Hell of the North Cotswolds 2008
Article by Jess Hemming
Trying the 100k for the first time!
I'd ridden the 50k HONC route for the previous three years and had always maintained that I would never be able to complete (and would never attempt) the 100k, since the 50k had always left me pretty exhausted. However, a stubborn part of me really wanted to do it, so when I approached sign-on this year, I heard myself asking for the 100k route map. What had I just done! It was now official - and I decided that I was going to complete it, hell (of the Cotswolds) or high water (it had been raining a lot), there were going to be no short cuts - I was committed.
I asked Martin Rose (Rosie) (another 100k'er) if he would ride with me (and wait for me if necessary), and he agreed, so we rode up to the start and waited with about 1000 others for the off. The beginning of these events is always quite a spectacle with hundreds of riders filling the narrow streets of Winchcombe along with the collective burring sound of 2000 knobbly tires on the tarmac.
As usual, the first climb was a killer - a long steep ribbon of road near Hailes Abbey - what made it particularly difficult was the fact that with so many riders, riding speed was at a minimum and it became a struggle to balance in places. Still we reached the top (without having to walk) and actually felt okay. From there on, we rode to Stumps Cross on a mixture of tarmac and dirt track, thinking, oh the mud's not too bad - famous last words! Once we'd split away from the 50k route (at which point I'd looked longingly after the 50k'ers) things became more challenging and the event began to live up to its name.
By the time we reached the half-way point rest stop at Guiting Power, I began to seriously think that I wasn't going to be able to make it. We'd got another 50k to go and my thighs were cramping. I overheard quite a few people who had started out on the 100k saying they were going to cut back onto the 50k route since they'd had enough. Rosie asked me what I wanted to do - I ignored my hurting legs and told him I wanted to carry on.
Perhaps it was all that bread pudding, or maybe it was the bottle of energy drink that I cracked open, but once I'd spun my legs out upon leaving the hall, the cramping went (or maybe my legs were just numb), nevertheless, I felt fine again.
Inevitably, we found ourselves challenged by the map a couple of times and at one point a very understanding farmer pointed us back out of his farm yard and into the direction that we should have gone (ours weren't the only tyre tracks there either!). We also had a mechanical with Rosie's chain and played 'hunt the stick' so that we scrape the mud of the tyres, but we were still making the check points before they closed and it wasn't raining!
There came a point when it would have been so easy to have cheated. We ascended to the top of Cleeve Hill and found a gate with a HONC arrow on it that pointed left. Now this was very promising, since left meant we just had to traverse across the top of the hill before the descent back to Winchcombe. Unfortunately, the route map suggested that we go right, which meant a full descent followed by a second Cleeve Hill ascent. Some other lads had congregated around the arrow and were debating the issue (their satnav also suggested right). Rosie asked me what I wanted to do and I decided to go with the map - I'd gone all that way and I didn't want to cut it short at the end. The lads had decided to go right as well.
The descent was great, but the final ascent was hard work (a lot of it on loose stuff and grass) - I think hysteria was setting in because (we were also riding with a couple of guys from About Bikes at this stage) we began to fantasise about half a sandwhich that I'd announced to be lurking in my backpack somewhere. I had to deal with a series of questions on the nature of my sandwhich: 'what sort of cheese is it?'; 'is there lots of butter in it?'; 'is the bread really thick?'. I was warned not to take my backpack off and leave it unattended!
At last we were on the last leg of the off road stuff, the wet, slippery, rock strewn chute that brings you out on to the main road above Winchcombe. Then it was a quick sprint (well sort of a sprint) to the school, where it had all started 9 hours earlier!
I'd done it (and was told that I was only one of three women to have managed the 100k). Best of all, I wasn't even exhausted - tired, yes and craving a big fat bacon butty, but not exhausted.
Other Evesham Wheelers to ride the event:
Ray Hemming (100k) - completed in under 7 hours. Tony Canning (50k); Dave Newbould (50k).
Link
www.honc.org.uk/event_report.html