Booked in for the Wiggle Long One Sportive with Son2. Ordered a Garmin 200 from Halfords Connect on Friday and it arrived in 24hrs. Downloaded the course, fettled the road bikes and printed the map.

Set off at 07:15 this and arrived at the start an hour later to see a lot of MOUNTAIN BIKES 😯 . Errr “Road ride was yesterday” 😳 . So Undeterred, Son1 and I set off on the route, without signs following the Garmin breadcrumb trail. What a piece of kit, gives just that extra confidence you need with a too-large scale map. In fact map reading wasn’t really necessary.

Managed half 66 mile the course before deciding to cut short and head back. 44 miles overall, a medal and goody bag at the end for both of us and a tired but proud son.

So if you were on the Wiggle off-road Long One Sportive today, well done, because it was VERY muddy. And to the official at the finish: No, it isn’t a ‘cross bike. It’s a Merlin Cyrene 😉