I booked to do the Boudicca sportive after enjoying the wiggle no excuses so much and I thought a local 100 miles would be a good step up from 80 🙂

It was also a good opportunity to do an event with Geoff, who has recently returned from his epic ride from Hanoi to Singapore, I was also desperate to do some real riding with him.

When doing these events all you really ask for is good weather and we were blessed with the hottest day so far this year 🙂

We didn’t quite get the early start we had aimed for so at around 8am we lined up with a whole bunch of other riders from SWNC, we made an impressive sight all in our lovely new club jerseys.

Starting off in such a large group made it a very fast start and in fact Geoff got carried away by another group,it took me almost 40 miles of riding before I caught him up, by which time he was well and truly in the doghouse !!

After the first feed station, where we re-fuelled on bananas, malt loaf, cheddars and fig rolls, the group thinned out as the 100 milers took the route out to Thornham.

The ride to Thornham was very enjoyable although a few of the roads were less than comfortable to ride on, it was nice to chat to other riders as we passed, most commenting on my very matching bike and gear, once seen never forgotten !!

Soon we had covered the 69 miles and arrived at feed station 2, this was not so good as most of the food had gone and I actually could not drink the energy drink provided, it was just not to my liking 🙁 this was not a major problem though as I still had some of my own energy drink and an energy bar to see me to feed station 3.

I had the feeling not many slower riders did the 100 mile as other riders were very thin on the ground between 69 miles and the 3rd feed station at 88 miles, where It was very disappointing to find that they had completely ran out of food here but again we had a gel to see us through to the end.

By this time we knew the actual mileage was going to be 106, nothing to bother us but we did pass the information on to a few people so it didn’t come as too much of a surprise to them.

Amazingly we finished with a moving time of 6hr 50 making it 15.5 avg speed for 106 miles,

Got to be happy with that 🙂