I thought I would throw in mine & Suzie's Sunday ride for amusement. We had spent the week in the Dales, using Hawes as our base for the camper van and taking in some lumpy rides on the tandem including Buttertubs, Grinton Moor, Halton Gill via Stainforth, Kidstones and a few others on rides during the week. We 'tapered down', by taking a day off on the Saturday before taking part in the Ripon Revolution sportive on Sunday. Sportives are not my cup of tea now but it looked a good challenging circuit and, as we were doing it on the tandem, a good early indicator as to whether or not next years Fred Whitton is a realistic option on the tandem.
There were three rides on the day, a short 30m route, a 70m, standard course and the 100m epic route. We had entered the Epic which set off from Ripon, Masham, the long slog past the resevoir up to the top of Lofthouse bank, down past Gouthwaite to Pateley then up Greenhow Hill before meandering its way up hill and down dale to Brimham rocks, over to Aldwark Bridge, Helperby and back to Ripon.
We got cracking at 07.45 in a gaggle of riders who were quickly despatched once we got into our rythmn. The weather was muggy and calm but you could see the storm brewing in the west which sure enough made it's prescence know up past Fearby towards Lofthouse top. Surprisingly we found ourselves still managing to overtake riders going up hill. it should not happen, the tandem is a real slug uphill but then again the riders were the pro team jersey Pirelli dogma types. All the gear but noot much idea. By the time we had winched up to the top the weather was absolutely foul, horizontal driving rain in a bitter wind. After a quick stop to don rain capes we minced our way down Lofthouse bank which was very greasy and gravelly. The first feed station was at Pateley where the route split, standard going left into Pately and the Epic going right up Greenhow Hill. Quite a number of the Epic riders were bailing here, opting for the quicker route home. We however felt good so we hauled up Greenhow switching between our 28/34 clicking up to the 32 & 30 when the gradient slacked slightly.
Once at the top of Greenhow we knew we had done the worst of the climbs and what remained were just some lumpy up and down dale. There was one wonderful deadstraight downhill where the Garmin indicated 51mph and where we smoked quite a few solo's. We managed to carry the speed well keeping in the big 52 ring on the way back up the other side. This is where the tandem comes into it's own, very fast on the flat and down hill, but, a slug uphill!
The weather then began to improve rapidly and the rest of the ride was fairly uneventful and although starting to feel the fatigue most enjoyable.
We crossed the finishing line in an official total elasped time of 7hrs 39mins including stops, of which there were three plus one for change of clothing. Actual ride time was 6hrs 47mins showing an average speed of 14.4mph with 6,600ft of climb in the 100 miles. Fastest speed recorded 51mph.
As a bench mark for where we are aiming to be for 'The Fred', quite pleased. As for the event. it was one of the Cycling weekly sportive series, highly commercialised, very expensive, definately not good value for money though judging by the numbers of participants obviously popular. We were one of only two tandems taking part though we did not see them at all.
We were of course wearing our Clifton jerseys, with pride!
kind regards David
TT Sec
) I acquiesced with the democratically determined decision and we came home via Bedale (via Finghall), Topcliffe, Helperby, Huby and Haxby. The wind was a great help and before we knew it we were back in York.
