Kentish Killer 2012 - A DNF for Me

So I'm back home, some 70 or so miles away from Brands Hatch down in Kent which for today’s event acted as its start and finish.  My day got off to a relatively poor start with me having forgotten to set my alarm which luckily became superseded by my 13 month old and a well-timed coughing fit from down the hallway.

Breakfasted, changed and ready to get going, the second annoyance of the day greeted me upon getting outside to find my car encrusted with a firm and as it turned out, an almost immovable layer of ice. 

Above: Ice Anyone?

With that remedied I set off into the dawn with the sun popping out into an almost clear blue sky.  The drive was easy and upon arrival at Brands Hatch I parked, walked over to the registration tend and was back out again within 5 or so minuets. 

Good job I thought, most Sportives I’ve ridden require at least half hour of queuing before the off.  Not so here so a big congratulations to the organisers for this.

Above: Brands Hatch in the Morning Sun

8 Mins in and were lost already?

Come my allotted start time I joined 50 or so other people and headed out onto the road.  Sadly within just a few minutes, well 8 if we are counting, our little group of 5 that had formed after an initial kick out from the line came across perhaps 7 or 8 others standing beside a cross-road.  They flagged us down and one of the riders, a member of one of the local clubs, indicated we had taken a wrong turn and that we had better follow him and his group to get back onto the route.

OK I thought, these things happen.  Perhaps we all missed the sign or worse, it had been removed (I gather from other riders that indeed the sign we missed was there.... just that it was hard to see).  In any case we followed this said Gentleman for 15 or perhaps 20 minutes before seemingly re-joining the rest of the riders.  Undeterred we cracked on into the sunshine.

Really, we missed another turn?

An hour or so in and once more it became quite clear we were off the course.  Not lost exactly but not on same route as we should have been.  The simple clue of a nasty little cross road with no marshal and heavy heavy traffic was more than enough evidence. 

So again, myself and the little group of people I was with decided to take a left and head back towards where we thought the route should be and within 20 or so mins we had somehow found our way back amongst other riders with similar numbers on their bars as our own.

 We can't be lost again can we?

Yes we were.  Some two and half hours into the ride and once more we were off route.  At this point I decided to bail. 

I roughly knew I was 20 or so miles away from where Mrs T's family lives and decided to head to theirs for a cup of tea and a lift back to Brands Hatch.  Today was, and hopefully will remain, my first and only DNF from a Sportive.

So what went wrong?

I really don’t know.  I don’t for one moment think this was due to an organisational error but due to me and the group I rode with missing the signage.  That said, we were all surprised to have missed the signage what with them being nice and large and bright and yellow. 

Of course, we all had the route guide although I'd argue without local knowledge and or checking off each direction and route note in turn these guides are somewhat hard to follow.  Perhaps others have more of a natural sense of direction than me and my fellow lost riders.

Anyway, for the most part I enjoyed the ride.  I felt really strong and put out some really good numbers showing the work I’ve done over the winter has clearly worked.

Would I ride this Sportive again?  Perhaps although I’ll need a little convincing......

My congratulations to everyone who got round.