Paul is clearly trying to take my mantle as stat man - and has produced the table of stats above from our 200K Audax last weekend.
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It looks pretty inoffensive doesn't it, nestled next to those soft cushions, but that cylinder of lightweight foam can generate a most exquisite pain, so bad that you even lose the ability to scream. I can't recall where the idea came from to buy this little monster, but it now comes out after a long ride or series of hard training turbo sessions and laughs a sinister sneer at me before it begins. Even worse is that I choose to submit to the torture and even have to inflict the intense pain on myself. Anyone else know what I'm talking about? I set off towards Oxford on time and with my 3 slices of toast to eat in the car on the way. It was very dark and very cold. Just after half way there, it started to rain/snow/sleet heavily and there was masses of spray coming up from the road. I thought to myself, if it is like this at the start I'm inclined to chicken out.
Luckily it stopped before I rolled into the car park in Woodstock and waited for Paul. I got myself ready and invested 10p in the car park toilets (that's inflation for you). I had 4 layers on top but just the one layer on my legs, my DHB bibtights. I had the feetwarmers stuck on top of my socks and my neoprene overshoes. For my head, I had a buff under a terrorist black balaclave. My hands had the Planet X lightweight (but good) gloves with some thick neoprene ones in reserve in my back pocket. Paul arrived and we got ready to set off. The first stop was the Co-op to get a timed receipt. I spent the princely sum of 12p on a banana. We got going but were unsure if our Garmin 800's had picked the route and whether we were going the right way. We turned back to the start and then retraced our steps. The Garmin's soon sprang into life and worked great all day. The roads were very wet with major puddles everywhere. We crossed the mighty Thames via a toll bridge at Swinford which was nice as it was free for us cyclists. After about an hour we had the first flurry of sleety snow and the skies looked very menacing. It soon passed luckily. The roads were very wet and in places very muddy. I had no mudguards so my back half soon got wet and cruddy. Paul had a rack and bag on which stopped most of the rubbish hitting him but we both sprayed the other if followed too closely. We passed Lambourn Racecourse and then there was a lovely downhill into the town. This part of the world was absolutely awash. The fields were waterlogged, the streams had all burst their banks and there were several deep floods across the roads. Our first scheduled stop was Hungerford at 65kms and we pulled up at the Tutti Frutti Tea shop. The waiter looked at us askance and said "do you mind if we take the cushions off the seats". A customer said to me (looking at the rear of my yellow jacket) "your good lady will need more than Persil to shift that lot!" I hadn't realised how cruddy we (especially me) must have looked. We were also pretty wet and it was nice to dry out a bit whilst eating our asparagus soup. Back in the saddle we headed to Wootton Bassett. Nothing of note comes to mind. We stopped at the Town Hall Tea Rooms. The waitress told us a table should be free shortly and I said it was okay we'd sit outside. "Are you sure" she said, amazed and checked twice as it was absolutely freezing. A customer asked where we were heading. I told him Woodstock and he said are you going via blah and blah. I said we had no idea as we were just following a set of directions and our sat nav. He asked where we'd come from, and we told him Woodstock. How far is that? 200k we said and amazed he said "do you usually spend your weekends doing this?" It made me laugh. As we were paying, there was a heavy downpour of snow. Good luck they all said laughing. We set off for Lechlade passing a load of small lakes around Minety and then reached Cirencester. We had passed some of this way last year when we did our home-grown 200k. At Calmsden we had to take the time of the Mon-Fri collection off the post box as proof we had been there. We passed Bibury and the rather inviting Swan Hotel on the bend at the riverside. We were getting a bit weary by now. We reached Lechlade and the suggested cafe had shut so we went into the chippy and ate our chips sat at a table watching Chelse stuff Stoke with some foreign commentary. It was dark now so we put our decent lights on. The next couple of hours were quite atmospheric as the roads were very rural and remote and there was little moonlight. We passed what must have been Brize Norton and saw a big carrier plane come in and land slowly to our right. At the Barringtons we had to write a name from the memorial - again as proof. Paul's helmet light was very helpful here as it was pitch black. We were now on the home stretch and my body was telling me it had worked hard enough today. The last 25k dragged a bit but when we hit the Woodstock road we knew we were nearly done. We hit the A34 and enjoyed the final mile. We pulled up in the car park and I felt a sense of achievement. I had been worried that I'd not ridden much distance for quite a long time and with the weather as it was. The final tally was 128.3 miles in 9 hours 8 mins and 46 seconds (elapsed time 10 hours 44 mins 09 seconds) average temperature 32.9 farenheit. 5,812 feet of climbing. It was good riding with Paul and I think we both enjoyed it. In the Co-op for a final receipt and head home where I had a steaming bath awaiting, beer and pistachios by the side followed by a roaring real fire, steak and home-made chips with my lovely lady. It doesn't get much better than this :) This year I am committed to riding one 100 mile ride each month. In January I decided to ride a 200k Audax with mu older brother, Paul. We chose a "permanent" Audax called the Marlborough Connection starting at Woodstock - that is the one near Oxford rather than the one in the USA. I did a 55 miler last weekend which was the longest ride I've done in quite a while, so the ride tomorrow will be quite a challenge. I've chosen my bike (the Secteur rather than my new Cyclocross) and packed most of my stuff. I now just have to stuff myself in the name of carbo loading :) The forecast is pretty grim - 2 degrees and light rain and/or sleet with a risk of snow. I've packed 6 sets of feet warmers, 3 for me and 3 for Paul. I'll complete this blog tomorrow and see how I got on - hopefully having completed the task. Okay so now it is 6.20 on Saturday morning. As often happens, I didn't sleep well, waking at 2 and then 3.10 getting back after 4am. The forecast is now for heavy rain at times - deep joy. I'm debating taking extra gloves and waterproof jacket. If I get wet in the very cold and with a biting wind, I'll get exposure.
I don't feel hungry yet either but will force something down. Oh well, off I go :) |
AuthorMartin Norris aka Norry. Cycling enthusiast since April 2010. Please feel free to post any comment you like. Archives
July 2023
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