The Daffodils sportive was the third of four Velo29 sportives I signed up for this April and May, to use as part of my bike training for the upcoming Cholmondeley Castle Triathlon in June and more so for Ironman UK in July.

In April I completed the 102 mile Manchester-Sheffield-Manchester sportive and 104 mile Tour of Lancashire sportive. I signed up for the long route for the Daffodils which at 85 miles is the shortest of the four sportives I chose to do.

As with the previous two sportive, there was a choice of a short route of 40 miles, a medium route of 72 miles and a long route of 85 miles.

Velo29 are operating these events in a COVID safe environment and reducing the number of touchpoints and contact with other riders as much as possible. Part of the new procedure is to complete a COVID questionnaire and booking a start slot 1 – 5 days before. They set you off in groups of 6 every minute.

I picked a 7:41am start time (the earliest available) but had a 2 hour drive from South Cheshire to Thirsk. That made the 4:40am alarm call feel very rough but coffee and bowl of porridge before setting off did the trick.

There wasn’t a lot of parking spaces at the start area so I was glad to arrive slightly ahead of schedule, bagging one of the last 20 spaces remaining.

They want you to arrive at the start area no earlier than 3 minutes before your start time, this works really well in keeping the numbers around the start to a minimum.

When it was my turn to go I rolled up, they checked my temperature and I lined up at the start. There were only two other riders in this group, one of whom had missed his 7:39 start.

The weather forecast for the ride was not good, there was a 40% chance of rain at 9am and that chance of rain only increased as the hours went by. My plan was to make it to the first feed stop at 35 miles and get over Blakey Bank, which was straight after that feed before the rain came. I figured climbing Blakey Bank in the rain would just make an already difficult task, a whole lot more tricky, not to mention coming back down the other side!

So before this ride, I had been considering swapping my cassette which is an 11-28T to either an 11-30T or 11-32T to take some of the sting out of the 20% incline on Blakey Bank and next weeks Winnats Pass climb. In the end, I had no choice but to stick with the 11-28T as everywhere was sold out of the other options, today will give me a good idea of whether this is the right gearing for those steep climbs. Clearly, there are better options but I know I have the power to push up and over most climbs, it just depends on what comes before it.

Today, there was only that one serious climb which was 35 miles into the route and straight after a feed stop. I knew the legs would feel fresh and I can stock up on flapjack at the feed.

That said, I took the first 35 miles pretty steady. Yes, I wanted to beat the rain but I didn’t want to take too much out of the legs.

The first 13 miles were pretty uneventful, just riding out of town and into the North York Moors. The first more testing hill was Beacon Bank (304ft over 0.9miles averaging 6.4%), not a massive climb but the first chance to warm up the legs without pushing too hard. I got over averaging 269w and felt good.

We then rode on to Gilamoor which at the top of a little hill, the whole valley opened up before us.

I read in the pre-ride manual that this spot was where the name for the Daffodils Sportive came from. The mother of the event organiser, Richard, used to come and sit at the spot and look out at the daffodils in the valley below. She sadly passed away in 2014 and Richard named this sportive in her memory. No Daffodils today as the event had to be postponed from its original spring date to early May, but a touching story nonetheless.

After that, there were a few ups and downs before we landed at the feed stop. I refuelled with 2 flapjacks and 2 brownies as well as a can of Redbull. My fuelling plan for this and all rides is to carry two flapjacks with me which I take a bite of every 20 minutes to continually top up the carbohydrates the body burns and take a SiS Electrolyte gel every 45 minutes, again adding to the carb stores but also topping up with electrolytes and sodium.

Right after that feed, you turn right and you are onto the bottom of Blakey Bank. The official Strava segment is a 675ft climb over 1.12miles averaging out at 11.4% hitting over 20% for a good stretch in the middle and at the top.

I had been worrying about this climb all week and for the previous 2 hours 20 mins but to be honest, it wasn’t that bad, even with my less favourable gearing. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a walk in the park but starting off slow at the bottom and pushing the power on the steep sections and keeping as high cadence as you can on those steep sections, you can just push through it. I got over in 10:40 averaging 326w. In theory, with a 20min FTP of 362w, I could have gone over a lot quicker but there is still 50 miles to go after this.

It was still a relief to reach the top and know my legs can push through that steep climb with an 11-28, next week might be a different story but Winnats Pass does come 14 miles into the ride so the legs will be fresh for that. We will see how that goes, it’s a different day, different climb and different weather.

The view at the top was again, stunning! Totally worth the effort getting up there and I made it up in the dry! no rain. Now the challenge was to try and make it to the final feed at 66 miles before the rain hit. 30 miles to go on that one.

The downhill from Blakey Bank into Rosesdale was cracking! long, straight and not too steep, I managed to get up to 44.3mph coming down there, which for someone who is not the most confident descender, I was pleased with that.

From there to the feed at Hovingham it was head down and pushing the power. I only saw one rider come past me and I did not pass or see anyone on that 30 mile stretch after the big climb. I had started the day early and must have got out ahead of most of the faster riders and the medium route riders must not have got to that part yet. The short route rejoined us at the final feed.

The final 20 miles were mostly flat, one uphill section that tested the tiring legs. Having made it this far in the dry I wasn’t too fused about pushing too hard so I settled back into a more easy pace, it did drizzle for a few minutes but thankfully, I made it to the finish in the dry. It literally just started to rain as I drove out of the car park and absolutely belted it down for the 2 hour drive home, hopefully, those riders behind me dodged the majority of that rain.

So another great day out and fantastic event organised by Velo29. The fuelling plan went well again, I stuck to it and felt good throughout the ride, albeit over a shorter distance with less elevation gain. I got over that big climb which was my big win from today, managed to push the pace for the middle part of the ride which felt good. All promising signs that the bike fitness is getting back to where it was in March after a calf niggle and a random stomach illness the docs can’t diagnose. I had my first COVID jab 2 days before this ride, thankfully, no side effects impacting the ride today, another big win.

Onto next week’s Tour of the Peak which will be a much more challenging route at 120 miles and 11,500ft of gain.

Some stats:

• 85.6 miles
• 6,627ft
• 5hr 25min (4hr 58min moving time)
• Average speed 17.1mph
• Max speed 44.3mph
• Cadence 83rpm
• Average heart rate 138bpm
• Max heart rate 171bpm
• NP 235w