Over 300 ride the Woodcote Sportive!

Rory, Maddy, James and myself joined this huge, well organised Sportive through the Chiltern Hills. It was still raining when we loaded the bikes at 5am but turned into a glorious day. 380 originally entered, around 330 started. The route was fantastic, the scenery stunning but the hills were relentless, some long, some very steep. A lot of the descents were through dark woods on narrow, wet, gravel strewn roads. I must have seen a hundred people puncture. (why do people use lightweight tyres pumped to max pressure in these conditions? I spoke to one man who'd punctured four times).

Young riders turn up the heat..

Richard Tallent, Chris Willis & James Trigg turned up for the beginners/intermediate ride on Saturday, spoiling for some action.

Luckily for me, I was only there until Faygate as they were champing at the bit. This wasn't quite what was planned but they were in the majority!

We did 21.4 average to Faygate where I handed over to Richard as leader. The group went on to do the Tulley's loop at 18.4 average.