The Cheshire 100 is one of the Evans Cycles Rideit events. They offer sportives of various distances around the UK and I believe there are 3 or 4 of the 100 series, where you have the option of riding 100km (60 miles) or 100 miles.

I chose the 100 mile option to give more of a challenge to me. This option also offered more climbing with just over 4,000ft.

When I injured my calf back in May I had to defer all my summer running events. This gave me the opportunity to fit in some additional cycling events so I signed up for three 100+ mile sportives over a six week period. The White Rose Classic (122 miles), Cheshire 100 (100 miles) & Ride London (100 miles). Prior to this, I had only gone over 100 miles twice. First in 2017 on day 4 of the ARIZONA TO LAS VEGAS CYCLE CHALLENGE and secondly in 2018 on day 1 of the DELUX TRADE LONDON REVOLUTION

The aim for today was to ride the first 40 miles hard, then when the hills come between 40 – 52 take them at a sensible pace and pick the pace up through to the finish. Hopefully coming home under 5 hours 30 mins.

I had signed up online a few months ago so registration was simple. I just had to collect my number plate for the bike and barcode for the helmet. The queues look long in the photo but it was a quick and simple process.

Both the short and long rides start between 8am – 9:30am with the suggestion that those going long start early.

I went off at 8am and just managed to squeeze into the back of the start pen before they closed it. I guess they wanted to only let so many riders head out at one time to reduce congestion on the roads, for both the cyclists and other road users. I really liked this idea, all to often you get big groups of cyclists on these sportives and it can make it difficult to pass in cars and for me coming through the pack.

Starting off at the back of my wave wasn’t the best position but I soon started picking my way through the pack. The ride to the first feed station at 25 miles was pretty much flat so I put my head down and pushed the pace averaging just over 23mph across the first 10 miles. By this stage, the cyclists were starting to get spread out and I was getting worried I might take a wrong turn so I slowed a little to join a group of six.

Dropping to the back of this group gave me a chance to catch a wheel for a few miles and save some energy for later on. We stuck together for the next 15 miles all the way to the first feed stop.

Before the ride I looked at the plan and saw a stop at 25 miles and thought that was probably a bit early to stop, I was considering going passed and riding straight through to the second stop at mile 52. Going that distance on two water bottles is nothing new and very manageable, the only problem could be the four climbs in the 12 miles before that stop.

In the end, I decided to stop at 25 miles as the whole group pulled into the feed stop.

The Rideit feed stations are great, so much choice of cake, flapjack, jelly beans, and high5 energy gels, drink, and bars. I am not sure whether they are always so well stocked or if that was just because we were the first bunch to hit each stop.

I grabbed a piece of cake, topped up my bottle and headed back out forgetting about the group I was with and my initial worry of going the wrong way. Whilst the route is well signed (before, on and after junctions) the signs were quite small.

On leaving the feed station I completely missed the sign pointing right and went straight on down the road for another mile before hitting a T junction and seeing no pink signage. Soon as I saw that I knew I had missed a turn. Then four other riders joined me, they had been following me. Big mistake, I could get lost in my own back garden.

We backtracked and soon saw where we (I) had gone wrong, the turnoff was literally 100m after leaving the feed station, clearly, I was still thinking of cake.

After that slight detour, I was out of the group riding by myself. I knew it was going to be a bit of a slog riding 75 miles hard but I am up for a challenge.

When I got to mile 40 I knew the hills were coming, the first one was just leaving Alderley Edge, it was only 1 mile long and averaging 7% so I went up there fairly quickly and soon caught & passed 5 or 6 people struggling up. I knew that the next hill in 4 miles was Blaze Hill, a 2 mile 170m climb averaging  6.8% on paper but with two long stretches over 10%, which is nothing compared to some of the climbs we did in the White Rose Classic last month.

I cleared blaze Hill and the two after that, somehow survived the 16% downhill into Macclesfield Forset. Going downhill is not my favourite thing to do, especially on roads I don’t know and this was a narrow winding lane.

At the 52 mile feed station, I stocked up on some high5 gels and energy bar, topped up the water and went off. I didn’t want to hang around.

It took a few miles to get the legs going again, the quads felt stiff after standing around for a few mins.

When I was approaching 60 miles, I worked out that if I was to hit that sub 5:30 time, I need to be averaging close to 21mph, 40 miles in just under 2 hours.

I was still riding by myself, but there was a group of 3 (from the original group) about 1/4 mile down the road. I spent the next 15 miles riding hard trying to catch up with them and pick up another tow. Two more guys from the original group came past me and kind of hovered in the gap between myself and the three upfront.

Then all of a sudden I turned a corner and all five were right there, I had caught them. It turned out we had hit another junction and no signs so we had messed up again, this time, me following them.

One of the guys knew the area and where we should be heading so he lead the way, I dropped 10 or so meters off the pack straight away. I was a bit worried about dropping off and losing them given I had no idea where we were so it took a big effort to get back on to the back and hold a wheel. Thankfully we soon found the route again, another mile added to the total.

The next 10 miles were a battle trying to stay with them, I was either on the back or dropping off slightly. Having to put in bursts to get back was using up more energy, probably more energy than I would have used riding by myself.

At mile 84 (on my overclocked Garmin) we hit the third feed station. I had never planned on stopping here, I was going to ride the last 42 miles from Macclesfield to the finish non-stop as it was downhill or flat all the way. I was running low on water and the legs were starting to feel it a little now. Kind of to be expected after 84 miles.

I stopped, re-filled the bottles grabbed some gels and energy bars and a hand full of jelly beans. 20 Miles to the finish and I had 50 minutes to do it to hit that sub 5:30. I knew that was unlikely now, but if I could get a good rhythm going and hold a high pace I might have a shot.

Straight away, the legs felt heavy, I thought this was probably like last time, just stiff from stopping and standing around. They did come back and I was pushing 20mph, then at 89 miles the legs suddenly felt heavy again and it just felt hard peddling. I checked the gradient on my Garmin and realised we were going uphill slightly, I dropped back to the little ring and pushed on but it just kept feeling harder and harder, the hill was getting a little steeper but nothing major. The legs just didn’t have it in them.

From 90 miles to the finish, it was more of a case of just bringing it home, I didn’t have the energy to push any harder now. That last 10 miles was the longest 10 miles ever!! I went past 100 miles at 5:42.57, 13 mins shy of my target but still 25 minutes faster than my quickest 100 miles, however, I was not done. In the end, I reached the finish at 103.3 miles. Those two missed turns adding over 3 miles to the journey and time taking backtracking & realising we had gone wrong.

All in all I was really happy with that ride, the weather was nice, the route was mostly flat beside the four hills on the edge of the Peak District and Evans organised impeccably from start to finish, the only slight gripe I had was the size of the road signs, they could be a little bigger.

Next up is Ride London in two weeks, where I have a 06:24 start time so should have a pretty clear route and closed roads to aide my sub 5:30 attempt. Last year it took nearly 7 hours (moving time) to complete the Ride London due to the congestion of riders on the route. This year I hope to be 90 minutes faster and today has proven to me that I am more than capable.