Isle of Wight Audax

Audax Racing!

Whilst the cream of the Wanderers long-distance riders were taking part in the Kent 12, the other mere mortals took on the Isle of Wight audax-and won!

My trip started early on Saturday morning, meeting up at Windy’s with Mr Jeffs. With everything strapped into car and trailer, we headed off for the New Forest, arriving a few hours later at a campsite in Lymington. Windy was on a mission, erecting a tent big enough to get several cars in, whilst Graham and I offered what assistance we could, before I attempted to set light to the whole show with my petrol powered stove-I hadn’t used it for a while!!

With all things looking sweet in our new home, we changed into bike kit and headed out for lunch under a fabulously warm sky. Graham had a bit of local knowledge, leading us round in a merry circle, before we found a place to eat. After lunch, it was off to the forest. No amount of persuading was going to get Graham offroad, so Windy and me had to look on as we passed countless tracks heading off into the trees. Eventually, with the pace kept high, Mr Jeffs crumbled, heading off back to the campsite with an overhead escort in the shape of a flying fortress-me and John headed for the trees!

It turned into an interesting adventure, riding slick tyres on sand and gravel, but we managed to double our mileage. I have no idea where we went as I was just using the sun to ride round and somehow we ended up back in Lymington. Once showered, we set off on the trail of beer and food, finding a pub that nearly beat John and me with a beef pie so big that neither of us fancied any more beer afterwards!

The next day we headed for the ferry; early morning and quite cold. It was impossible to miss the other Wanderers; Pete Price was on full song, laughing louder than the ferry. Once off the boat on the Isle of Wight, the flag dropped and Windy said go! The first control was 9kms away at the Needles and we’d already sailed through the field, collecting a hardened audax campaigner to guide the way. All stamped up, we headed for the opposite end of the island. As an island virgin, I was surprised how lumpy and rolling it was, but nothing we couldn’t cope with; our ancient companion seemed more than capable too-a bit like T without all the chat!

Second control at Bembridge came up quick; our friend carried on whilst we opted for a bacon sandwich and a panoramic view of the harbour with its large boats wafting about in the calm waters. We left as team T arrived, heading back for Yarmouth, chasing a large group of cyclists. They seemed to be riding off course, but always staying in front of us until we finally caught and overtook them only to then have to wait for our next ferry!

This was the chain ferry in Cowes, taking longer to load than it did to get across the water-just long enough to ruin your legs. We sped off in a large group; john doing a monster turn on the front whilst I was feeling a bit down on power. Someone else took over, fading quite quickly as soon as it went up, and I found myself back on the front again! With not far to the ferry, I opted for the “bury the hatchet” mode until someone shouted we’d just missed the next ferry anyway!

With time to kill, it only seemed right to have a pint, before the search for something to eat on the boat journey back to the mainland. By now, we had both spent all our money, scratching around to find enough coins to pay for a cup of tea! Hopefully we wouldn’t need anything until we finished.

Once back on the mainland, we had a 60km loop of the New Forest to do. As usual, we were back in the lead again fairly quickly-probably something to do with the headwind we seemed to be riding into. It seemed a long drag across the forest-the only saving grace were the amazing trees along the sides of the roads (that’s if you find trees amazing in the first place that is!).  

We had now crossed to the Northwest side of the forest and turned round to head for the finish with a tail wind. All we had to do was find the last control, which we failed to do so, before we headed for some more offroad to finish the day off-this was not the official route I hasten to add! I was a bit miffed about not getting my card stamped and even more miffed that we might as well have done a lot more offroad before hand!

At the first opportunity, we hit the dirt. Well, I literally hit the dirt! The sand was a bit too deep; I came to a grinding halt and then keeled over, unable to release my feet from the pedals, ending upside down in the heather with bike still firmly attached! I then proceeded to do this again about 20m further on, much to the amusement of John, earning myself the best comedy falls of the weekend.

Having got going again, we kept the road route in sight on the Garmin and made our own route up. Climbing up one hill, I thought my legs had finally had it-Windy felt the same. As we neared the finish, we ran out of offroad options, and the speed soon whipped up on the tarmac-the legs had forgotten their earlier pain. The last bit was a tortuous route round the houses, but we eventually found the finish and a well-earned cup of tea along with a few too many bowls of riced pudding and peaches. We were the 3rd and 4th back in the 160km group, despite the last 25km being offroad-we never disclosed this fact!

The T team rolled in about 40 mins after us, looking reasonably fresh and we exchanged the day’s tales over more tea before heading our separate ways home. A good weekend’s riding I think and I may have to go back again next year. Thanks to Windy for the transport and accommodation.