There’s something slightly surreal about standing outside a school at 6:30 on a Sunday morning with your bike and some mates.
No parents. No cars. No traffic. Just a handful of us in the dark, rear lights blinking red on the pavement and that nervous sort of chatter that happens when everyone knows the day ahead is going to be long. The sun hadn’t come up yet, and for the first hour it felt like someone had closed the roads just for us.
That was the start of our second annual fundraiser for St Gilbert’s School. We called it “The Big One” and this year it lived up to the name. By the end we’d covered 166km (just over 103 miles), climbed 1,744 metres and ridden into some properly brutal headwinds. We finished as a group and that was the part that mattered.
Why we ride for St Gilbert’s School
A good number of Stamford Cycling riders send their kids to St Gilbert’s, so this one is close to home for us. Last year’s ride raised £1,500. This year we’re at nearly £1,300 so far and the Just Giving page is still open if you’d like to help us beat last year’s figure (link at the bottom).
It’s a big ask to sponsor someone to ride a bike. We know that. So when people chip in and donate, it means a lot and it gave us something to think about when the legs started complaining somewhere around mile 80.
Into the dark and out to Wymondham Windmill
We rolled away from the school gates in near darkness and headed west towards Wymondham Windmill. Early autumn mornings are a different world on the bike. It’s cool, quiet and a bit misty. The countryside wakes up as you ride through it, we saw two barn owls as we set off towards Empingham. The Garmin showed 10°C but it felt like 7°C. That’s arm warmer weather, and it was the right call for anyone who’d packed them.
Picking up the Sunday Social
This was one of my favourite parts of the day. On our first loop back into Stamford we met the Sunday Social crew, who set off from Red Lion Square at the usual time of 7:30 to meet us out on our first loop and for a stretch the fundraiser became a club ride. It’s amazing how much easier the miles get when there’s a bigger group around you sharing the work on the front. We got pulled along, the chat picked up and then Henry produced the Haribo. Legend.
If you’ve ever wondered whether group riding makes a difference on a long day, it does. Sitting in a well-organised group can save you a lot of energy compared with riding alone and when you’ve got 100 plus miles to cover, that saving builds up.
Refuelling at SHFT Training
Our first proper stop was at SHFT Training, where Sophie looked after us with coffee and carb drinks. It was exactly what we needed before the hardest part of the route. We’ve been working more with SHFT this year (they hosted our Bank Holiday Breakaway in August) and having them there with a warm welcome and a caffeine hit was a real lift.
A quick bit of fuelling advice from the day: on a ride this long, you can’t get by on breakfast alone. Strava estimated 6,000 calories burned for me on the day. You need to eat and drink little and often from 30 mins in to the the ride, not when you start to fade. Carb drinks at the stops, plus something in your jersey pocket every half hour or so, makes a big difference late in the day.
The hills: Uppingham and Cafe Ventoux
After SHFT we headed out again towards the hillier section through Uppingham and this is where this year’s route got much harder. Rutland’s rolling roads are lovely on a Sunday Social. After 60-odd miles, with the wind in your face, they’re a lot less fun.
The climbs around Cafe Ventoux were where the day caught up with some of the group, and a few riders called it a day after that stop. I want to be clear about this: there’s no shame in it. Every one of them got up before dawn, rode a huge distance for a good cause and made the right call for their body on the day. That’s part of how a no-drop club works. You ride your ride, and nobody gets left on the side of the road.
Cafe Ventoux itself was a cracking pit stop, by the way. I tucked in to a chicken buddha bowl which was just what I needed to tackle the rest of the headwinds and hills back in to Stamford. Fantastic coffee and well equipped for cyclists, even with an outdoor water tap to fill up our bottles – perfect refuel stop.
The Ride in Number
For anyone who likes the data (and I know a few of you do), here’s how the day looked on the Garmin Edge 540:
- Distance: 166.35km (103 miles)
- Elevation: 1,744m
- Moving time: 6hrs 55mins
- Elapsed time: 8hrs 56mins
- Average speed: 24.0km/h
- Max speed: 56.5km/h
That’s almost two hours between moving time and elapsed time and it all went on stops, regrouping, refuelling and waiting for each other at the top of climbs. On a club fundraiser, that’s how it should be. The 24km/h average isn’t anything to write home about, but this wasn’t a race. Keeping the group together over 103 miles of headwind and hills matters far more than the average speed.
One stat I am proud of: every rider hit a Strava PR on the day. For everyone, it was their longest ride of the year and for some it was the longest ride they have ever completed!
What we learnt this year
If last year taught us that we could ride 100 miles, this year taught us that we couldn’t have done it on our own. With those headwinds and with the extra climbing compared to last year’s 1200 metres, there’s no way we’d have finished together without everyone taking turns on the front, sharing food, waiting at junctions and keeping spirits up when the pace dropped.
A tough route makes a challenge. It takes the community around it, from the Sunday Social crew pulling us home to Henry’s Haribo to Sophie at SHFT and to everyone who generously donated, to make it a proper fundraiser.
Thank you, and one last ask
A huge thank you to everyone who rode, everyone who joined us for part of the route, SHFT Training and Cafe Ventoux for looking after us and everyone who has donated so far.
If you haven’t sponsored these tired legs yet, there’s still time:
👉 Sponsor Stamford Cycling on JustGiving
And if reading this has got you thinking about riding with us, you don’t need to start with 103 miles. Our Sunday Social runs every week, all through autumn and winter. It’s free, it’s no-drop and it’s friendly and you’ll find the route and start time on our Strava club. The start time moves later once the clocks go back, so check the event before you set off.
See you out there.
