Sunday was the ‘Magnificat’ 127 mile Sportif from Newbury, down and around Winchester, down towards Portsmouth then back up over the South Downs. Turbo Man and I pushed out initially together, with no real plan than to stick with it as long as we could. After an hour or so, he was starting to drop me on the hills – he has a compact chainset but I don’t have such a luxury. He came into the first time check 6 mins ahead of me. Just before the ride I had changed saddle (back to a specialized BG one) and unfortunately struggled with a bad back to find him 30 mins ahead at the end of the second section and he finished an hour ahead. I really couldn’t put any power down and spent miles 40-70 sat up trying to get comfy. The back pain was so bad after 60 miles that I was thinking about throwing in the towel, but borrowed 1000mg of Ibrufen from a fellow rider (thanks Jase) and pushed on to the finish. I don’t know what gain in height Turbo got from his GPS, but the official route claimed just under 9000’ of hills, and one of the riders who crossed the finish line with me had a final readout of 11 600’ of climbing. It was a tough day out though! Congratulations to Dave - a great confidence boost to have that under his belt a week before going to France.

One ‘off’ from worn tyres (going too fast into a roundabout) has meant 2 more ordered from Chain Reaction this morning for France. The slow grind up the 10% inclines has meant that I could do with getting my hands on a 12-27 from somewhere, but, happily, I feel fine in myself after the ride and things are looking good for France a week on Sunday.