A quick report from Monday’s ECCA 200km Audax - “The day of a thousand intervals”

Four Chelmer riders departed from the village hall determined to collect the 25 points on offer for the club and headed for the first control at Stradishall (Beans on Toast). Ian Bloomfield was then sent ahead in the breakaway of the day while the remaining Chelmer trio of me, Peter ‘Eddy’ Horsnell and his lead out man Mick ‘The Durney’ Somers marked the back of the bunch. A missed turn on the route sheet at an inopportune time took us up the steep hill climb at Hartest, then down again to retrace back on route. Our 11 hour interval session was well and truly on. The second control at the Wheatsheaf PH in Castle Hedingham (Cheese rolls – Meh!) marked a turn into a headwind that would be against us forever. Not contented by a cheese roll Mick relieved the Esso garage at Halstead of their stock of Cadburys Wispa. Thence a steady push to The Windmill PH in E. Hanningfield (jacket spud) via the obligatory trip up North Hill, which according to Peter I ascended “swallowlike” (!!!). The final and longest section through Ingatestone and Kelvedon Hatch took us frustratingly away from home until the turn at the M25. With a tailwind and the Wispas kicking in the throttle on The Durney was turned up. Toot Hill flashed by and we were soon at Fyfield. With Peter (2 pts) and his lead out man (3pts) only interested in overall victory, I (5pts) was gifted the points victory over the chalk finish line from Sundays road race. On the ascent back up to High Easter and 200 meters from the village hall Peter sprung from his 129.9 mile lead out to take the honours and a cup of tea and a piece of cake back a now somewhat quiet HQ. By the time we’d got back home Mick and I had 150 miles on the clock and 25 points in the bag.

A great read. Well done to all! And you do yourselves a disservice - it's 50 points for the 200k!

Loved it! Great to see some serious interval work being done! If you feed the Durney a 'gel' he goes even faster! Ask him about it one day.

Good stuff. For a second there I thought you were indicating how many pints (pts) you'd each had at the pub stop!

I've got beer on the brain.

Erron wrote:

Good stuff. For a second there I thought you were indicating how many pints (pts) you'd each had at the pub stop!

I've got beer on the brain.

Mick did manage a pint of shandy, if that counts.

Definately the hardest won points for the festival. Darren's ride in the senior road race on sunday was the next toughest.