Dragon's Sting

Well I'm back again with another blog to update my up's & down's that was the Dragon Ride. Early start meant getting up around 04.30am & try to get some breakfast down my neck, with the nerves running high as always this was not going to be pretty so a small bowl of cereal it was. Alan arrived at 05.00am followed a few minutes later by Gavin & Steve in vehicle 2. Mark had left prior so we thought we would meet up later on in the morning.

We arrived roughly on time but with the traffic queuing into the event itself we ended up starting slightly later than planned. We had lost Steve & Gavin as we entered the event car park due to Steve needing to water the plants as we queued. We parked up got our kit on my nerves was running high & the legs were just not feeling their best. Some days you just know you’re going to have a good ride & others you know it’s going to be tough & this was one of those days for me, I felt my legs were tight & new it was going to be a hard day, the weather had held fairly well considering the days leading up to the event. We got ourselves & bikes ready & made our way to the event village & down to the start area, upon brief discussion with Alan we decided to carry on just the two of us as we were unsure if the others had already set off or were still getting ready. 

As myself & Alan had decided to take the medium route out of the three that were on offer, this was made on a couple of reasons the first was that I didn't like the look at one of the hills on the longer section & with never doing a sportive of this calibre before thought it wise to do the shorter loop & finish than to stretch myself too much only three weeks prior to the main event. The other factor was I knew I could do the distance of the medium route as I had previous done this distance, whereas the longer I was just unsure that my legs would hold out for that time, plus with all the climbs added in as well.

Anyway as we were in the stands waiting to set off I noticed a few Kenilworth Wheelers around us & within a few minutes we were all aloud to be on our way. There were some slow riders which we soon took care of, then got onto a bunch which also seems to be going slower than we would of liked so we passed them & decided to sit on the back of the group which was going a little quicker (this was our first mistake). Well Alan seemed to be flying & in good form, me on the other hand was up into threshold territory & starting to feel it, this is where I should of just eased off & done my own ride (second mistake which I would pay for later).

It wasn't too long before the Dragon started to breath down our necks & throws a few little but sharp climbs in the mix, these were dusted off pretty well overtaking a few riders as we went. We then hit a slightly sharper climb 'Cimla' which had a much bigger gradient of around 17% which had us out the saddle attacking the hill a little too hard. We then had a decent into Neath which I managed to get stuck behind a car going too slow. We continued on up another climb before stopping into the first feed station. I refilled my bottle & decided to eat a energy bar but could only stomach half as it was just too dry. As we got back on the bikes my legs felt really bad, tight & uncooperative but as time passed they eased up. 

The route soon split from the longer Gran Fondo where we met the 'Coelbren' & for some unknown reason this was one of the few parts my legs felt ok, I hadn't realised that Alan had dropped back until I reached the top. Alan soon regrouped & we were on our way together once again. The routes soon rejoined & we hit the 'Glenneath Bank' this is where my troubles started, I felt my inner thighs start to cramp up & thought if I stopped I could stretch out the cramp. This was not to be & so climbed back on & road through the pain, I had to just grit my teeth & power through it & after which seemed a lifetime (more like 5-7mins) they passed or so I thought. The cramps soon returned alternating between the left & right leg.

The main climbs still lingered in the distance the 'Rhigos' & 'Bwlch' both of which I just got into a rhythm as with my legs cramping up meant that Alan had left me behind. The climbs just seemed to be never ending but soon they were out the way & then the fun of the descent started. I looked behind me & in front but there were no other riders to be seen, so I went for it with hands on the drops & was pedalling hard until I couldn't pedal any more. I tucked in my arms & tried to get as low as possible to get that extra mile an hour, the experience of descending down such a long way was just awesome. The one thing that did go through my mind near the bottom though was that as I hadn't seen any riders or signage had I made a wrong turn, I started to doubt myself & thought I would have to climb the descent I'd just come down, but then I say a yellow sign with an arrow pointing the way..... the relief was such a good feeling.

With around 12 miles to go Just after the main descent of the Bwlch I managed to meet up with another rider who upon discussion decided to ride together to try help each other out by slip streaming (I think I ended up tucking in behind him the most) but the general chit chat took our minds off of things & we soon reached our goal & the finish line.

I collected the goody bag & medal but felt a little disappointed in myself as I felt I could have done better if I hadn't got cramps in my legs. My overall place was 275 out of 1368 riders & official time was 05:28:57.

Even though I wasn't overall pleased with my effort after chatting with the team & looking at the overall results I have changed my opinion that I did pretty well, even though my legs cramped up I still finished with the top 20%.

The whole team did really well & I think Alan has done a fantastic turnaround from 9-10 months ago to how he is now as he was on fire throughout the Dragon.

After chatting with Dr Garry Palmer from Sportstest he gave me a recommendation where I could get a sports massage, which showed up that my quads & other leg muscles were extremely tight. 

I have learnt that going out too hard & having tight muscles in my legs were probably the main cause of the cramping, Hopefully with a follow up session & taking it easier when I start I shouldn't have the same problems in the main event in just over a week’s time.

Keep your eyes open for a final blog installment after the Maratona soon by the team.