The 130km 'Authentic 1868' ride at Anjou Vélo Vintage
Saturday at Anjou Vélo Vintage and Ben had booked us into the the rather daunting 130km 'Authentic' ride, which was the longest and most grueling on offer, definitely a challenge! With over 40km of gravel stages, either bone (and bike) shaking gravel and stone, or unpredictable soft sand. The bikes and riders took a battering!
Add to this the 15km ride to get to the start, our final mileage for the day was was a 164km. 102 miles in old money.
A massive thanks to new friend Jean-Loup, who helped pace us round the course. I was struggling to keep up on the road sections with modern derailleur geared bikes, but could make up a little ground on the rough stuff, with my 28" wheels and roadster tyres on the old single speed. Once the 100 riders had started to spread out in the second half of the ride, we were a little group of three making a steady pace. I'm not sure where we finished out of the 100 riders, but we averaged over 13mph which isn't bad for me.
The four food stops were quite a distance apart, but rattled off quickly enough, and were very welcome oasis of relief! We stayed just long enough to drink and eat and were off again before we started to stiffen up too much.
The sunrise ride there, and sunset ride back, were both rides to remember too.
The 130km 'Authentic 1868' ride at Anjou Vélo Vintage
Saturday at Anjou Vélo Vintage and Ben had booked us into the the rather daunting 130km 'Authentic' ride, which was the longest and most grueling on offer, definitely a challenge! With over 40km of gravel stages, either bone (and bike) shaking gravel and stone, or unpredictable soft sand. The bikes and riders took a battering!
Add to this the 15km ride to get to the start, our final mileage for the day was was a 164km. 102 miles in old money.
A massive thanks to new friend Jean-Loup, who helped pace us round the course. I was struggling to keep up on the road sections with modern derailleur geared bikes, but could make up a little ground on the rough stuff, with my 28" wheels and roadster tyres on the old single speed. Once the 100 riders had started to spread out in the second half of the ride, we were a little group of three making a steady pace. I'm not sure where we finished out of the 100 riders, but we averaged over 13mph which isn't bad for me.
The four food stops were quite a distance apart, but rattled off quickly enough, and were very welcome oasis of relief! We stayed just long enough to drink and eat and were off again before we started to stiffen up too much.
The sunrise ride there, and sunset ride back, were both rides to remember too.