Last year I did the Challenge Route of 85 miles and without thinking entered straightaway for this years event but thought I would have a crack at the Classic Route 107 miles!
Well that year flew by and it was suddenly time for THAT ride!!! Before June I had managed to bash out a few long rides but no where near 100 miles and since June I have not had the time for various reasons to log up a long ride. So I was a little apprehensive when I arrived at the start on Hove Lawns where I met up with fellow MSTC riders Andy Miles and Jeff Woodall.
Although it was a little misty the forecast for the remainder of the day looked good! Once registered we were amongst the first to set off and for quite a few miles I was able to keep up with Andy and Jeff but then they disappeared off into the distance!
I won't bore you with the details of the route but needless to say there were hills involved and the ride took us out West and up to Hazelmere via various sometimes very narrow country lanes. The Classic timing checkpoint was at a place called Fernshurst and after a brief stop I began the journey back to Hove.
I have to be honest there were times on the return journey when I said to myself "how much bloody further" but I managed to dig deep and eventually arrived at the foot of Devil's Dyke which was the last "big" hill before dropping back down to Hove Lawns and the finish.
Well that was the furthest I had ridden in one lump for some time so I was pleased to have completed the ride and was even more pleased to find out that I had attained a Gold Standard, which for my age group was 8hrs 20 mins and my time was 7hrs 28mins 5secs which included 13 mins of timing and feed station stops. Jeff flew round in 6hrs 32 mins 29 secs and Andy in 6hrs 52mins 49secs both achieving Gold Standards as well.