My favourite ride of the year

On Sunday 16th August 2015 I took part in the La Chicquita Ladies Sportive - a sportive for women only with the aim of encouraging women to take part in an organised ride - see their website for more info http://www.lachiquita.org.uk/.

It was great to take a break and not do a bike race for a change and a good opportunity to catch up with some of the girls.

It was warm and sunny and we started at the back, chatting to some of the women who were taking part as we rode through the group. The route soon started to go uphill and the group split quite quickly into a number of small ones. Sandra and Lou went ahead as I stopped behind with a 
rider who had dropped her chain to help her get it back on. I waited with her to make sure she was in a small group before riding back to join the others at the front.

We got to the first feed station (just 12 miles in) and stopped for a some flapjack with some of the ladies.

We set off again just the three of us, with the aim of catching other riders for a chat again. It was great to see Lou back riding (although not racing) after being diagnosed with a Pulmonary Embolism back in June (click here to read her blog), so it was rather upsetting although not really surprising to receive a kicking from her as we attempted with increasing effort to get back to a group.
This never happened, as we had somehow ended up going the wrong way and found ourselves completely on our own for almost all of the remaining ride - whoops.

After we finally got back to the start, I chatted to a few of the women afterwards who said how much they enjoyed it and that they had never done something like this before. Some women commented that they admired what we did.

The whole experience was quite humbling - I had forgotten the days where I couldn't use clip in pedals, didn't know how to put a dropped chain back on or fix a puncture, was always off the back and it reminded me of where I started. It made me realise how far I have actually come since riding my bike - we don't often think about the beginning and where we have come from, only where we want to be and the goalposts keep moving! 

I loved that we had help encourage some more women to ride and this sort of event is something that I will definitely be more involved in, in the future.

Nic x