Sunday morning, 06:50. The alarm clock is sounding. Crumbs. The day of the Macmillan Cycletta has arrived.
After a week of torrential downpours and grey skies, I opened my eyes to bright sunshine peeking through the blinds. My heart soared: the Humanrace Macmillan Cycletta Surrey event would be beautiful on a crisp, bright September morning – it was worth getting out of bed. (Not words I often mutter.)
Team Vamper has nailed these early Sunday starts now: rucksack ready by the door packed with Torq Gels (Raspberry Ripple), Clif bars (Choc Almond Fudge), track pump, toolkit, waterproofs… Bike cleaned and checked, front wheel already off to load in the back of the car…
We’re like a well-oiled machine on cycling days. It’s a shame it doesn’t extend to any other day of the week…
Arriving at Loseley Park it was thoroughly exciting to see so many women readying themselves for a morning of cycling. We’re still so outnumbered in the cycling world that when so many keen female cyclists converge in one place it’s something of an eye opener. The non-threatening atmosphere which allows women to enjoy riding free of testosterone-fuelled bravado is one of the best things about the Macmillan Cycletta events: I opted for the 50km classic route, but I can well imagine that the 20km beginners’ course would be a fun and gentle introduction to sportives for new riders.
The classic route took in some beautiful Surrey countryside in its loop around Shackleford, Puttenham, Rushmoor and Elstead. The elevation was enjoyably challenging in places; I wasn’t in the mood for climbing a lot of tough hills, but I certainly didn’t want an easy ride. The only thing that let the route down were the terrible road surfaces: for a county which prides itself on its cycling credentials, Surrey needs to give serious consideration to the terrible state of many of its roads.
I was keen to average 15mph on the hilly course and hoped to complete the route in around two hours fifteen minutes, so I was very pleased to finish with a moving time of 2:14:28 and average speed of 15.1mph. I’m working on building stamina and speed on climbs but at the moment, they really slow me down; I do too much cycling in flat southwest London…
Overall I finished 8th out of about 150 on the Classic route. Next year I’m aiming for 1st! I was highly impressed with the speed at which riders’ results were announced: by the time I was back in the car, I had received a text message with my finishing time and a link to the complete results from Results Base. For someone as competitive as I am, that’s a great feature of any event. (The event photographers SportCam deserve a shout out, too – great pictures!)
The Cycletta village was excellent: well equipped with plenty of loos, several food stalls, a Liv mechanical support tent and information desk. I was, however, a little dismayed by the tannoy announcements before the ride which seemed to assume participants wouldn’t have had the gumption to check their bikes for problems beforehand. I was also a little disappointed that the same announcer explained that the emergency telephone number provided could be used, not only in the case of emergency or mechanical fault, but if anyone felt a bit tired… Which doesn’t really seem like the right attitude. Yes, the ride should be fun; but cyclists should be encouraged to prepare thoroughly and stick it out, and I don’t think lack of preparation or sticking power should be assumed – it does a bit of a disservice to the cyclists. I’d like to see a move away from the soft approach to women’s cycling; do women really need tweeness and cake and reassurance that someone else will check their tyres for them? I don’t think they do. But that’s a minor gripe: what Cycletta events do well is provide an unthreatening and encouraging environment to ease women into sportives – and for that they should be applauded.
Macmillan Cycletta Cheshire is still accepting entries for the Sunday 27th September; if you think it sounds like fun, sign up here. I’ll definitely be putting my name down for next year’s events.