On Saturday 1st July I had the pleasure of taking part in the A Trip to the Beach 300km Audax. This would be my third Audax having successfully completed the Delightful Dales 200 and Knock Ventoux 300 a few months earlier with Audax legend Farooq Chaudhry. Unfortunately, he couldn’t make this one due to family commitments. However, I had planned to ride with a work colleague Graham. We were both participants on one of the banks charity rides back in 2016 riding from Edinburgh to Pudsey over three days. We even had legendary ultra distance cyclist Mark Beaumont ride the first leg with us. He was training for his ‘Round the World’ record attempt at the time.
As a Muslim the day started at 4am with fajar (morning) prayers followed by a quick breakfast and then the one hour drive to the start at mcDonalds in Haslingden. Here I had a coffee and collected the brevet although I was trying out the new e-brevet for the first time.
While congregating at the start I also recognised another rider from a previous Audax event. We exchanged words until we were interrupted by the rider briefing. It was apparent a large number of participants were put off by the weather conditions as it was thin on the ground! The weather wasn’t ideal with rain and wind forecast for most of the day. However, I didn’t let this put me off and made the most of the situation. The plan was to ride together and regroup on the climbs keeping a lid on the efforts to ensure we got round. There was lots of stunning and varied climbs on the route, Bowland Knotts from the south was new to me. Superb views opening up before you as you crest the top onto an immaculate tarmac section for the long descent back down. This wasn’t the only climb like that, we also got to enjoy Cross of Green, Cragg Vale and Cow Ark. In total I came back to the start/finish with over 6000 metres of climbing. Lots of leg stingers helped bring up the elevation, Salidburn being one of them!
The bike of choice was my trusty Kinesis GTD Titanium fitted with Fend off guards. I also recently had the SRAM Force AXS groupset fitted and some wireless blips to the aero bars. These worked flawlessly and saved me having to move off the aero bars when needing to change gear. The Tailfin top tube bag carried my OTE food supplies and the brevet card in the waterproof compartment. In terms of kit Spatz Squadron jersey, Convoy bibs and Toez worked a treat keeping me warm and dry.
The roads and route were expertly picked, extremely quiet and some of the nicest surfaces around. The event organiser was also the photographer using his drone to capture some memorable moments. Organisation was exemplary and all in all a fantastic day despite the weather.
A Trip to the Beach 300km Audax | Ride | Strava
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Altaf Hussain 
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