Ibbo
Cake Quest
September
2012
On
a whim I entered the 2012 Ibbo Cake Quest. 3 distances – Fairy Cake
– 60km. Carrot Cake – 110km. And the Fruit Cake at 160km. I chose
the Carrot. Unexpectedly that turned out to be my hardest 2012
challenge yet. For the others I’ve done, like the triathlons, I
always knew I could finish them, it was just a question of how well
I’d do. Hence my targets of top quarter, or top half (depending on
the event and the standard of competitors). But yesterday, towards
the end, I wasn’t completely sure that I’d be able to complete
it.
To
explain, I should have brought my time trial bike, as my dad’s bike
just doesn’t have low enough gears for some of the hills, and sadly
I had to get off and walk the summit of two of them. It is a 5 speed
bike from back in the 80s. For the second one, both my thighs were
cramping up as I was trying to turn the pedals, and as I accepted
defeat and got off to walk the last 50 yards my right calf stated to
cramp. At that point I was just hoping that the walk, and the
following downhill, would let me recover. Which it did, thankfully.
By
then, too, the rain was chucking it down. Velominati.com Rules 5 and 9
applied in spades. On some of the hills as I pushed down on the pedal
the back wheel just slipped round. That would be painful as I then
crashed back to the saddle. The last part of the course was
relatively flat, but there were now rivers of water coming down the
road, which made life interesting. Either cars would spray you
(though thankfully it seemed to be more people in front me that bore
the brunt) or there’d be hidden potholes. I hit one quite hard 3 km
from the end and just prayed it didn’t cause a puncture. It didn’t.
And
please don’t quibble that as I walked a bit I didn’t do the whole
ride. When I was pedalling so slowly due to the steepness, and the
gear isn’t low enough, I was in severe risk of just falling off.
Which isn’t clever with clipped in shoes! However, I will put it in
the diary for 2013, and I will enter with a different bike, and I
will aim to knock a minimum of an hour off my time.
And
not walk the hills.
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