Mildenhall Cycling Festival Randonee 200

This month’s Audax had me venturing slightly further afield. Mildenhall Cycling Festival has been running for the last 7 or 8 years and plays host to the ladies 800m grass track National Championships. Unfortunately, this year was more of a mini-fest, reduced in size from previous years. However, there was still a reasonable turnout for the 200km event (there were 50km, 100km, 160km and 300km options too) with about 30 riders lining up for the 8am start.

It had been a misty morning across the fens, but by the time we rolled out into the Suffolk lanes the damp had burnt off and it was already shaping up to be a warm day. I spent the first 7-8 miles sat in the wheels chatting with some of the local veterans. Eventually, I decided to push on, riding off the front and settling into my own pace. The first control came at about 30miles at Wallys Cafe just outside Acton. Having had no breakfast I made short work of a bacon sandwich and got on my way. It was only 10am and already quite hot. As much as I was happy that it wasn’t raining, I was a little concerned that the 28 degrees that had been forecast, was going to be just as difficult to ride in, if not more so. I had already slavered myself in factor 50 in the style of a cross channel swimmer, so at least that was one thing I didn’t need to worry about. One of the defining characteristics of this route is just how sporadic the vegetation is. The lanes have almost no hedgerows, which while making for great views of rolling wheat and corn fields, also means that there is very little shade.

The second control point was the Angel Cafe in Diss. Coming at 61 miles it was basically halfway and a welcome stop for lunch and a cold drink, or this case 2 cold drinks. It was now really hot and I had emptied my water over my head about 5 miles ago trying to stay cool, so getting my bidons filled was one of the main priorities. I ordered a tuna sandwich and sat down with the couple who were manning the control point. We chatted for a bit while I eat my sandwich, which was some welcome company after 4 hours riding mostly on my own. I see myself as generally a solo rider and as such you might ask why I would bother to do calendar events when I could just be knocking out DIYs and Permanents at more convenient times and locations. The reason is that I really like the social 10mins at control points. It’s a nice moment to either catch up with other riders for a few minutes or have a quick chin wag with whoever is manning the card stamp. This is one of the things that I really like about Audax’s that I really gave no thought to before experiencing it.

About 10mins later riders started to pour into the cafe and I took that as my cue to push on. I had my bottle filled, and a can of coke in my pocket so I was all set to go. The next point of interest was an information control in the market town of Wymondham, which asked: “What year was Market Cross built?”.

I have found information controls to generally be a little sketchy. Riding through a place you have never been to before, trying to keep an eye out for… something. Often this might just be a road sign but in this case, I had no real idea… one of those blue commemorative plaques maybe? As I passed through the town centre I saw a stilted building that was clearly older than everything else around it. Spidey sense tingling, I went over to it and low and behold a commemorative plaque told me that it, the market square, was built in 1618.

It was around this point that I started to feel a little under the weather. I had plenty of energy and my legs felt fine but I was really suffering in the heat and I felt a little sick in the stomach. There wasn’t really much else to do though but push on and try to drink as much as I could. I did try to eat on the road but the few mouth fulls of flapjack that I braved didn’t go down well at all. The final control was Pedlars Hall Cafe in Swaffham. I caught up with Andy here who had been first on the road all day. We had a good chat and it seems the heat wasn’t affecting him like it was me.  This stop was crucial for me as it allowed me to not only cool down in the shade of the cafe but again get a couple of cold drinks in me and get my bottles filled.

I watched Andy eat an apple pie with custard which looked great. My eyes told me to get one but my stomach said no. There were about 30 miles left to go and I felt that trying to force something down at this stage wasn’t really required.

Feeling loads better I left Swaffham just as the next rider was pulling in. I headed on towards Feltwell and the last information control. Honestly, who puts a control point in a place called Feltwell on a day this hot at the 112-mile point? That’s some next-level piss-taking I tell you. It didn’t take too long for me to succumb to the heat again with the last 15 miles or so really dragging as I fought the dehydration and borderline heatstroke. I have only ever experienced this whilst riding once before. It’s a strange thing to be feeling strong, but also sick and a little bit sleepy. With only roughly an hour left I decided that the best plan would be to keep on keeping on, maintaining my average speed and just get to the end.

Back at the final control I got a load of water in me, washed off my face and sat in the shade for a while, chatting with the organisers as other riders started to roll in. Within about 20mins I was feeling fine, so no harm done. I finished in 8 hours 41 mins and was 2nd home. I had been aiming for a 15mph elapsed time average and was only just shy of this at 14.6mph. This was another excellent Audax, with a very picturesque route that had perfectly spaced and well-chosen controls. It’s no surprise that this is the 7th or 8th time that this has run as it feels like a well-honed route and overall a very well run event.

Lessons from this event.

On your way into control points, make a mental list of the things you need to do and the order in which you should do them. For example, my list from the first control went like this:

• Get my Brevet card stamped.
• Order food.
• Request a bidon refill.
• Sort out my bib shorts (I’m not explaining this one).
• Plug my backup battery into my GPS.
• Eat bacon sandwich while doing the other things.
• Check the distance to the next control point.

Making a plan not only means you do things in the right order, reducing the time that you are in the control but also gives you something to think about and occupy your mind for a while.