Tomorrow, i'll be riding the Stoke stage of the Tour of Britain, along with a few other members from my Warrington based road cycling club - North Cheshire Clarion.
Make no bones about it, it will be the hardest sportive I've completed to date. It's 161km (100m) long with 2450m of ascent (7350 feet). You can view the stage manual here.
I've kitted my Dolan Ares up with with the SRAM S60 deep section wheels for the first time, they've been sat in bags since I bought them and this may well be the last chance to ride them before the winter sets in (see picture). Following a run of punctures on my other rims recently - which run Michelin Pro Race 3 tyres - I've put some Continental 4000's on to see if they make a difference, only problem being they were very tight to get on, so I hope I won't be struggling to get them off again at the side of a road somewhere.
My Garmin 705 has still not been returned from them following it's breakdown, I have to say I've been pretty disappointed in the service experience from them and I'll think twice before buying upgrading to an 805. I think there's a real gap in the market for someone to challenge Garmin with a decent GPS/Bike computer, if I had the time......
So, now making the final preparations for tomorrow. What food to take? (although the feed stations look well stocked) When to stop? When to pop a gel? How am I going to get up Gun Hill? I'll post a blog about how it all went.
Good luck!
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