Essex 100 Cycle Ride 2011
Having done two 50 mile rides this summer (The Tour de Tendring, and the Essex Castle Ride), the challenge of the Essex 100 was too much to resist. Fortunately, this ride, organised by Action Medical Research, comes in both 100mile and 100km options- and with 100km being around 64miles, my fellow rider and I opted for the latter. It still hurt!
The ride started at Danbury Outdoor Centre, and everyone was given a ride number to fix to the front of the bike, that came with a chip, to enable a start and finish time to be collected electronically. The BBC Weather site was forecasting heavy showers at 11:00 and hailstorm at 1:00, but as we rolled out of Danbury on the A414 towards Chelmsford it was cloudy but dry.
The 100km route took us on a tour of Essex, through a lot of countryside at first, through Boreham and Great Leighs, through Littley Green (past The Compasses pub, which I’ve been meaning to visit), and Pleshey.
After the first stop at about 25miles, when most of the food had been wolfed down by riders setting off earlier than us!, it got a bit more urban, as we got on the old A120 heading east through Little Canfield, and skirting Dunmow – a good few miles with lots of headwind and traffic! We turned off and headed south through Little Dunmow, Felsted, back through Great and Little Leighs, before heading through Terling and then Faulkborne, where lunch was served, and they did us proud, with a great collection of food :
We headed up to White Notley, then turned south and dropped down through Witham, before heading through Woodham Walter and up to the A414. And I mean up! The profile of the race shows a lot of climbing in the last few miles :
The saving grace for us was that we finished, got our goodie bag, and got back to the cars at 2:00pm just as the heavens opened. Whilst the 11:00am heavy rain forecast by the Beeb hadn’t materialised, the hailstorm at 1:00pm was only an hour or so out. It tipped it down, and continued to do so on my journey home up the A12, with me sparing a through for those still out on the road.
A great ride, and at the end of 100km/64miles we were pretty knackered, but we’ll be looking to do the Essex 100 in 2012! Still the 100k though…
As a fairly modest cyclist, 100k has to be the limit for my recreational Sunday mornings. And so it proved. As seems to be the norm, these events sort the men form the boys at the closing stages and this was no exception. Danbury is, of course, the highest point in the County se we were warned.
That said this was a great ride, I’ve never passed so many pubs and all shut!! Probably not a bad thing.
I’ll definitely ride it again in 2012 but as for next Sunday, it will be the Rodings 30 miler for BOB.
Photos from the Essex 100 now online at http://sportivephoto.thirdlight.com/viewdir.tlx?albumid=311922&home=1 There’s a much better one of me this time – what a finely honed athlete, the concentration, the poetry in motion, the sheer vibrant energy : http://sportivephoto.thirdlight.com/viewpicture.tlx?gsearchid=1315257222&pictureid=16636286
Rider times for the Essex 100 are now online : http://www.action.org.uk/essex_100/rider_times?page=1 – I was just after halfway in the 100k finishers, so room for improvement next year. Respect to a John Lamb who did the 100k in 3:06:18! And to Andrew Paul and Daryll Wye who did the 100miles quicker than I did the 100km! But most respect to those who were ten hours in the saddle and must have got drenched, who epitomised the ‘We Suffer, So They Don’t’ strapline of the Action Medical Research charity.
Gearing up for this Sunday’s Essex 100 – http://www.action.org.uk/essex_100
Did the Essex 100 2012 – http://www.essexdaysout.com/essex-100-cycle-ride-2012/ for a short report and pix