To Skegness and back (200 mile ride)

Stats

• Distance: 200 miles total ride (90 miles to Skegness, 90 miles back and 20 additional miles on the A6)

• Elevation: 7250ft

• Average speed: 14.3MPH including many water bottle and food stops

Myself and Catherine have spoke about this ride for a few months, 3 days prior to the ride we had a date spare and decided off the cuff to go out and ride it. I plotted the route and it said only 7250ft of climbing which to me sounded as flat as a pancake as this would be the elevation for my usual 40 mile rides in the peak district!

We set off at 4:30 AM (much to Catherine's despair) and had two hours of cycling in the dark with rain that was not forecasted but after this we had lovely weather of approximately 20 degrees . The route throughout the whole ride was flat, especially as we went through Lincolnshire. My satmap was playing up on me once again but due to the direct route of heading East we didn’t get massively misplaced which kept our morals high as no one likes getting lost and losing time looking at sign posts.  

Our first ever gated road we have came across

We made great time getting to Skegness and arrived at 11:10 AM (5hr 46mins), we stopped off for some obligatory chips at the sea front, took a photo and then carried on cycling back home. We both felt pretty fresh and wasn’t too daunted that we were only halfway. The hardest point was forcing the food down us, but if we didn’t, we knew that we would inevitably bonk (learning from past experience).

Skegness beach

However, the way back home was tough, we had very strong headwinds for the whole way, I have never experienced this before, it felt like we were cycling in treacle which in turn reduced out average speed by over 6MPH! At times, this became demoralising as the scenery of Lincolnshire is very monotonous, so it became difficult to take your mind of our slow snail pace when comparing it to the times we made getting to Skegness. But we kept spinning our legs or in my case, free wheeling ( I don't think Catherine approved of my noisy hubs though), having regular stops to fill up our water bottles and fuelling our bodies with endless amounts of cereal bars. Catherine even sang along the way which also made me cycle faster (not that she was terrible at all, just that we had something to focus on).

The route was exactly the same both ways, but because of the lack of memorable scenery, I barely could remember it, which is unheard of for myself as I tend to remember a route off by heart after one ride. But this certainly wasn’t memorable at all, it just looked the same throughout!

Once we made it back to home, I was determined to round up the milage to 200 miles (180 currently), I proposed this to Catherine and she accepted to continue after little persuasion. We blasted up to Matlock and back via the A6, this was slightly strange as we were holding 20 mph in sections, it felt like we hadn’t already cycled 180 miles, but I think the excitement of sleep was the driving force as we had been on the bike for more than 12 hours which took a toll on the body.

To conclude, this is currently my longest ride (previous 182 with Alan in Wales), the route was fairly boring, but I am glad I have completed the challenge. I don't think I will cycle it again just because it wasn’t the most scenic ride Im used too. However, we both completed it comfortably and wasn’t hanging on at any point. It has been great training for our LEJOG ride in the summer as we mentally now we can do the distance.

A massive well done to Catherine who smashed her first 200 miles after minimal training due to an operation a few months back, you are incredibly strong minded and a great laugh on the bike who kept us going when the wind got tough. You even perceived through some nasty saddle sores and some funny looking cyclist tan lines/burns!

The effects of 14 hours on a bike

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Catherine’s Write up

I crawled out of bed at 4am, completely unaware of what to expect. My longest previous ride had been 115 miles and let’s just say that, by the end of it, I was clinging on by the skin of my teeth! 

After fuelling up with some mighty Weetabix, we set off, met by drizzle for the first 25 miles, something that we hadn’t expected. After a few slight GPS issues, we made it out of Nottinghamshire and into Lincolnshire. The rain had stopped, the sun was beginning to shine and spirits were high. We (well, mainly me) were counting each 10 miles down, breaking the route into more mentally-easier distances!
Lincoln was....erm, flat? Not much else to say really. A few beautiful fields of poppies, but apart from that there wasn’t much. Very different to the rolling country side of Derbyshire, that we’re used to. The high spirits continued throughout the outward ride, especially with 25 miles to go when we started to see signs to Skegness – the half way point was in sight and chips awaited! 

We were greeted  by glorious sunshine and blue sky and after a quick visit to the beach (where I desperately tried not to get sand in my shoes) we headed to find a cafe. The owner was super friendly and chatted away about various cycling stories, before sending us on our way (Wyke even remembered to get his water bottles filled up, unlike me...).

Obligatory photo to prove we went to the coast 

After 92 miles to get to Skegness, we were feeling astoundingly fresh, and I was just waiting for my legs to give up on me. Somehow, that didn’t happen, which was a lovely surprise! The first 50 miles back wasn’t so fun, a strong headwind all the way and a lack of interesting scenery made it fairly demoralising. I kept offering to play ‘I went to the shop and bought’ or ‘a is for antelope, b is for baboon’ but Wykeham insisted that we kept the mind games for emergencies only. So I had to settle for singing to myself. 

Our average speed drastically dropped due to the headwind, but we just kept pedalling and spinning the legs. Once we got back into Nottinghamshire, thanks to the hedges and hills, the headwind reduced and spirits rose. Thanks to several food stops, copious cereal bars and 6l of fluid, we were still doing well, in Wyke’s words, ‘we were smashing it’. We were covering the miles and had our energy had not yet diminished – all was well! 

As we returned into Derbyshire, we discussed adding a 20 mile loop to achieve a total of 200 miles. If we had cycled 182 miles and been in the saddle for 12 hours, we might as well do the extra 20 right? Luckily, after little persuasion, I agreed that I would regret it if I didn’t complete the 200 miles, although in my head, I was just waiting for my legs to give up on me. 

It was more that I really really wanted to sleep, but after cycling past the turn off to home, I’d committed to the full 200. The lure of knowing that all that stood between me and an amazing night’s sleep was 20 miles, definitely gave me a spurt of energy. Somehow we averaged 20mph for the last 20 miles and I climbed the last hill faster than I ever had before, and finished it still feeling okay. 

What a day it was! We both smashed our previous furthest distance and had a thoroughly enjoyable day in the process. I’m not sure I’ll return to Lincolnshire to cycle any time soon, especially to cycle in a Westerly direction! 

A day on, I have horrendous cyclist tan lines but they were totally worth it for the day we had! At least it didn’t rain all day!