Cycling at Silverstone

By chance I found out that the famous Silverstone Motor Racing Circuit opens its doors on a few evenings in the summer for cyclists and runners to use the circuit for £5. I have ridden at Donnington Park and Mallory Park previously and its a great experience to ride on a closed track, so I aimed to ride Silverstone as well

The details are/were here: http://www.silverstone.co.uk/experiences/running-cycling/running-cycling-club/

Silverstone is just over an hours drive away for me and I was able to ride on the evening on the last Wednesday of August when I took some Annual leave

I arrived and was ready to ride about 10 minutes after the track opened and rode 10 laps - that's 36 miles in 1hr 50 minutes. I averaged 19.8mph with an average power of 185W. Given the strong wind that evening (helped in some parts and was a struggle on other parts of the circuit) I was very pleased with that although I would have liked to average 20mph.

My first lap was my fastest at 10m13s - an average of 20.8mph and 213W power. All subsequent laps were slower - there were more people on the track by the time I completed that first lap but its very wide and the number of people did not really make a difference. Whilst I was no quicker for the remaining laps I managed to be reasonably consistent which I saw as an achievement as well

The surface is excellent - fast, and very smooth. Its almost flat - over the 36 miles I climbed 787 feet only. The biggest issue was the wind - it was a windy evening and whilst it helped from the first right after the pit lane down to the most southerly part of the track it was a real slog back up and the cross wind along Wellington Straight was certainly an interesting experience with my deep section wheels

I was hoping to try and get in a bit of a train to get some good speed but the fast people were faster than me and there were no real trains formed.

It was a great evening - it shows that cycling crosses all classes and people - children to pensioners, tag alongs, trailers, stabilisers, elec-assists, recumbents, mountain and hybrid bikes, road bikes and full on TT bikes were everywhere and everyone was enjoying it it seemed.

I would absolutely do it again - highly recommended

Here's a video of my 1st lap:

Here's the link to my Strava data:https://www.strava.com/activities/1806109411