I was always worried about the lead up to this event. The preceeding week was a work trip in Rwanda, with a flight back to the UK departing Kigali 0215 via Entebbe to Instanbul arriving into London at 1600 local time. In hindsight, that was the least of my problems. On the Thursday morning I was struggling. It was looking like I had food poisoning from dinner the night before. I had a Mongolian BBQ, but we selected our own meat and I am fairly sure the cooked meat was put on the plate we selected our raw meat on. Nevertheless, I was struggle to keep food or liquid in all of Thursday, Friday and Saturday resorting to not eating almost to limit my illness. I arrived at my hostel on Saturday in a bad state, but forced myself into eating a 3 course dinner and got an early night. 5am Sunday 10th - I woke up not feeling good still, but forced some toast and an energy bar down and made my way to the start line for 6am in a what was a wet, windy morning. The first hour of Fred Whitton sets the tone, after about 12Km its climb time starting with Kirkstone, which climbs to 454m. It's not a hard climb, but its fairly long. I was fighting my body big time, nothing would work. I had nothing. But I had to keep going - so many people had supported me. The rest of the ride I did on energy gels and will, nothing more. After a fast descent off Kirkstone, its quickly onto the second climb of Matterdale end at 343m. Another fairly gradual climb. What comes next requires some luck. A 15Km push down the A66 into a head wind. If your lucky there will be a group to work with - I had 2 guys for company so we shared duties. Doing this stretch alone would be awful. Around 75Km into the ride and the first monster hits you. Honister pass, with slopes up to 25% and peaking at 356m. The early parts are the trickest, made harder in the wet conditions. Zigzag's up the steeper sections take the edge off and the last few hundred meters are a nice relief. The decsent should be approached with caution, although its not the worst. The first feed station comes soon after, which I skipped before a series of 3 more more climbs. The first is Newlands, and its the hardest at 333m, but the descent is nice and fast. The next two I remember well from my 2013 encounter with Fred Whitton. I flew up them back then, but my illness and lack of food in 2015 was starting to bite and I struggled for pace on Whinlatter. The next section is long and was a full on head wind. Worse still - I was alone and battled the head wind with nothing in the legs. It was awful rarely getting above 25Km/h on the flat. It was a relief to hit Cold Fell and break out of the wind. I rode well up this long climb, its not too steep but long and peaks at 290m. After the descent I stopped at the final feed station for a jam sandwich and some cakes. I was the first man at the feed station and they were not ready. Now, the home straight to Hardknott. Just after the feed station, about 10km from the climb I was joined by a rider - I think we both needed company. We rode Hardknott together - 393m, 30% gradient in pouring rain and gale force winds. I got over the top first and tackled the horrendous descent. Its VERY dangerous. A few Km's later its the last climb up Wrynose. It is nothing to taxing after Hardknott - suddenly 22% is easy ;) It was such a relief to get over the top and tackle the last 20Km. Thankfully on the Wrynose descent my tyre didn't explode as it did in 2013 and I made it back as the 3rd finisher. Ride stats - 2 gels, 2 energy bars, 1 cake, 1 jam sandwich, 0 energy. 102nd overall with 7hrs 5 minutes (an hour slower than planned0. Very happy to finish.
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