Not quite the festive 500
Rapha holds a festive riding challenge of riding 500 kilometres between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. For a while now and every year I click the little challenge box to see if I can get it done and log it on Strava, where I first saw the challenge. A digital badge upon completion is guaranteed, what more can you want. Riding 500km (310.6 miles) in 8 days normally is a decent effort with commutes thrown in but this year I wasn't working over this period and decided to have a go on road and gravel. Of course, there are limited daylight hours, the weather can be a mission and then there are copious offers of food and drink to contend with. Surely this is the perfect excuse?
Which Bike?
Due to family commitments, I didn't actually get going until the 27th of December which in turn was setting myself a monumental task, but I was determined to still give it a bash. Here in the South of England it had been mild but there was plenty of rain so I decided to go out on the GX Race for a gravel ride rather than hit the road first.
Slopfest
I chose some local bridleways and gravel paths around Hurstpierpoint College and managed to ride 26.5km, but was absolutely covered. The bike was going to take a bit of cleaning at the end but it was a 'wet' kind of mud so a quick hose down seemed to be sufficient to lubing and the next ride.
Brighton
On the 28th I headed towards Brighton on the GTD as the rain had fallen plenty and the roads were wet. Having the Fend Offs certainly helped until the heavens opened. Over Devils Dyke and back via Ditchling Road/Beacon cutting the ride a bit shorter than I had planned managing 36km. I was now 5 days in and had covered 62.5km. The thought of completion was slipping away.
Must Do A Big One!
On the 29th I had arranged to meet with fellow Kinesis Ambassador Cav O'Hara and head towards Eastbourne and Birling Gap. The day was forecast to be dry but the wind had picked up so we were a little dubious about hugging the coast towards Beachy Head. We had trusted Komoot to give us a good route and it even took us down some roads we hadn't covered before. This is a big ask due to the amount of time we have ridden together over the years in this area. This was the route I did.
Coffee At Cadence
Cav was riding his GX Race which was set up for road and I was on the GTD. We pootled around the route chatting on quiet roads and catching up after Christmas. Minimal traffic and utilizing the new bike path along the A27 from Eastbourne was a joy with super smooth tarmac. We headed off this path and into the village of Berwick for a quick drink and a packet of crisps on the way back. Most civilized. By the time I had got back I had covered 172.65 in 7 hours. My total was now at 235.15km, so nearly half way.
More Gravel
After a couple of days on the road bike and a little less rain I thought I'd attempt another gravel loop. It was the 30th of December and I knew that time was against me and it was going to be even slower 'off road' but i was up for it. I was starting to think it wasn't going to happen this year. Still if it gets people riding then it’s worth clicking on that Strava challenge. Total ride for today was 43.33km and the total coming in at 278.48KM.
Last Day
Now, it was New Years Eve and whilst I knew that I could ride the 200+km needed to complete the Festive 500, I really had left an impossible challenge. Get out and be back for 2pm to go to the local to meet friends. I was resigned to the fact it wasn't happening this year and just did a loop of 40.33km on the GTD.
The Grand Total
All told and with the time I had available I came in at around 319km. I had seen on Facebook a rider had just done the 500km in a single ride covering 19 hours and reckon that's what I’ll try for at the end of this year. Chapeau to that rider. Technically I had covered 60% of the challenge and left it at that. Well done to all those riders who committed and completed the full 500km. It isn't easy.
New Years Day
A New Year and new targets started off well with me attending the traditional NYD 10 mile Time Trial held by Brighton Excelsior. There had been a shout out to not let this tradition die as previous yeas numbers has dwindled with 4 riders this time last year so I decided to ride over, do the TT and ride back. To my amazement there turned out to be 29 riders and a fair few familiar faces including Kinesis Ambassador Martin Gibbs. Brilliant! What an awesome amount of riders. I rode this on the Aithein Disc and completed the drill fest in 26:16. Having not done any threshold efforts for six months now and I was pleased with that.