First of all, well done to all you guys who took part and completed the PFS this year.
I have to say, however, that it may be the last year I participate as the Sportive Route they had yesterday was just a bit too much. I appreciate it is meant to be a Sportive and therefore difficult but I am a keen but vey amateur cyclist and some of the hills they took you up were just brutal.
This year they stretched it from 94 miles to 110 miles and they freely admitted they had thrown in more hill climbs. There was one in particular just after the Douglas feed station where you turned right just before the M74 to head towards Abington and had a 6 mile climb into a 30mph wind on the worst road surface I have ever been on and that is no word of a lie. For the entire climb I was in my easiest gear and going at 6.3mph. There was also a couple of additional hills on the newly extended route which although I got up was going at about the same pace.
IMO it is truly a Sportive Ride and not one which you would do for a bit of fun as a charity fundraiser.
To add insult to injury my timing chip never registered at the end so my name doesn't appear in the paper this morning and it looks like i never finished!!
I did, however, and I managed to cover the 112.9 miles in 7hrs 54 minutes at an avergae of 14.2mph.
The one good thing about big climbs is big descents and I clocked 48.9mph as my top speed.