Had to go for a short evening ride just to make it. Let's call it a recovery ride 
Nice work. How was your big ride/event or did I miss reading about it? Awesome job on your average speed. 
Thanks, the ride was great!
There were just under 2,000 riders in the event, which made for a very crowded 11km behind pace car. At the start line, we were group of 13 riders from my club. Many of them had done the same ride in the previous years, and based on their experience our strategy was to start and stay ahead of the 30kph average group and stop at the third feeding station at 96km.
We managed to ride in a double paceline for the first 50-60km, but at that point there were so many coming from behind us that we no longer managed to stay as one group at the front. I slowly dropped behind a few rows as others passed me and lost touch with the lead of our group somewhere around 80-90km into the ride.
We were hit by a thunder storm and hails at 70km, which made the group a little nervous and the pace drop. From 70km to the end it was raining more or less all the time with a few dry stretches here and there.
At 96km we were coming to the third feeding station. By this time our club group had split apart with some of the riders ahead of me and some behind me. The feeding station was located in a downhill, but I managed to stop safely while I suddenly realized that (a) only two others from my group were stopping and the rest kept rolling and (b) there was a group of at least a hundred riders behind us that we had been pulling all the way. To be honest, it was a bit scary to be stopped by the roadside with such a huge group whizzing by at a very close distance. Me and the two or three others that had stopped quickly realised that our pre-agreed plan had just fallen apart. We waited for the group to go by and hit the road again without feeding. Thankfully, I had brought two big water bottles and some energy bars and it was a cool day, so we weren't suffering excessive sweating, especially with the rain.
After the groupetto had passed us, we started our push back to catch it. Somehow the others managed to get on the road quicker than me and I was left alone a couple of hundred meters behind it. I realized that I had to give it all I had right there or I would never be able to catch them. So I started my biggest effort during the ride and rode as hard as I could. Luckily, I was still feeling strong and was able to catch the group in a few minutes. I then settled in the back of the group and had a snack and a drink.
By now the rain had picked up again and the group was slowing down, which helped me to move up and get a little closer to the rest my club within the groupetto. We continued at a steady pace until the 125km, which awaited for us with the last HC climb. After that it was mostly downhill and a lot of riders picked up the pace, as did I. The final 15km went by flying and two kilometers before the finish line I had caught up with my group, or what was left of it.
We arrived at the Olympic Velodrome, the finish line @140km, at approximately 4 hours 23 minutes (gross-time). That was roughly 35 minutes quicker than the target I had set for myself, which I was very happy with. My average speed (gross-time) was 32.15km/h, which translates to over 2km/h faster than I had hoped for. Perhaps the greatest feeling was the way how easy this all came - much more so than I had anticipated. While I was happy with my own achievement, it was also great to have done it with my fellow club riders. It was a great feeling to shake hands with them afterwards and to see how happy they, too, were with the ride.
With all that said, there's a dark shadow looming over the event. There were a lot of crashes. We saw a lot of riders who were picking themselves up on the roadside and one crash involving four riders who hadn't even got up on their feet yet. We saw two people sitting by the roadside in a state of shock and waiting for their ambulance ride. However, the worst accident had happened behind us at the 40km mark where four or five riders fell and one of them suffered severe brain trauma that may take years to recover from.
So, I have mixed feelings about this particular sportive. A lot of riders are complaining about the dangerous riding of some of the participants and the poor road conditions, which both contributed to so many accidents. While I'm sure I'll be doing more sportives in the future, I'm not sure if this will be one of them. I'll probably change my mind as the dust settles, especially if the organizers will make changes to improve safety. In any case, I think I've been bitten by the gran fondo/sportive bug and would recommend them to everyone.
Sorry for the long post and thanks for reading.
