Only the second audax for Team Less Cargo, but it was a speedy triumph.
Back to the Smoke is a 400km that both of us have ridden several times before. It’s an easy 400km – the challenge is the distance, it’s not ‘epic’ or that old audax euphemism, ‘scenic’. A whisker over 3000m of climbing is relatively flat, although those metres aren’t distributed evenly, so there are sections that are a bit lumpier than others. Especially true when some of the route goes over the Somerset Levels, where a bridge over a drainage ditch counts as a hill.
Team Less Cargo is me and Andy. We’ll be riding LEL together, all being well, but this is only our second audax together, after a broken pedal curtailed my Old Roads the other week. Every audax this year is a training ride and an opportunity to learn, as well as trying strategies, kit and techniques. The same goes for riding as a team and this would be our longest ride together since we did the Elan Sprint 300km in 2022. We passed the test with flying colours, although there are still some lessons to take away.
BttS (courtesy of Mr Ian Hennessey) goes from Exeter to London (Marylebone Station). It’s a 12 noon start, which is ideal for me. On my first successful completion (2019, my YACF write-up here) I finished at 11.14am, which I was pleased with at the time. Andy and I were aiming to complete it within 20hrs, which would see us at the station by 8am. That’s fairly rapid, but within the kind of times we’ve been doing recently and by no means super speedy compared with proper ultra racers. Bearing in mind we’re preparing for LEL, the logic goes that if we can do distance X at average overall speed Y, riding the same distance at a slower speed should be much easier and leave us with spare energy for another day.
Conditions were ok, the sun was hiding but it was still warm and there was a brisk and flattering WSW tailwind. Lumps of rain were due to blow over later in the day but it was a lottery when or if they’d land on us.
I wanted to avoid the rest of the field at the start. Riding out of a busy city in a clump isn’t my idea of fun and I don’t trust riders I don’t know – too many random styles and annoying habits. We did ride a while with a couple of chaps, but our pace didn’t match, so we carried on without them.
All good until we got to Wells, where we bumped into my next door neighbours (hello Jon & Emma, thanks for the photos) and had a navigational problem. Wells isn’t the easiest city to ride through and I’d plotted (but not spotted) a turning which went on foot up some steps through an ornamental garden. Had I been a bit more prepared we’d have negotiated that without trouble. As it was we headed to the garage at Morrisons to grab a sandwich and receipt while we figured it out. The other issue was that we had different routes out of Wells on our devices.
Mine went out from the north, Andy’s the southeast. They both converged on Frome, about 30km to the east. As we were closer to Andy’s point of departure, we followed that route. Having subsequently checked, both routes are much the same distance, although Andy’s was probably on faster roads. We lost about 15 minutes faffing – annoying, but not really a problem. Both of us are independent minded and would probably have dealt with the situation differently had we been alone, but we had enough faith in each other to find a sensible solution and carry on. Dealing with these tricky moments can be a challenge for any team, so I was very pleased with how we managed. There were a few subsequent ‘are you sure this is the right route?’ moments, but we negotiated them with barely a pause.
At around 130km I started to struggle and had to slow a little. Not sure why, although I might still be recovering from the previous week’s 200km (did I mention that I won?). Managed to bash on to Durrington (166km), where we lost the tailwind and turned north. Naturally we stopped at Sainsbury’s and I had the traditional pre-mixed cocktail. In this case a lovely mojito.
Cirencester eventually started to appear on road signs, which came as a pleasant surprise. Staring at the distance to go on your navigation is a bad habit and having company is a great way to distract yourself and make the miles go faster. I’m not Mr World of Chat, especially when I’m preoccupied with other things, like breathing, but Andy kept us going by throwing out topics to discuss: music, other hobbies and WTF we do these bloody stupid rides.
From Cirencester (240km) and a blissful hot and dirty mocha from Costa at the services we turned east and picked up the tailwind again.
The leg to the next control at Buckingham (320km) was a long one, around 80km. We contemplated stopping mid-way, but apart from the odd micro-rest we didn’t bother. The wind was with us, I’d recovered and we were riding strongly. The 300km mark came up in 12:29hrs, which really is silly fast, so we arrived at Buckingham well ahead of the 20kmh overall average we’d set for ourselves. That’s an overall average BTW, including time stopped – it’s not our average riding speed.
When we got to Buckingham the gnome-like chap who worked there informed us that the coffee machine was being cleaned. In 2019 I was smug because it had been out of action for the speedy bois, but not for me. This was karma biting me in the coffee-free arse. The nearby Mcdonalds wasn’t open and there wasn’t another 24hr garage to try, so we made the best of it and promised ourselves a coffee at the next opportunity.
Not far from Buckingham we turned into country lanes. It was hard going. We’d lost the tailwind and it started to rain. Fine drizzle at first, but then proper hard rain. Andy suffers from cold hands, so he was carrying a haberdashery shop’s-worth of gloves including a pair of Marigolds. It wasn’t quite that cold, but it certainly wasn’t pleasant. We bashed on, including a low moment when Andy missed a turn and I was too far back to make him hear me and too knackered to sprint. Eventually we managed to find a garage and huddled there with coffee and snacks. The rain eased, the sun started to come out and life got better.
We were early enough to dodge the usual A5 Edgeware Road traffic, although by this point it was Andy’s turn to be legless. Arriving at Marylebone Paddington at 6.30am was a real achievement – well ahead of our anticipated schedule. While we were patting ourselves on the back we met a couple of other chaps who’d arrived at 5am, which put us firmly in our place! Lesson learned – there’s always someone faster than you.
After a chilly wait for the first train home (on the most uncomfortable seats in the universe, thanks GWR) Andy’s partner met us in their camper van and gave me a lift home, for which may she be forever blessed.
Food and Drink
Should have eaten more of the bocadillos I took with me. Not that I was bored of them, I just ate fewer than I ought. The guava jelly wrapped in cheese slices was good, but very sticky and it leaked through the greaseproof paper. Won’t bother again, although on a supported 24hr they’d be welcome.
Drank 4 litres of iced tea from the backpack. That’s good, but refilling was a messy business. I could do with fashioning a funnel, so I can dump the powder into a bottle without spilling it.
Banananananas are good, as are pouches of Sainsburys banananana porridge baby food.
From about 350km I was struggling to use the tri-bars. The last banananana seemed to be sitting just under my ribs, so I suspect nothing was being properly digested, due to the sheer load being put on my body. Not sure what I could have done about that. Maybe a proper sit-down rest?
Equipment
The new Time Atac pedals were great. Just as easy to use as my Crank Bros but with a hard-to-define feeling of security.
Must trim the hose on the hydration pack. It’s just long enough to bump on my thigh, which is irritating.
Achilles developed a slightly sloppy headset. Fixed it today, but a pre-LEL service might be in order to replace cables, grease bearings etc.
Pacing
Fast is good, but slightly slower is even better if you still have riding to do the next day. And the day after. Pacing is something that I’ve been working on – trying to finish in a decent time, but without being too broken. By the time we finished, both of us were pretty knackered. Hypothetically, had we been riding a 600 we’d have earned ourselves more than 20hrs in the bank to sleep, recover and ride the last 200km, but I wonder if riding a couple of kmh slower would have made the recovery a bit easier? On LEL our 400km pace would have taken us over a quarter of the distance, with 110hrs to finish off the rest. On the face of it that sounds amazing but I suspect we’d pay for our efforts on subsequent days.
The problem is how to ride slower to achieve a predetermined average. Obviously there’s the option of simply stopping for a rest, but that’s hard to do when you feel good and are making speedy progress, not to mention having a competitive nature. My Ride With GPS display gives an overall average stat but it’s constantly changing, especially in the early stages of a ride. I guess one possible strategy is riding to the penultimate control and then (with gritted teeth) soft-pedalling to the finish. Basically treating the last 50km as a recovery ride so as to lessen the stress on your body. Riding 50km at 26kmh takes 1:55hrs. Riding at 22kmh takes just 21 minutes longer, but for much less effort (someone who knows their watts and power shizz can probably work it out). Spending those 21 minutes wisely (and paying for them with tighter faffage control) is almost certainly a good idea and something I’ll try on my next solo audax.
Team Less Cargo
We did well. 15:41hrs actual riding @ 26.4kmh, with 2:43hrs stopped. Total time 18:24hrs @ 22.5kmh. Well ahead of what we’d hoped and probably as fast as we’re ever likely to ride a 400, even with about 15-25 minutes lost to navigational mishaps! Time stopped was satisfactory (based on the 1hr per 100km rule of thumb).
If I’m suffering I like the world to know about it and whinge like a slapped step-child. Andy is strong and silent and I had no idea that he was also going through bad spells until he told me about them after we’d finished. We understand each other better now, which is perfect. That’s the kind of thing we need to learn on these rides, because LEL is going to really test us both and we need to know how the other will deal with the stress.
Overall Andy is stronger than me, physically and mentally, but we compliment each other well. We’re close enough and different enough to make a good team and there are always benefits to riding with company. The one thing we could do better is take advantage of drafting – we spent a lot of time riding side by side and running a disciplined two-man paceline will surely help us on those flat sections across the Fens.
Well Chuffed Cycling 