Etape Du Dales - completed!

Haven't written too much on the blog lately, I was busy training for the Etape. I've done the Brian Robinson Challenge Ride at the end of April - a 125 km ride through the Pennines with 2500 meters of climbing in 4h49. This went very well. Furthermore found two climbs quite near to home which I can use as practice for climbing, there's a roundabout at the bottom of both climbs and they are connected so I can just start ascend the first climb, descend the other - then turn at the roundabout and ascend that climb, descending again on the first. Together this is around 7 miles, so doing this a couple of times gives me many climbing meters and distance. One climb is for much of the beginning around 12%, then levels out to around 5 to 6%, the other climb stays around 8 to 9% for the whole climb.
Anyway - I've done a couple of times, ready for the first big objective of the year, the Etape Du Dales.
Yesterday was the day - Sunday 17th May we went of for the 175 kilometer, near to 3500 climbing meters from Grassington to the north and back. The weather in the morning was quite pleasant, with a moderate wind in the back and sunny spells. I did just over 75 kilometers within the first three hours, as my target was 7h33, this was well within that objective. But then things turned for the worse, when we made the move south, the wind picked up - it started blowing right in the face (and on top of the Dales that is no fun!) and it started raining, first a drizzle but then really coming down. That slowed me down quite considerably, leading to a much slower speed. However, the climbs went really well - it were the flat sections with the wind against us that I suffered. I guess I am not too much of a headwind rider, I'm getting too skinny for that!
The last bit of the race, I could tie in to a nice group, taking turns at the front, we were able to get into the finish, still around my aim: 7 hours 33 minutes (which without a very slow car in front of us at a small section) would have been closer to 7h30. So objective achieved!

This is my last posting on the blog! It was all about the Etape, thanks for all who supported me with riding this for the Marie Curie Cancer Care, I was able to get donations around £700, far more than I expected!
I am sure my riding and your donations helped the MCC help a lot of people who suffer with cancer.