It seems ages ago that we first spoke about the epic mission, which is to cycle from Mission Motorsport HQ in Wantage to Anglesey Circuit, but in reality, it is only a little over seven weeks ago.
To put that into the grand scheme of things, our bike ride starts in just 14 weeks. 240 miles to cover in three days and the furthest distance we’ve covered is roughly 50 miles so far! It may seem like we are slightly behind, but we are making good progress because for the first time the other weekend all of those involved in the big ride cycled together around Anglesey Circuit.
Formation riding coming through Corkscrew (Photo Credit – Heather Roberts)
Whilst we were planning on cycling the whole 240 miles, we quickly realised that with the hills and the time of year which we will be tackling this challenge that we would really only get 80 miles of riding in a day, factor in the weather and we could be down to 60-65 miles, more training was clearly needed.
All that aside though we were determined to get some cycling done around the circuit as it would act as a well-controlled environment. The Coastal Circuit provided a good chance for us to practice our descents of a hill, the tight change of direction and the steep gradient gave us a little taster as to what the Welsh mountains could throw at us.
The long drag up to Rocket before turning into the head wind (Photo Credit – Heather Roberts)
For me, it wasn’t the descent that opened my eyes to the upcoming challenge, but the incline up to Rocket, which gave me more than a clear idea that I was going to struggle when it comes to the more mountainous section of our ride. A huge problem since there is quite a lengthy section of our trip that heads through the Snowdonia National Park!
Whilst out on our controlled training, the Anglesey Circuit weather system did give us a bit of the training we needed. The headwind is going to be a huge factor when it comes to cycling for a prolonged period of time; yes six laps around the track and you can still push through it on your own, but after 40 miles of cycling, the slightest of headwinds aren’t going to be very easy on the legs.
Maybe next time we should try the old cycling technique of relaying in a line like you often see in the Tour de France where the frontman takes the wind off everyone else, then after a certain time frame, you swap. It could prove a useful tool in the big challenge.
You might be wondering what the main aim of this cycling challenge is for? Well anyone who knows about the Mission Motorsport charity, know that their aim is to; retrain and rehabilitate injured soldier through Motorsport.
This wasn’t the first time we stopped and it won’t be the last (Photo Credit – Heather Roberts)
So whilst we do need more training and we know that the 240 miles are going to be a gruelling one we owe it to the guys at the Mission Motorsport Charity to complete this ride, but we can only do it with your help as we have set a goal of how much we want to raise and if you can help us smash that goal then you would be helping out a very worthy cause.
If you are interested in donating money to Mission Motorsport then please follow the link below or click on MyDonate.
Thank you in advance to all those who help and sponsor us! I’ll be back closer to the time with another Mission Update.
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