Tired, aching, hungry and totally elated is how I felt this weekend after the completion of my first every sportive! 103miles and 7,500ft of climbing after I began at 7am on a cold Sunday morning I had one of the biggest grins- oh and a funny walk too!

500 people tackled the route in total and I was very pleased to have recorded the 24th best time (6hr02m) and the 14th best time on the King Of the Mountains section- a 2mile timed climb around 20miles into the ride.

The biggest problem I seemed to encounter on the route was a fair amount of saddle soreness at the 80mile mark. I have done a few 90+ mile rides and seem to come into this problem a fair bit- I have tried a new seat, shorts, bike fit etc but I guess simply more time in the seat is required to become accustomed to the high mileage. My legs were actually feeling very strong towards the end- something I am very pleased with- just as well as I have a hill-climb race tomorrow night!

As far as nutrition plan- I kept it pretty simple- just water in my bottle and something similar to a banana or energy gel or half a bar every 60minutes for the first 2hr then every 45minutes after that. I saw a lot of people topping up on Gatorade and various other drinks and chomping down cheese sandwiches at the feed stations- needless to say those guys finished behind me!

Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt!!

Recovery meal in the local cafe after- Protein, High G.I carbs and some fibre!

All in all a mega event, seriously enjoyable and I recommend any keen cyclist to get out there and give a sportive a go!