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@slowfox
107km around the Yorkshire Wolds, http://big-g-sportive.co.uk/:
edit: I don't know how you embed the Garmin summary: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/345321468
I don't fully understand Garmin's stats: the ride details claim 953m elevation, but my dashboard has ascribed 1270m effort to the jaunt. It felt more like the latter than the former, trust me...
About 700 riders, all told, doing one of four courses (30km, 60km, 100km and 160km). There were supposedly two food stations, both common to the 100 and 160 routes, but the first station (at 50km) was off-piste slightly, and, IMHO, poorly signed, so I missed it completely. Unfortunate, since it was being manned by a colleague through whose good offices I managed to register late for the ride in the first place.
Second feed station, just after Huggate, was a welcome respite after a long, long drag up through Millington Woods. Jelly babies, fig rolls, flapjacks, bananas, lots and lots of water etc etc
The final 'big' hill - the last proper spike on the elevation profile - is Nunburnholme. I got up it fine, but was behind a rider who'd slowed down to the point that they simply toppled sideways onto the tarmac. They were fine, but it was unfortunate that they'd had the spill right in front of one of the official photographers...
Anyway, after Nunburnholme, the psychological fallacy of thinking it was the last 'hill' was revealed: every teeny, tiny incline felt like a mountain after that. Having set a notional target time of 5hrs 30mins for the ride, by the time I'd crested Nunburnholme I was thinking that a sub 5hr time was within my grasp. But a headwind for the final 25km, coupled with the fact that I was worn out, meant that I eventually crawled home in the aforementioned 5hrs 06.
So, despite beating my notional pre-ride target by 24mins, I feel disappointed with myself that I didn't somehow whittle a further 6mins off.