The VTC MASSIVE take on the Tour of Cambridgeshire

             A huge cohort of Viceroys raced around Cambridgeshire for the honour of qualifying to race in France for their country, or just for the fun of a demanding sportive:

Name AG Time Posn in AG # people in AG Qualify / comments
Adam Wells 45-49 03:51:57 469 840
Alison Baldwin 19-34 04:02:38 44 92
Andrea Whelband 35-39 03:44:30 19 80 Y
Andrew Curran 45-50 03:35:42 317 840
Andy Tolson 40-44 03:25:11 189 710 6 seconds off qualifying & 6th in line for roll down
David Aitchison 60-64 04:42:46 156 204
Ian Hope 45-49 03:25:07 194 840 Y
Ian Saunders 50-54 04:02:13 465 792 Punctured early
Ian Talbot 04:19:00 Relentless, flat, windy as hell – lots of sausage rolls at mid point feed station
Jamal Shakir 35-39 03:52:19 296 479
Johannes Veit 50-54 03:25:04 124 792 Y
John Mackey 60-64 04:08:45 114 204
Kevin Dargue 50-54 03:51:35 397 792
Kim Bainbridge 50-54 03:32:34 6 132 Y
Lisa Price 45-49 03:53:36 39 130 2nd in line for roll down
Lyndsay Fitzgerald 35-39 03:39:25 15 80 Y
Marty Clark 45-49 03:17:26 117 840 Y
Matthew Shipley 35-39 04:14:14 352 479
Nick Christian 45-49 04:21:53 633 840 Hadn’t fully recovered from stomach bug
Nick Harmon 55-59 03:37:24 121 456 Next in line for roll down
Richard Singleton 35-39 03:34:30 210 479
Stephen Newton 45-49 03:25:09 195 840
Steve Metcalfe 40-44 04:02:37 479 710

Andrea tells her story: After the disaster I had last year of going out way too hard & cracking half way around & having to deal with the horrid headwinds in the second half on my own, my plan for this year was to go at my own pace, treat it as training for Roth and just do the distance safely and keep my knee intact.

We went over the start line in groups but unfortunately even within those groups it all splintered very quickly and found myself only with Nick & Matt for company, so we jumped on some wheels but there were people everywhere so it quickly became Nick & I, and then soon after just I!  So I jumped into what groups I could, but found myself alone for chunks of time until Jamal came past & I jumped in with his group for a bit, but couldn’t keep up & gradually fell off.

This was about mile 25-30 at this stage and queue kicking myself for starting too quickly again & doing exactly what I’d told myself not to do & was already thinking ahead to the headwinds & how horrid it was going to be again, but I’ve learnt that when the negative self-talk starts it probably means my blood sugar is low so got some nutrition down my throat a bit earlier than planned but it did the trick as I felt strong again despite being on my own, but then got on the back of a chain and stuck with it.

Initially I was at the back so it took some work to stay on, especially after corners, but I was feeling stronger so moved up through the group and we caught back up with Jamal who also jumped on.  Was a brilliant group to go through the headwinds with, perfectly paced as I was pushed but not flat out, so the second half was a massively different story to last year!

The group leaders peeled off at the 64 mile aid station but I knew I had enough fluid to last so pushed on with what was left from the group & a few of us stayed together for a while, but towards mile 70 I was still feeling strong so pushed on and caught the backs of a few groups as I went forward & also passed Lisa who was looking strong.  I was feeling great so pushed more & gave it everything the last few miles.

I knew I’d done much better than last year & as I wasn’t too far out from qualifying last year had a quiet hope I might have managed to qualify so decided to stick around to find out.  Unfortunately they changed the way results were released this year and they were extremely slow in doing so.  The male age groups were drip fed one at a time & it wasn’t until after 7pm the first batch of female results were released so it was a long wait for Lyndsay & I but it turned out to be worth it as we both qualified!!  Also chuffed so many others qualified too, and with luck Lisa, Andy & Nick will get roll down places to be able to go to France as well!

This entry was posted in News by Kate Wallace. Bookmark the permalink.

About Kate Wallace

I've always been involved with sport of some description, particularly adrenaline sports (skiing, boarding, kite-surfing, bungi jumps, parachute jumps, mountain biking) and endurance events (7 marathons, lots of halfs, Caledonian Challenge, London to Brighton bike ride, Moonwalk, played/coached rugby), but I'm relatively new to triathlon as it's actually taken the place of other sports after a couple of bad accidents! Although looking at the biographies of all you other Viceroys I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that all I've done are a few team traitahlons (running or cycling leg) and a couple of super sprints and sprints on my own, I'm hoping that being a Viceroy might persuade me that swimming in open water over 400m is actually possible. Read more about me in the May 2012 Triathlon Plus: http://www.triradar.com/2012/04/09/were-inspired-by-kate-wallace/