Training not racing!

There is no race report from the first XC of the season. Instead of racing at the Gorrick I was knocking out 70 miles on the road bike. Conditions were perfect for mountain biking too and I'll admit my heart yearned for the trails every time I passed a Bridleway signpost at the side of the road pointing off into a dry and inviting wood.

Since I lived at home with my parents I've always dreamt of just riding away from my front door and exploring Europe on my bike. My dream was to cycle to Monte Carlo, tackling some alpine climbs on the way South. I have a route planned from a year 2000 road atlas and about 15 years ago I even booked Ferry tickets, but fear of all the things that could go wrong (common sense) meant it never happened. Then family and kids did happen and the plans got filed at the bottom of my sock draw. 

Occasionally I'd get out the plastic folder of the printed route and flick through it longingly. What I needed was a ride buddy (or two) to give me the confidence to know that if something did go wrong in the middle of nowhere there was somebody else there to help.

I shared my idea with Chris and Nigel 4 years ago when we were laying in our hotel room the night before we rode Chase The Sun. Without the Covid pandemic it might have happened the following year, but the idea again got moth balled. 

Then a year ago Chris sent me a link to a story about a group that had cycled from the UK to Barcelona. It looked very appealing and reminiscent of my original plan. 100 miles a day for a week, with the Pyrenees to conquer before finishing on the Mediterranean coast.

Neither of us could do it that year as we already had family holidays planned, but we promised ourselves we would commit to book it in the Autumn. We enlisted Nigel again and got together in October and made our plans. That evening we booked the Ferry from Portsmouth and flights home from Barcelona for the following Easter, giving ourselves 6 months to prepare.

Since then there has been some preparation and we've enlisted Craig to join our band of brothers. However, this week was the first time we have all ridden together and with less than two months to go it's now beginning to feel very real!

I'm riding 10 hours a week and have put in two long rides (70+ miles) on the road bike. The others have completed a couple of century rides as part of their prep which I still haven't done. Which is playing on my mind slightly, so is the next monkey to get off my back. I have ridden every day since early January and I'm making an effort to put in back to back long rides on consecutive days to get used to riding with fatigued legs.