I don't know how it gets better than this



English settlement

 Wiltshire is THE county for white horses, and I'm not talking about the slightly odd seventies children's TV show of the same name.  Although I did quite like it, more than Belle et Sebastien, which I thought odd on two counts. First it was dubbed. As a child growing up in the 70s, this never worked for me. Second the dog was from the Pyrenees and yet they lived in the Alps. How did that happen?

The white horses was Yugoslavian and also dubbed, but as it was from behind the Iron curtain, somehow more acceptable. Although it was a strange relationship with the horses, but I have a theory about that, which I'll keep to myself.

No I am talking about the  Wiltshire White horses, although thanks to the local government butchers one of them purports to be in Oxfordshire now, and I think may have been in Berkshire originally. Anyway to the point. I rode the White Horse Challenge again. And yet again it proved to be a marvellous ride through the countryside. My parents both came from the Wiltshire-Berkshire border, so I know the area well, and love it all the more for that. And the route of the ride links four of the horses, the ones at Broadtown, Cherhill, Hackpen Hill and of course Uffington. Some say the latter is in fact a dragon. I couldn't care less, it's one of the best pieces of cultural art in this country. And probably over 3000 years old.

On the journey up to Shrivenham I was wondering if the rain would join the stiff westerly breeze at some point, leading to some kit faffing, but in the end the rain held off until I got back to HQ, meaning my ACG ensemble was just about perfect. I was also wondering how I was going to ride the route, given the lurking presence of virtual partner on Charlie. But let's face it, there was only going to one strategy : RLF and hope to beat 5 hours. Well. I didn't quite manage that, but I did go faster than last year. Quite how is a bit of a mystery. Apart from pedalling faster in higher gears obviously.

The first 40 km of the route have a few bumps but are largely flat, and offer the opportunity to get in a group, wheelsuck, save energy, do your turn and cover the first 20 miles in an hour. I don't know if it was the strong headwind, or the fact that no-one apart from me and two others was prepared to ride on the front, but today it was just not happening. By the time I got to Purton (about 18 miles in) I was doing yet another turn and already 3 miles down on last year. Probably a mixture of both.

I carried on up the hill, there is a small ride that peaks at 8%, and soon found myself 2-300 yards ahead of everyone else. So I just kept going, and apart from a couple of brief interludes where I pulled people along or jumped on a wheel for a bit, I was solo for the following 72 miles. By the time I hit the Broad town hill, where I got dropped last year, I had reduced my deficit to 2.5 miles, and little by little, this continued until just before Lambourn, about 72 miles in, when I took the lead.




Avebury


Across the rolling hills, down the descents, through Avebury, and down into Marlborough I rode like the clappers. Barely stopping at either feed station, I was intent on pushing myself as hard as I could and see what I could do.

Unbelievable considering how much I pushed it last year, and had help from a couple of fast groups. If you look at my Ride with GPS route you will see they have started doing segments a la Strava, and from those I have been able to see that my climbing has improved a lot, I did Hackpen Hill 30 seconds faster, and Dragon Hill nearly a minute faster. All of this statistical nonsense still doesn't help with the headwind in the last section of the ride, or with my mental nutrition and hydration strategy (keep it to the bare minimum), but I'm pleased that my ride time as well as my total elapsed time were both better than last year.

Charlie's 2012 route, with the total elapsed time of 5-06-28, and Charlie's 2011 route with a total elapsed time of 5-08-53. Given the exposed nature of the course, I think the wind probably balances itself out, unless you lose energy. It was probably neutral overall today. I felt completely spent at the end, I can't imagine going faster on my own, and doing it in a group the whole way or at least for the first flat bit takes some shine off the challenge.

I am delighted to knock over two minutes off my overall time though. Equivalent to 0.8 miles according to Virtual Partner. I may well not do it again, it's hard to see how I could be much faster, and 5 hours seems a long way off for me. Still a lovely ride though, through the countryside past the White horses, the sacred ancient landscape and fortunately the weather was very kind. If anyone fancies it next year, I promise to ride it for fun. No really. Promise.