Having undertaken a lot of long rides and Sportives in the past few months that took a lot of planning, travel and commitment it was nice to finally get an event in my own back yard but more importantly an organiser that plans the best route and take me to areas of my county that I hadn't fully explored before.
Sportive UK ran the event for British cycling and I really enjoyed the gathering of over 500 cycling enthusiasts. It was a beautiful day for cycling at 18 degrees without a cloud in the sky. The route was very well thought out but did contain lots of nasty gravel, a river to cross if you dared and lovely quiet single track lanes to spin around. I had a few chain issues on the way round and annoyingly one puncture at 94 miles in...Grrrrrrr...
There were lots of amusing town / village or street names to admire and I even cycled through Little Berkhamsted, which I never knew existed (my cycle club is based in Berkhamsted).
I completed my 104 miles in a very respectable 6 hours and 36 minutes and this is me pictured below after passing the finishing line.
I am booked in for a Spin around London this Sunday to keep battling for the fight against blood cancer.
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