Essex Spring Lambs Sportive 2019

A great day out for Gateway Cycling last Sunday. There were 6 entries for the 150 km ride and 9 entries for the 100 km. I had a plus one, in the shape of my brother Richard. Organisation was really good, with a simple check in in a nice warm tent. Marshalling and signage was excellent, as was the Garmin route downloaded onto my bike computer. We also had Peter Clark with us who had been out at some silly time in the morning to help lay out the course. I was in the shorter ride group, although still a good distance for me. We were told to leave before the official start time of 09:00 as it was a bit chilly to hang around on the start line. We kept together as a group with only one puncture, right beside a picturesque church, before the feeding station. It was nice to see a loo, the only issue here was that the many people who arrived before us, we arrived at 12:00, had scoffed most of the food, only grapes and a few gels left – and I can’t do gels. Luckily I did have some energy bars on board, otherwise I would have been completely done in. Richard, who is a much much stronger cyclist than me, and I decided to head off early and after 20 minutes the rain came down. It did not rain heavily but it was persistent and the roads were wet and a bit greasy. We had a steady/quick ride back, with me trailing on virtually every hill. Back to the tent for some tasty pasta and delicious muesli cake. I understand that the 150 km group has a number of punctures, a near miss with a van in the wet and Juan sliding off down the road – apparently no long term injury. So, a good time was had by all.

Remember its Club Night this Friday 12th April, hope to see you there. Also, a reminder that some of the club officers are standing down, please think about putting your names forward to enable the club to continue.

Chris G