As you know I have been training hard on the bike for my main event of 2016, which was Newcastle to London 315 miles by bike in 24 hours and it was last weekend.  There were four of us taking part, Laura, Helen, Kat and myself, and we were both nervous and excited in equal measure.

The weekend started on Friday heading to Newcastle which was a mission in itself with everyone coming from any direction being delayed by hours including us.  We finally made it to Newcastle just in time to register and head to the hotel for dinner before getting in bed.  Saturday morning we were due to be off at 10:30am and both Laura and I had already had little moments thinking about the extremity of this challenge though agreeing we would tackle it stage by stage in order to get through it.

We had heard there would be terrible winds and most sections predicted rain but we had signed up for this and raised over £2,500 between the four of us for MacMillan Cancer and so we would be completing this whatever it took.  Little did we know what that would be but we were ready.

The first stage was lumpy with constant ups and downs mixed with rain and mixed with heavy winds making everyone work extra hard, which is not something you want to do on an endurance ride.  We saw the results of a horrific accident that left a cyclist with a broken back and fractured skull and pray he recovers fully! We regrouped and off we set on the next stage.

The second and third stages I had done last year with Helen when she took on this challenge and so I knew they were relatively flat and would be quick.  This was of course based on the weather of last year which was almost perfect and in fact the polar opposite of what we were facing.  Any cyclist knows how demoralising it is to be working your heart out but in the wind seeing yourself getting nowhere fast.  Apparently the winds were up to 40 mph and so we were making sure we worked as a four taking ten minute turns on the front to share the load.

That was until about 75 miles in when I stopped pedalling for seconds to get my bottle of water.  In that short space of time a massive gust of wind moved my bike so much I ended up being taken off my bike with full force being on the back of my head.  I was unconscious and woke to my fellow lovely team mates surrounding me and a small group of strangers.  Out of these strangers was an off duty paramedic and fireman and before I knew it I was shivering with cold, crying (a lot) and being covered in foil blankets before an ambulance was called and police had closed the road.

My main thought was that I needed to get back on my bike – we had a timetable to ensure we made the challenge within 24 hours and our first stage was 7 minutes behind so we were hoping the flat stages would see us gaining some time back and me being on the floor would not do that.  I even asked my friend Laura to pause my garmin (I’m not joking) and if my bike was ok after agreeing to have a selfie for this blog post (at the time it made sense).

My husband had been called and was on his way and next thing I knew I was in the back of an ambulance.  I have a sizeable lump on the back of my head my right ankle/knee/leg too the brunt of the impact so was sore and my helmet was done for.  I was then told I was not allowed to continue.

Devastated, heart broken, gutted are not the words. Don’t get me wrong there is nothing pleasurable in cycling in gale force winds but I had spent the best part of the year training for this ride.  I had put in over 2,300 miles and many hours in training and so to be told at 75 miles of a 315 mile event that I was done left me in a very sorry state and I would be lying if I said I am ok with it now as I’m not I am absolutely gutted.  I know it could have been worse and I was lucky not to have been hit by a car – my poor friend Helen thought I was dead as I didn’t move or respond for over a minute.  Thank god for my helmet – why some people don’t wear one is beyond me!

After crying a lot we headed to the next rest stop and I changed out of my cycling gear as I would no longer be needing that but we would continue as unofficial support car for our friends and stay with the ride until the end.  The girls were lovely and super supportive given they could see how upset I was as they fought on in terrible conditions.

As the rest of the ride continued I got more and more stiff and sore and I will admit there would have been no way I could have continued.  Last year as unofficial support we drove from rest stop to rest stop via sat nav for the most direct route but this year we followed the actual route and one word many used which I completely agree with is brutal, just an absolutely brutal ride.  It is described as flat but let me tell you it is not.  I am not too proud to admit I am not sure given the conditions I would have been able to continue and complete the ride anyway as the wind was wiping people out in huge numbers with 140 people dropping out the day before and over 260 people at the last stage pulling out.  Helen in our group was one on stage 4 – I think my fall had affected her more than she realised and her head had given up on her.

It was the most physically and emotionally draining thing I have ever experienced and my husband said the same.  Seeing the pain of people continuing on the ride knowing they wouldn’t make it in 24 hours and seeing coaches full of people who withdrew from the event because the conditions made it too much made it heart breaking to watch.  In hindsight many said it should have been cancelled but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Laura’s partner James and our friend Steve got on their bikes to help Laura and Kat and were a god send completing 180 miles with them especially given they had not event signed up for it!

Despite the weekend completely not working out as we had originally planned there were some funny moments including Kat applying chamois cream behind our car but unintentionally maintaining eye contact with my husband and this became a running joke of who she would look at when she was next applying.  I also mooned the foursome at one point as they cycled past – I couldn’t spend the whole weekend crying!

Between my husband and I and Helen and her partner Adam we became the weirdos who were driving the route and helping out with words of encouragement, inner tubes, lights, punctures and food and drink as we went.  People were very grateful though I think they all just thought we were nuts.  A lot had spotted me when I was out cold as I was wearing pink compression socks that stuck out of the foil blanket and so at every stop someone would ask me how I was and if I was ok, which was very nice given most were suffering a lot in completing this challenge.

I am pleased to say that both Laura and Kat continued and they did so bloody well!  Absolutely earned their medal!  Very few people perhaps only a handful they think completed the challenge this year within the 24 hours and Action Challenge realised this and were very flexible with the finish times.  Everyone who completed I am in awe of – brutal ride in brutal conditions with broken cyclists coming over that finish line – they should all be extremely proud of what they have achieved!

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Me?  I am broken, fed up and still wallowing in selfish self pity and will take some time off the bike now until I am less sore and stiff and of course have a new helmet!

On Sunday I took part in the annual London to Southend bike ride for British Heart Foundation.

It was another early start to meet for 6.30am to ride into London to Victoria park for the start of the ride to Southend.  What I love about this ride is that it has a huge attendance from my cycling club Romford CC (including an honorary member who joins us every year from Stafford CC) and also my secondary club Hornchurch CC and also local triathlon club Havering Tri.  A large group of us rode to the start together and that is how we intended to continue on the day.

The ride is one of my favourites of the year. It runs through Woodford and Chigwell before joining what is part of one of our club routes, then heads out to Hanningfield reservoir before nearing Southend.  It is a really nice route with a few climbs but mostly flat and some nice quick sections through the Essex countryside.  It is suitable for all abilities and one I would highly recommend.

I am proud to say I am friends with so many people from all three clubs and it is amazing that we come together on this ride and help each other.  There are far too many of us to ride as one but we break into smaller groups and ride together and meet at the finish.

We are three groups of people who are happy to work together to help achieve the same goal – amazing team work!

We meet at the end of the ride in Priory Park and this photo just goes to prove that Havering really has some great clubs and I am proud to be part of that.  Look at these happy smiling faces, it says it all!

In order to clock up more miles I joined a number of club members for the ride home as well, which ended up taking in what seemed to be most of the roundabouts in Essex before having a quick stop at Thorndon country park cafe for cake and ice cream (we’d earned it after all).

Next ride for a lot of us is the Prudential Ride London in two weeks time and I will be pleased to see all their faces again at the end!

Yesterday I took part in the Surrey Classic bike ride. This bike ride is organised by Allianz and the partner charity is the Kent/Surrey/Sussex Air ambulance.  There were 3 distances to chose from being 25, 60 or 100 miles and I was doing the longer with my friends Helen and Alain.

As the weather last week was so bad, and like many areas, there were roads that were flooded the route was amended the day before.  Secretly  I was wondering if it meant we would miss Leith Hill, as they did on the London Prudential ride in 2014, though that was not the case and was still firmly on the route though it was a different climb than the one I have previously done.  I must admit I had no idea there were numerous ways of getting up Leith Hill and the route on the Prudential Ride is 1.9 miles long and the route I took yesterday according to my Strava is over 7 miles!  That was………nice.

Now as you know I do not like hills but I’ve heard a million times that you only get better at them by doing them so that is what I am doing.  Though I do wonder why can’t something else get you better at them like broccoli or brussel sprouts? Or when people say it will make you a stronger cyclist I wonder if it would be ok to just continue being a weaker cyclist and sticking to flat roads?  Flat I can do!

I’m joking! I am embracing them and by embracing I mean I huff and puff a lot but I do them.

This ride took in the Surrey Hills out to Sussex and back for more Surrey Hills.  There were some short and sharp hills but mostly they were a lower gradient but went on for miles and if I am honest I am not entirely sure what is harder?

We cycled through some beautiful towns and saw one sign in particular that made us all laugh even if they missed the one that said To the next hill, which is of course the way we were going.

My knee, for the second week in a row, was pretty painful and started to swell so after just 25 miles i was taking pain killers in order to complete the ride and that I did.

I was so impressed with the organisers especially at the 50 mile rest stop where we found they had hot pasta and meatballs and even a gluten free option – amazing especially as Alain can only have gluten free.

The end of the ride saw us at 82 miles or you can loop back round to make the difference up and that was the only disappointing part for me as I am sure there are other loops that could be added rather than looping back and repeated part you have already done to make the distance up.

Medal earned, more hills climbed and I managed to leave the venue with all the bikes in tact on top of the car, which is better than when I parked at the start and forgot the bikes were on top and ended up taking part of a tree with me – leaf anyone?

I titled my Strava ride Surrey Classic with Helen and Alain – Dear Surrey, F*ck you and your hills.  That was from my painful knee.

Yesterday I took part in Davina’s Big Sussex Bike Ride.  There were 3 distances to choose from, which were 21, 40 or 68 miles.  I had signed up for the longer of the distances with the lovely Laura and Helen who I am doing the Newcastle to London ride with in August.

Laura has done this ride before and I vaguely remember her saying it was a fast ride.  What I think she meant was it is hilly and just a constant up and down.  Not sure if I’ve mentioned it before (a hundred times) but I hate hills.

Before we set off I should mention that Helen and I saw Davina and had a quick photo with her though before we did she told me how she loved my cycling kit, which was of course the Romford CC infamous pink and yellow kit.  Like I said to Davina (see we are on first name terms now) it’s a bit like marmite people love it or hate it, one guy on a ride said he wasn’t sure if it was hideous or genius but at least you see us!  And Davina loves it and she’s amazing and clearly has great taste!

We set off and the first 15/20 miles lulls you into a false sense of security and we were comfortably cycling along before we realised we were leading a group of about 17 riders!  We also had to stop on one road for the most amazing reason – there were some farmers herding a pack of working labrador dogs and I don’t mean a few there must have been around 50 dogs – I’ve never seen anything like it and was the best reason to have to stop on a ride ever.  I’m just sad I didn’t have time to take a photo.

I should also mention that the second we started the ride the heavens opened and the biblical weather pretty much stayed with us for the whole ride – it was not quite as bad as the weather we had on the Prudential Ride London in 2014 but it came close!  The route from 20 miles was then pretty much up and down with some very sneaky short steep hills that seemed to just appear out of nowhere as you turned the corner.

There is a hill near where I live called Old Church Hill, which I often lovingly call Old Church B*tch because it is a b*tch with terrible road surface, only the width of one car and it gets steeper and steeper as you go up the different sections, and we were faced with some of those yesterday.  One got steeper than you realised looking at it and the guy in front us couldn’t quite make it but didn’t have time to clip out of his pedals so over he went.  I felt very sorry for him though was extremely grateful that he moved out of the way so we could make it to the top.

There were many roads with signs as you enter warning of steep descents, pot holes, uneven surface and that cyclists should be in single file.  Now I love a descent and I normally power down (with gravity on my side being larger than I should be) with no fear.  Yesterday I think I descended slower than I ever have down hills a) because of the roads and b) because the weather made them really pretty scary in places.  I will admit I felt like there were many roads on this ride where a mountain bike would have been more appropriate than a road bike.

Due to the weather it meant we were soaked through pretty much from the start and at one point Helen asked me what I washed my cycling kit in.  I figured she wanted to know if I used anything special, especially as we were soaking wet and absolutely filthy with ourselves and our bikes caked in mud, and just replied my usual washing tablets and asked why?  She then told me that I was blowing bubbles from my backside.  Literally.  I was frothing and foaming like someone had poured fairy liquid over me.  I put my hand to my rear and when I bought it back it was covered in foam.  Clearly my washing machine is not rinsing enough! That or I have a party trick I was unaware of?  Helen on the other hand had a nice brown stripe up her behind and back from the mud and rain and looked like she’d had another sort of accident.  It is lucky we both have partners as we were not looking particularly attractive like that!

The rain made us extremely cold so we were very grateful for the tea at the finish and our well earned medals.

We had to get changed pretty quickly as we were freezing and everything was dripping wet, which is funny as Helen told me at one point that she was hoping to top up her tan – definitely not the day for that.  I was also really pleased to load my ride and see I came 10th overall for the women on the ride – me, the hill hater on a hilly ride came 10th!  I still need to work on hills though, i would like to get to a point where I can get up without thinking will I or won’t I make it and without panting like an asthmatic dog.

Oh and did I mention Davina loved my cycling kit?  Did I mention that?  The pink and yellow of Romford CC – well she did and so she should its amazing!

Last weekend I took part in the Ride the Night 100km bike ride event.  This event is also known as the Women V Cancer bike ride and is a female only bike ride through the night. The ride starts from Windsor Racecourse and goes out to London and back to Windsor Racecourse.

The event is a charity ride raising money for:

• Breast Cancer Care
• Ovarian Cancer Action
• Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust

I was taking part as a Ride Angel at this event rather than as a participant.  A Ride Angel is someone who is a competent cyclist who is there to support and encourage the riders around the route.  I was a Ride Angel with my two lovely friends Laura and Helen.

At the start of the ride the ladies went off in waves and every few waves a Ride Angel would follow along with a staff member/chaperone.  As Ride Angels we rode with people, gave support when needed, stopped to assist with punctures, provided help with gearing and also reminded some riders of the Highway Code!

The ride starts in waves from 9pm to 10.30pm and so pretty quickly it is very dark, aside from a sea of bike lights, ladies in pink, and other flashing lights such as tutu’s, bikes covered in fairy lights, flashing crowns on helmets and many more.

The whole event was truly humbling and I found myself shedding a tear or two.  In my role I was chatting to people and spoke with a lady who had battled cancer and was in remission and this was her first bike ride in support of Breast Cancer Care.  I also spoke with another lady who was still undergoing chemotherapy.  And many more! These ladies were amazing!

I have cycled down the Mall twice now at the end of the Prudential Ride London and as last weekend saw both the Westminster Mile and the Vitality 10k taking place the road was closed again and so cycling down there when closed was good and always a great feeling approaching Buckingham Palace.

I also got to meet Susie Dent who was taking part in the event, which was very exciting as I had only been watching her on tv the night before on 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.

The atmosphere at this event is amazing and cycling out when dark and returning as the day breaks into light is also amazing and to do so with ladies brimming from ear to ear as they smile crossing the finish line made it even better to be part of it and help in some small way.

There are already ladies signed up for next year if you are interested do so too!