I did it I - conquored the Fred - I managed to ride the whole thing from start to finish - and quite a challenge it was too.
Here’s my story.
After rising at 4am scoffing a big bowl of porridge and a banana and driving up to Coniston in the lakes we found ourselves at the start line of the Fred at 7.30am. A qucik ‘dib’ of the electronic timer and we were off. As a sportive event, rather than a pure race, it’s not a mass start. You can set off whenever you like between 6am and 9am and through the magic of modern day timing devices your split and finish times are recorded as you go.
I think I’d sort of mentally blocked out the whole idea of riding so far - basically because I’d never done it previously and I was a tad scared of how I’d get on. I’d also not taken much notice of the route or tried to work out where the climbs were and which bits might be easy. All I knew was that it was a long way (112 miles) with a lot of very steep climbs.
As we cruised along over the first 10 miles or so I didn’t feel all that great and as my pals were all chatting away and obviously enjoying the experience I was keeping quiet and avoiding doing too much work by soft tapping or drafting behind other riders.
As we neared the summit of the first big climb (Kirkstone pass) I started to feel a bit better and enjoyed the run down the otherside - which nearly ended in a big crash for my mate Pete whose bike started to ’shake its head’ violently on the steep descent after getting thrown off line by a manhole cover.
I got dropped on the main road to Keswick as my running legs just couldn’t hold the pace of the fitter and faster roadies but thankfully my mates had waited for me in town and we all set off together down Borrowdale.
As we trundled along Derwent water I started to feel very jaded again and the thought of the first really steep climb (Honister) was preying on my mind. I let my friends go as we entered Seatoller at the foot of the climb and nipped to the loo for a much needed ‘rest’.
After this I climbed Honister without too much trouble and zoomed down the otherside to meet the gang at the first food stop at the Buttermere youth hostel.
A good feed and a drink did the trick and I felt pretty good as we climbed the long drag of Newlands pass but on the rolling roads at the other side I lost touch with the team again and this time decided to just let them ago and ride this thing at my pace - they were all riding stronger than me, I wasn’t feeling too great and I knew if I tried to keep up with them I’d just slow them down and probably blow-up in the process.
After meeting the guys at the summit of Whinlatter we all set off on the long run round to the second feed stop at Calder Bridge via Ennerdale. When I got to the stop my mates were fed and watered and ready to leave so I insisted that they went without me. I filled my bottles, grabbed a tuna sarnie and a piece of flapjack and set off down the road munching as I went.
In a perverse way I was actually looking forward to the last 20 mile section which is by far the hardest stretch of the whole ride. After a quick ride down the valley the climb of Hardknott pass finally comes into view and what a beast it is. From the valley bottom you can see road weaving up into the clouds with an army of ant like cyclists pushing and honking their way up to the summit. At the foot of the climb is a large warning sign advising of severe gradients and a statement saying ‘unsuitable for cycles’ - here we go!!
With dogged determination and lots of under the breath swearing I managed to haul my sorry butt to the top of the climb passing dozens of walking / hobbling cyclists (and a few cars!!) en-route. After the climb comes a seriously steep descent followed by an undulating road of about 4 miles before the last real climb of the day appears. This one (Wrynose) is just as steep as Hardknott but thankfully not as long and as I topped out I knew there was only about 6 miles of the 112 left to go and much of it was down hill. The problem was that it had now started to rain / hail quite badly and it was VERY cold. The descent off Wrynose is stupidly steep and with the water and, believe it or not, snow that was on the road it was quite a challenge to stay upright.
When I got to a marshalled road crossing I asked how far it was to the finish - ‘only about 10 minutes’ was the reply - welcome words I can tell you.
The final couple of miles whizzed by and soon I was dibbing at the finish having completed one of the toughest day rides in the country.
There were times on the way round when I started to think - ‘why am I doing this’ and ‘never again’ but I’ve done plenty of these endurance type events now and even in these dark times, I knew that come Monday I’d be plotting how I could do things differently next time (and I was…)
For the record I did the 112 mile course in a very average time of 7h 48 mins (which is actually classed as a ‘1st class’ time for this event), my average heart rate was 154 BPM (85%), my max was 179 BPM (99%) and (according to my Polar) I burned 7954 calories over the course of the day.
No wonder I enjoyed my extra large Pepperoni deep pan pizza when I got home!!!
Now I know what a long ride is like I need to get some serious training in for La Marmotte in July.
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