I got talked into starting with a faster group than I thought I should have been with. I was with the group for about 20 minutes until there was a split, which I got caught on the wrong side of. So I made things worse by trying to catch up to the group, after about 15 minutes of not quite being able to close the gap my legs were gone, and I was only 35 minutes into a long day. Because of these mistakes I was unable to hook into a decent group as they overtook me, so spent most of the race by myself, once I came to terms with this, and settled into my own pace things got a lot better. I also didn't drink enough in the first part of the ride, only 2 bottles in the first 100kms, I think this is the reason that I started to cramp up in the last hour or so of the race. Fortunately there were 2 drink stops, and a bottle and a half of electrolytes seemed to help.

1. Start in the right group
2. Not try to catch up to groups after being dropped
3. keep a closer watch on my pace/effort levels at the start.

A beer and a hamburger. Free with entry, nice!


As discussed above.
Also, I hadn't done enough long rides building up. Should have done at least one more 100km, and had an easier week the week before.


Well organised, there were marshals on every corner. Nice weather, apart from the wind, fun day all round.