2011 Wiggle Surrey Sussex Scramble Sportive
90 Miles over the South Downs in under 6 hours
The Wiggle Sportives are mass cycle events that offer something for everyone. For someone like me who is vainly trying to increase their weekly mileage, the 90mile route, was a perfect stepping stone to that magic 120 mile IronMan distance that I am going to have to ride in under 8 weeks time. The South Downs location is under 40minutes away from where I live so there really was no excuse to pass on the event and I signed up as a late entrant mainly because I couldn’t stand the thought of another weekend of sole cycling the same boring routes that I ride every weekend.
Turning up to the event at 8am last Sunday morning I was surprised as to how different the atmosphere was compared to the Half Ironman I entered a few weeks ago. Apart from the fact that the start time was at a much more reasonable hour (most people were up at 4am to prepare for the half IM), everyone was much more friendly and people were actually chatting with each other instead of eyeing up the competition and making sure no one was messing with your transition zone!
After a quick registration it was time to start and after a short 2 minute brief regarding a last minute course change we were let across the starting line in groups of eight or so. This being my first long distance cycling event I made the rookie mistake of setting out way to fast and struggled to keep up with the pack of club riders who I started out with. After realizing that there was no way I was going to be able to sustain their pace for more than twenty minutes or so, I dropped back and watched them gradually speed off down what was, unknown to me at the time, the only flat part of the entire course. Worried that I was riding too slowly I checked my watch and was pleasantly surprised to see that I was still cruising along at 18mph without too much effort.
The first thirty miles or so of the race were relatively fun as there were loads of people to catch up with and every twenty minutes or so a large pack of riders would pass me, allowing me to draft for a few minutes along the downhill sections of the roads surrounding the South Downs. I joined one pack just after the thirty mile point who were riding at a pace just above my comfort zone, only to have them dive into the first feed station and leave me hanging! After looking into the station as I passed I couldn’t blame them as the range of food and drink on offer was pretty good Cakes, flapjack and sweets were all on offer as well as as much Hi 5 energy drink as you needed. I had enough fluids and gels to last me about three quarters of the course so instead of stopping I opted to put some distance in-between me and the people who had passed me previously. After 40 miles or so the hills started to get bigger and the inclines steeper. One particular 5 mile section of the course was virtually all up hill past the Goodwood horse racing track and it seemed like there was a never ending hill around every corner. Hills like that don’t exist anywhere else in Surrey and so I struggled to remember all the lessons learned from previous coaches about how to stay seated and relaxed, and instead had to resort to standing up for most of the climb. This is bad form for triathlon training as standing up when climbing hills works the same muscles as running does and so it I carried this technique over to the IronMan I would end up starting the marathon with completely fatigued legs. The trick is to sit back on our seat, keep your upper body relaxed and imagine your legs working like pistons whilst switching to a lower gear to keep your cadence near the 90’s. There are going to be some inclines where all I am going to want to do is stand up but hopefully by the time the IronMan comes around I will have ridden enough hilly courses for my legs to be able to cope with all but the most challenging sections.
After not ducking into the second food station at 50 miles I was having to ration my energy drink and with the hills not abating, I was starting to think that I would run out of fluids by the time the next station came around. Luckily it was cool day and most of the time I had been riding I had been cycling through a fine later of drizzle so I wasn’t exactly overheating. One of my biggest problems during the past few months of training has been dehydration as I really had no idea what a difference keeping hydrated makes. Without water and carbs your leg muscles have nothing to burn as fuel and so start trying to burn muscle as fat is too slow a mechanism from which to generate energy. As a result of dehydration I sometimes felt my legs beginning to lose all power and sometimes actually pulse with pain as they have nothing left to burn. Luckily that was not the case during the sportive and I must have rationed my energy drinks just right as just as I was starting to feel the first twinges of muscle dehydration I spotted the last feed station and dived in for a short rest, some flapjack and to stock up in energy drink.
On my exit from the station I made another rookie mistake and tried to change gear whilst putting full pressure on my pedals as I tried to cycle up the short incline to the race route. My chain slipped and then jammed, sending my clipped-in self crashing to the floor in front of a dozen or so club riders and making me feel like a right idiot. Luckily some bloke held my bike up as I fixed the chain and in no time I was off again. Climbing the last sleep hill took some effort but afterwards the energy drinks and nutrition started to kick in and the last 10miles of the race sped by.
Lessons learned for the next race include making sure I drink enough energy drink and also I need to practice one some tougher courses. The hills in the Pulborough Sportive not only took way to much energy to climb than they should have but my recovery time after each hill was much too long as such my average pace for the whole race was barely 15mph.
Sportives are going to be my training event of choice from now on as I was getting really bored of solo training and the sportives are a great way to ride some routes that I wouldnt normally ride. The fact that there are course markers around the whole course takes the tedious navigation problem out of the problem and combining this with the safety net and facilities that are provided on the day, I think that at 12-30 quid a pop, sportives are well worth the money – especially considering both the enjoyment and the training benefits that they provide.
