Burgess Hill Springtime Classic
Last weekend saw me taking a trip down to West Sussex to ride the Burgess Hill Springtime Classic, a 71 mile up and down sportive with what I measured to be around 1700 metres of climbing. This was the first "event" of the season for me and chance to see if the winter nights in the turbo-dungeon have helped.
The early morning clear blue skies set the day up nicely, after an hour's drive I was setting the bike up in the car park opposite the school which would be the HQ for the day. Registration was straightforward and well organised, where participants were issued with their timing chips and vouchers for a post-ride bowl of pasta and cup of tea (something to look forward to!).
The start was phased to avoid big crowds of cyclists scaring the locals who were out early on Sunday morning and although we were sent away in bunches of around ten, larger groups formed very quickly on the roads. In hindsight our enthusiasm got the better of us and we started way too fast; a real schoolboy error, and one which I paid for in the latter parts of the ride. We had heard rumours of some nasty hills along the route, anything the locals have nicknamed "The Wall" sounded omninous in my book, and pretty soon we were hitting some consistent undulations in the course. The ups and downs and narrow roads soon broke the field into smaller groups. By around 30km we were on the bigger hills and I was feeling pretty good, although I was constantly expecting to round a corner only to be hit by "The Wall!". The hills weren't that nasty but they were regular and consistent and by the first checkpoint at around halfway I was glad for the chance to stretch and re-fuel. The course was very well signposted and the feedstations were well stocked.
The remaining feed stations seemed very close together to me, but that might just have been me drifting into autopilot as the ride progressed. By just over 90km the last time checkpoint was ticked off and we were on the run home. Then, rounding a tame bend in the trees we were brought to an abrupt halt by a slab of tarmac rising up at 20%. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not comparing this to an Alpine climb, but towards the end of the race this gradient, even only for a short distance, was enough to knock the wind out of a lot of riders and as I eeked my legs over in my smallest gear I swear I counted more people walking up than riding. As is customary at these events they put the steepest climb at the end of the race and plonk the official photographer half-way up to catch everyone at their worst! Thankfully I stayed upright and moving forwards long enough for a snap of the evidence. I was thinking this must be the infamous "Wall" but learnt afterwards that in fact that was around the 30km mark and not nearly an tough as the rumour implied. The last 20km were a mix of flat runs and short climbs. The over-eager start was taking it's toll on me by this point and I was suffering with really nasty cramps in my quads, something I am desperate to avoid for events later in the year so I'll be looking at ways of doing this.
The final few kms were spent starting and stopping through traffic lights and roundabouts so there was no chance of a sprint flourish to finish, but this didn't detract from the satisfaction of arriving at the finish in the Spring sunshine. Once we had checked back in and collected our goodie bags we headed to the canteen for our free pasta and tea. The pasta went down nicely but the grey water served up in cup, although looking like it may at some point have had a teabag waved in it's direction, tasted like it had been strained through the devil's own cycling shorts. However, this didn't tarnish what was a very well organised event and a great early season tester.
Clocks go forward next weekend, so evening rides will start soon. Can't wait, bring on the summertime!