Full Boar...

It seems posts are a bit like waiting for buses - nothing and then a whole load turn up.

Last Sunday Gary and I entered our first 'Sportive' ride. It was local and so seemed the ideal opportunity for us to dip our toes in and give it a go.

Signing in at the start

Organised by 'Full Boar Events' this was a 52 mile sportive ride around the lanes of Leicestershire, Staffordshire and South Derbyshire. We ride these areas regularly and we knew what to expect. The weather was good, we paid our entry and set off at about 9.45am - there were about 60 riders, maybe more - this was the first time for this event and the riders seemed to consist of members of Mercia Cycling Club, Coalville Wheelers, a Triathlon club and a mixture of various 'leisure' riders. All in all it seemed a good mix and everyone was friendly at the start line.

The route was lovely - mainly quiet back roads free from any major traffic. We passed through some beautiful villages, a few of which I hadn't been to before. There were a couple of testing hills which saw a few people dismounting (not us though!) and some roller coaster descents to set the heart racing.

After the ride

We completed the course in 3 hours 19 minutes - not very fast but okay. We stopped a couple of times on the way round to take on fluids and I had to dig out my tool kit to adjust my saddle which cost us 10 minutes - so we know we could have maybe got under 3 hours without too much trouble. At one point we were at the front of the peloton which felt good and we generally moved pretty quickly on the faster stretches.

It was a good work-out, and with the ride too and from the start point we clocked up around 70 miles for the day.

Here's a video clip and I've added a couple of photos.