay... we wait more.... tick follows tock follows tick follows tock... at 8.50 I hear a faint "3, 2, 1, go!"... people start clicking into their pedals and off we go... I am so far unimpressed but at least we are moving... we roll down Broad Street, cross over the official start line and away we go...
So far all is has been quiet and atmosphere-less... around half hour into the ride we encounter the first real batch of supporters egging us all on, one guy is dancing in a bear suit - that's better! 😉
Summary
The route is very up and down most of the time with not many flat sections... at least the down sections are long, not as scenic as Ride London either but I didn't expect it to be. As the ride went on the support through the towns and villages was fantastic with people shouting encouragement plus I have never seen so many kids holding their hand out to be high fived - this is what put a smile on my face and made the ride enjoyable. I got fed up of the amount of hills in places plus the time constraint meant I wouldn't have any time to stop and chill for 15 mins, it's pretty much grab and go. At one point a fellow rider commented to me that the hills were relentless and she wasn't going to do it again, I agreed and mentioned Ride London is much better... she revealed she had done London too and wholeheartedly agreed.
I always take my own food just incase... THANK GOD I DID!!!
Severely disappointed in the feed stations...
Feedstation no.1 was on a bottleneck with riders blocking the entire road... the feed area itself was too small for the amount of riders going in and out plus the only fuel available was packets of wine gums and gels. The only thing they got right was the amount of portaloos about, at least there was no queue for toilet!
Feedstsation no.2 at mile 55, an important stop for anyone solely relying to be fed by the organisers. As I entered a geezer was shouting out 'No food!' it took an age to walk in and out, they were completely out of bottled water, I had to join a long queue to get water from a large water tank - there were two or three guys taking your bottle, dipping it into a water basin and handing your bottle back, not exactly hygienic, on top of that how was I supposed to refill the hydration bladder on my back??? Luckily as I exited the feedstation a guy was giving out small bottles of water so I grabbed two and refilled the bladder. Just after that feedstation I rode past a petrol station which was swamped with riders buying food...
Suprisingly the 3rd feedstation (85 miles) I stopped at had food, chocolate cake, bananas and wine gums - the cake was good (missed my cuppa though 😃). Once more it was way too small an area for the amount of riders. Whilst there a geezer shouted out that we would all have to get a move on if we wanted to be back before the roads reopened at 6.
Shortly after the last feedstation there was what the organisers had billed the biggest climb of the ride... St Kennelms Pass - I knew had rode up it before but it had been at least 5 years so couldn't remember which hill it was... turned out it was very tame compared to other hills we had all rode up earlier - infact the undulations that immediately came after St Kennelms was far worse!
At 5.10 I rode over the last hill of the ride and descended towards Birmingham City Centre once more, the finish on Broad Street was rather good and I was rather chuffed (and relieved) I had completed a hilly 100 with legs still intact especially as I still had another 6 miles to ride home, my finish time was 6pm on the dot.
The real stars of the show was the locals supporting and cheering us us all on through the villages and towns, on top of that they were offering food and water to any riders that required it, heard of one guy was even offering free burgers! 😀 I'm sure they saved a lot of riders necks...
Bewdley in particular had bunting out and had decorated the area with bike ornaments etc.
Verdict
For the first event of this type in Birmingham the organisers have loads to learn - they have publicly admitted they got it wrong too which is something, a fair few megaphones wouldn't have gone amiss so at least more people can hear what is happening. It would have been nice if each wave had a proper start too. A few speakers mounted throughout all of the waves with the DJ counting down each wave start would have been ace - as far as I can tell only the front wave got that...
For the first event of this type in Birmingham the organisers have loads to learn - they have publicly admitted they got it wrong too which is something, a fair few megaphones wouldn't have gone amiss so at least more people can hear what is happening. It would have been nice if each wave had a proper start too. A few speakers mounted throughout all of the waves with the DJ counting down each wave start would have been ace - as far as I can tell only the front wave got that...
Not a patch on Ride London however... I shall likely be back next year and expect at least 90% of the negatives to be ironed out, if it wasn't for support of the locals through the towns and villages I wouldn't be back at all.
Highlights of the ride:
My name was displayed on my rider number on the front of my bike so had a lot of 'Come on Kay, you can do it!' shouted out at me, especially the 4 or 5 ladies egging me on at the begining of St Kennelms Pass. A lady on a pub balcony who shouted 'You go girl! You're awesome!' also put a big smile on my face. 😆
Todays' Fuel:
Special K, Oats and Golden Syrup (pre ride brekkie)
2 x Soreen mini toffee maltloaf
2 x Soreen mini toffee maltloaf
2 x SIS mini go bars
1 x Lemon curd sarnie on white bread (my rocket fuel - really wish I had made two rounds)
1 whole bag Sainsbury's Jelly Babies
6 approx Fig Rolls
2 x High 5 gels
2 slices chocolate cake
2 Litres SIS Go Electrolite mix
2.5 approx litres plain water (hydration pack)
Recovery food:
A big f'off pizza! 😆
