The cold light of day

It’s a few weeks since my 1st attempt at an ultra bike ride and time to reflect on the experience. My interest in long distance riding has been with me a long time. I’ve always been aware of the superhuman feats of endurance in cycling and running and my interest was further piqued by watching the exploits of numerous YouTubing Cyclists over the last few years. Fast forward to 2024, newly retired and an opportunity for me to dip a toe into a nonstop self supported event. The Alba Ultra described as a low key beginners event, purposely designed with an evening start time to encourage riding through the night, a relaxing of the rules to allow pre booking of a hotel for the 2nd night and a beginner friendly 600km dependant on your route choice. 10 check points across the North of England to be visited and recorded on Instagram with a time stamped picture. Perfect, with plenty of time until the event i set about the tasks required to get me to the start line. Route planning, acquiring equipment, bike bags, sleeping bag, emergency bivi, reflective safety belt the list was long. Training, with something in the diary to aim for my motivation was good and I set about putting in some longer solo rides, getting out a bit earlier and putting in a loop before meeting my Sunday morning riding buddies. Also getting in a decent reconnaissance ride of a couple of Checkpoints with a cycling friend. I have never had so many Km’s or metres of elevation in my legs at this time of year. A week in the sunshine of Girona on a cycling holiday with riding buddies just added some quality km’s. Things are going well. The support of cycling friends with offers of equipment loans was very welcome and confirms what a fantastic community cycling is.

At this stage all is going well. One slight disappointment was that the cold wet weather and probably an element of my own nervousness prevented an overnight long ride. Fast forward to Friday evening and it’s time to go, bike checked, bags packed, nothing more to be done than turn up and start the ride. Nervously watching the weather for the week before the event and a chance of overnight rain followed by TFT a damp and cloudy day becomes likely.

We meet at a location on the Leeds ring road and a chance to meet my fellow adventurers, some brief introductions a safety briefing a few pictures and some banter and we’re off 5 minutes early as we’re all keen to get moving. We all get to the main Road junction and I turn left as planned, surprisingly my fellow competitors all turn right? Ah, well personal route choice and all that, but what do they know that I don’t?

Making good progress along the ring road and soon into the quieter roads, it’s the Friday night of the first Bank Holiday weekend and people are stood outside the pub enjoying a drink and the warmer weather. I think about them standing chatting with friends enjoying a drink and smile to myself at the normality of that activity compared to what I’m embarking on. On through York still warm and dry as dusk comes in. On a cycle path at the side of the A64 only a few km’s to the 1st CP and I spot a filling station that’s still open, perfect, this might be the last opportunity to get supplies, I buy a bottle of water, drink some and refill my depleted bottles. In the short space of time I’ve been in the shop the heavens have opened and it’s raining heavily, almost like a cloud burst the roadsides are flooded with puddles and I’m getting wet, It’s also got very dark! Wow, I’m on my own, it’s dark, it’s raining heavily and it’s 10pm on Friday night and I’m looking for a Checkpoint, I can’t see my GPS unit on the handlebars it’s covered in rain drops, my glasses are covered in rain and my bike lights which are good enough to pick up the road in front of me don’t highlight the road signs. Cue my 1st CP experience, I pull up at a railway signal box in the rain and immediately realise it’s not the one I’m looking for! I stop and dismount and try to review my bike computer screen to check my exact location. The Signal box is manned and the guy manning it opens his door comes down the steps and invites me in out of the rain. His name is Andy and he’s intrigued to know what I’m doing out in the rain at 10pm on a Friday night. He very kindly opens up Google maps in his computer and explains that I’m less than a mile from my intended location and also gives me detailed instructions on how to get there. I thank him for his kind and welcome help, shake his hand and off once more into the rain. Less than 10 minutes later I’m in the right place and take a time stamped picture of the Checkpoint. I’m at the bottom of a steep hill and surprise, no mobile signal so I can’t upload to Instagram!

Onwards to Check Point 2. The rain eventually abates and we just have very wet roads (some flooding to the edges) which makes it difficult to ride as I don’t want to risk hitting a pothole under the floodwater. The last thing I need right now is a puncture. I’m wet but it’s not cold and the winds are light so I do start to warmup and dry out a bit as I ride along. I’m actually enjoying the experience of riding along on my own in the dark lanes, traffic is non existent and the darkness and quiet is strangely comfortable. I stop in Helmsley and sit down to eat a sandwich and have a good drink. Soon I’m back on the road and entering the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, the road starts to gently climb and for the next couple of hours I’m climbing steadily up a series of ever more narrow lanes with all of the debris associated with a rural area and recent heavy rain. At one point I see something move out of the corner of my eye and then again on the other side? Several ponies are grazing on the grass verge. Phew, that got my heart rate up a bit more than it already was! I eventually reach Checkpoint 2, and a quick picture of the bartering table on the village green. A bus shelter provides a welcome refuge and a chance to sit, eat and drink again.

Onwards to Checkpoint 3 and the prospect of another 3 or 4 hours of riding, as I leave the village I pass a road sign that says “Ford” and I can hear the roar of fast moving water! I don’t like the sound of that, the ford is shallow but I don’t fancy riding through it in the dark as I can’t see the far side, the roar is coming from a weir 50m downstream. A few moments later and now with really wet feet I’m back on the bike and making progress. The darkness is disorientating and at times I can’t detect if I’m going up or down. I ride through Northallerton and a few late night revellers are walking home I wonder what their thinking as I ride past? Onwards up into the hills and My next concern is another road sign that clearly says “No Entry, except for access”, the road continues onwards and upwards past farms and farm buildings the inclines are steep and the road is getting narrow, I’m really hoping that this road doesn’t turn into a dirt track or a dead end, thankfully it doesn’t and I’m soon on another road and continuing to make progress. Dawn is not far away now, a brief stop outside Richmond and I hear a Cock crowing, it’s 4 am. By the time I’m riding into Barnard Castle it’s almost light but still too early for a decent cafe stop. From Barnard Castle I’m soon climbing steadily again towards CP3 a bridge over a reservoir high in the moors of Teesdale. It’s warming up a bit now and the sun is trying to make an appearance, I continue to climb steadily and I’m soon on a narrow strip of tarmac road running alongside the reservoir. I get to the right turn at the end of the road and I’m concerned, it’s a rough track, not the tarmac I was expecting? Nothing I can do now but carry on, through a farm yard and more rough track, I can see the reservoir and the bridge and a bit of hike a bike sees me soon on the bridge. I take the picture and upload to Instagram but still not convinced I’m in the right spot. I pick up my route to the next CP and the Wahoo says do you want to be directed to the start. This confirms my earlier suspicion that I’m in the wrong place. I am on the Pennine Way, however I’m at the wrong reservoir! More climbing and a few more Km’s and I’m at the correct CP. I’ve lost a further chunk of time in my faffing about and realise that this error is of my own making. Earlier that morning in the Bus shelter at Osmotherly I had modified the route and picked up Reservoir bridge on Pennine Way, but not realised there were two in close proximity. Another lesson learned through experience. At this point I am starting to feel the effects of being up all night.

Anyway, onwards towards CP4. This next section of road is quite possibly the hardest yet and the “Cold light of day” title was borne out of this. The road is undulating, mostly climbing and it’s across exposed moorland. I’m feeling it now! I eventually start the descent and thoughts turn to a decent breakfast. Brough is the next town and all it musters is a local shop with a Costa coffee machine. I drink a coffee, a bottle of coke and eat the last of my tuna and cheese sandwich that I made the previous day. I review Google Maps and anywhere that’s likely to have a decent cafe is dozens of Km’s off route. This is the real start of my downfall. I’m now tired and a bit cold, my feet are still damp. I put on my last remaining insulated layer and set off in a westerly direction. I miss a turn at some stage and get into a bit of a rerouting battle with the gps. I go up and down the same road a couple of times, up numerous steep climbs which don’t lead anywhere and I’m soon feeling a bit tee’d off. I had lost all ability of being able to rationalise the current issue and was just hell bent on heading for Mardale Head and CP4. Another hour of getting absolutely nowhere and I see a sign for Appleby. I decide to head there, reasoning that I’ll be able to find a café, have something to eat, warmup a bit and then make a decision. At this point it’s worth adding a bit more context, you’ll recall that I had pre booked a hotel after CP6 in the mid Lakes. In doing so I had created a schedule of my times at the various CP’s. This is all good basic ultra planning stuff, however what I hadn’t planned and not had I even realised that I hadn’t planned was stopping time or faffing time, so in the back of my mind I was thinking I’m already miles behind schedule, I was also thinking it’s only going to get worse and I was worried that if I missed the hotel that would be a 2nd night outside. In my tired and confused mind this became all consuming and was perhaps the biggest factor in my decision to scratch from the event.

To conclude this tale, I did scratch from the event and later that day I caught the train home. Despite the DNF, i learnt a lot in a very short space of time and I do want to have another crack at an Ultra event or even just a few days out on a yet to be planned trip on my own. A great experience and thank you to Richard and Sam Gates of the Albarossa CC for putting on a great little event for people to try Ultra cycling.