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Cheer up mate, it wasn't that bad.
Pretty sure they only don't call it a race for insurance reasons. By all accounts the baked potatoes at stop 3 were good but we only stopped there for a couple of minutes so...
I agree the river crossing was all a bit hyped up. I hate having cold feet but fuck it just blast through, it was relatively sunny after all.
For me the problem was the lack of variety in the terrain and the fact there was just so much climbing.
(Still not sure why you're going on about that guy with the OpenUp)
SteadyCam-
Cheer up mate, it wasn't that bad.
Your face at the end said otherwise! Yeah, the the lack of variety, and the nature of gravel is that you descend for 2 mins and climb for 20+ mins. Tedious. Combined with most riders barely being capable of more than a grunt as they pass, there wasn't even conversation. Glad I got to ride with you for most of it, otherwise it would be been a lot more miserable. From stop 3, I just had to get finished, I was thoroughly hacked off by that point.
I think the larger gentleman on the Open Up just captured a lot about the event really. One for the scenesters.
turnpedal
It was...
...awful. I managed to get a conversation out of ONE rider, out of hundreds that I rode alongside throughout the day. Lots of wankers in racing mode. Just call it a fucking race, cos it basically is, timing chips etc etc. People are jizzing themselves about the food stops, but they basically had Energy Drinks, shit crisps, haribo and pork pies. Where's the real food? Where's the veggie stuff? Oh yeah, they had bananas, which weren't ripe.
The course was OK, but the countryside was pretty uninspiring, and all looked the same after about mile 3. The highlight of the event for me was leaving at the end.