The Audax season started for Paul Alderson and myself, riding the Willesden (hence the name) cycling club's 200km event. We arrived at the start in Chalfont St. Peter with just enough time to get the bikes ready, sign on and pick up our Brevet cards. There was already a large group outside the hall ready to start, in fact more than I had seen at any of the 4 audax events I rode last year. Perhaps is was true that in the year the Paris-Brest-Paris (P-B-P) is run (1 in 4) there is more riders trying to qualify in these type of event. Only time will tell, but I found out later 65 riders had started and another 25 had ridden a 100km event that left 30 minutes after us.
After a little faffing we headed out into the drizzle with our lights on and took it nice and steady up the first few climbs. Paul had talked me out of riding my fixed wheel bike for the day although there were still plenty of riders who were on theirs.
The route had four main controls, at Pangbourne, Hungerford, Winnersh and back in Chalfont St. Peter. In between these controls there are observation questions about the route that have to be answered, such as the colour of a cottage as you turn up a certain road. They are usually obvious as you cycle along and keep the brain alert as the miles go by.
We rode with a group of 6-7 for a while as it was still very cold, that was until I turned a corner and my front wheel slipped away from me and I hit the deck. I bumped my knee and a bit broke off my brake but generally I was OK. I should have been taking more notice of the temperature that was showing on my new Garmin 800 GPS that I was using to navigate around the course. That would have told me that it was only zero degrees, which it stayed at all morning after which it rose to 4 degrees.
The first control at Pangbourne was after 51km and at a lovely cafe called Lou La Belle. All the food looked excellent and there was plenty of space to sit but unfortunatly we were cold and couldn't afford the luxury of stopping. It was a case of getting the smiley face sticker for our brevet card, a bite of the sandwich I had in my back pocket and off we went.
A few miles further and it was Pauls turn to have a mishap as one of his rear lights bumped off his frame and split into pieces and we decended a short hill. As Paul went back up to retrieve the pieces I finished off my sandwich I had started earlier.
At 97 km we reached the far end of the route at Lambourne, and the question we had to answer was about the Church. Easy because all roads entering Lamborne meet at the church and we stopped for this photo and for Paul to turn over his route direction card that he had under his map holder. We had decided to stop for some food at the control in Hungerford which was the Tutti Pole, and which was exactly half way around. Service was good and in no time at all, I had a pot of tea and a plate of beans on toast. The only negative was the price and mine came to £5.75 which was 3 times the price as when Paul had the exact same back at the finish.
After lunch the wind was a bit more favourable and we pressed on with Pete from Chiswick who had joined us at the cafe. He was planning to ride the P-B-P later in the year, after finishing the London-Edinburgh-London in 2009. The control at Winnersh was at Sainsburys, and as I opted for a double expresso, Paul went for the a couple of bottles of energy drink. Luckily Paul had more than he needed and gave me one as my bottles were completely empty and I had forgotten to get something. Thanks Paul.
Brevet Card ( Click on photo to enlarge)
We finished just as the light was fading, no punctures, although my legs were cramping a little after I tried a bit too hard on one of the final climbs. Paul had ridden well and in reality had towed me most of the way home, but we had both got round and that was the main thing.
