Oakman Shires Sportive - Done!

This morning was the second organised cycle ride of my challenge year, the Oakman Shires Sportive. I'm starting to realise that cycling and early starts go hand in hand, and at 7:15am on a Bank Holiday Sunday we rode down the road to the Kings Arms in Berko for the start.

We being Becca, Chris and I, so great to do a long ride with the Ride100 team, plus Berko Dad's Bike Club members Wilf, Graham and Tim.

The route was 70km, with barely a mile of flat as crisscrossed our local Chiltern Hills. See the route here, and how we got on, from my Strava.

The Oakman sportive is very sociable, as we basically ride between three of their pubs, from the Kings Arms in Berko to the Red Lion at Water End, on to The Akeman in Tring before heading back to the Kings Arms again. And we got looked after well, ending with Bacon Rolls (and a pint...) when we were done.

After feeling wiped out after the Tring Velo Club ride a couple of weeks back I changed my nutrition today and was really pleased with how I went. I felt really strong throughout, with more confidence for what lies ahead. I've now got 12 weeks of training before the Ride100, and my training plan is about to ramp up.

Finally, huge thanks again to the Oakman group for their donation to our fundraising for Cancer Research.