Time for an Imperial century?

Sounds **** awful!

Nah, it was quite fun in its way.  You do different rides for different reasons.  I’ve done loads of scenic, technical, fun rides over my time. This was just a different style of ride. I was intrigued whether it was possible to do in a day, so tried it out.  I wasn’t working at the time so it wasn’t like I was losing a big chunk of me time. And also I was fairly fit so I was recovered fine for the weekend to ride with the family.

Also, I had to take the kids to school in the morning, then pick them up at 15:30, cycle home with them and get them fed and sorted for bed.  There’s only a limited range of fun/ challenging things you can do in the Cheshire plains in a day with those constraints.

Not like I could have done LoTL, or the WHW with those domestic commitments

Couple of weeks later I did Torridon Classic, Glen Sligachan, Cairngorm & Macdui and the full Cuillin Ridge traverse in one 4 day trip. but that required 3 additional nights away from Manchester, which is a rare occasion. So I just made the best of each chunk of free time.

If the OP had asked about the best, funniest, semi challenging ton then I’d have Defo said the WHW , but they didn’t.  They asked about doing the first one from a position of doubt and inexperienced. In which case making things as easy as possible to achieve the stated goal is a valid approach IMHO

Some really good ideas, thanks. I think I’m going to do a 150km Audax. There are a couple coming up and if I feel the need I will tag on a bit more to get to 100 miles.

That race to sunrise looks great. Just not sure how I could get home after.

Update, I did it!

I did the ‘Cotswolds Challenge’ Audax. 101 miles in 7 hours. Pretty happy with that. Managed to catch a good draft so all my planning/timings/eating went out of the window. Had to ride the last 10m on my own and that was pretty tough. Definitely a great way to do a 100.

Thanks,

Mick

Perfect weather for it as well. (which always helps) Well done, how’re your legs feeling this morning?

Well done. The organisers did well to pick a route without too much climbing. Cotswolds climbs can be brutal.

Shorter 150km audaxes might not suit you if you’re looking for a race.  The 19mph max speed is manageable in a fast group if you stop for coffee at all the controls, but with fewer controls on the shorter distance it might feel like a bit of a hindrance having to hang around to get your brevet stamped.

I did my first Audax last month, the ‘Brevet’ was via the App, just pressed the ‘button’ when I got to the assigned location.

https://www.audax.uk/about-audax/event-types/permanent-events/e-brevet/

10/10 for the route. Most of it was very quiet.

Legs don’t feel too bad today, even after dragging the Follow Me up from the school run.