Ill Concieved Plans Poorly executed

The Autumn WoW

Any event where the instructions includes a menu is a must do as far as I'm concerned. Let's face it the reason that most of us cycle is so that we can consume momentous qualities of calories with no discernable effect on the waistline (or is that just me?). The WoW Audax is named after the café that it stops at near the end and where the menu was for. I think you're starting to get the flavour of this event. It started in Halisham just outside the sports centre. I had opted for the 100km version but there was a 200Km version as well. Obviously this meant being awake far too early on a Sunday morning for someone of my temperament.

The ride to the first control was short and relaxed. There were no edible goodies at the start but we were promised "something to keep us going" after 16km. We arrived at a roadside lay by to find a table groaning under the weight of comestibles and behind another the event organiser dispensing tea and coffee at an alarming rate. As I tried to choose which cake or pastry to have with my gallon of tea the organiser said, "If you can't decide which cake to have, have one of each" No further instructions were required.

With my stomach groaning under the weight of pastries it was time to fill in the gap between food stops with a little bit of cycling. The route followed a series of lanes and quiet roads down to Rye. For most of the time I was happily spinning along by myself, humming tunes and gawping at the scenery and as is obligatory on and an Audax , taking the odd wrong turn. Just outside Rye I was joined by another cyclist, I didn't remember seeing him at the start but he was on the same event so we bowled along chatting about nothing in particular, the weather and a myriad of other trivial things. Slowly we were joined by a few others to make up a sociable fast moving group. Somewhere along the way the other guy realised that we were all doing the 100km and that he was meant to be doing the 200km. By now he was so far off route he decided to stay with us. It's a schoolboy error on an Audax to follow someone else, invariably they are lost or on a different event.

With 70km under our belts it was time for another food stop; its hungry work all this cycling. I liked the organisation here, walk in to the café, give your number, get handed a cup of tea find a seat and just as you take a few sips the food appears. A bacon baguette followed by apple pie and custard. It was very hard to get going again but after a few miles the little group formed and we sped back to the finish, arriving a few minutes after it had opened. All in all a good ride and a good feed that set me up just right for a really good Sunday Dinner.