Thurs 17th my birthday. So I did a 20 mile circuit after work including sacombe hill. There was quite a breeze from the west which meant hard work going up dowsetts lane. Was supposed to be easier going up sacombe hill but my times didn't reflect this. Felt quite good going up wades I'll to thundridge for a change
Good Friday
There was a club easy ride to wandon end. Was colder than I thought and I didn't warm up with the gentle pace but it was good company and a fantastic bacon sandwich at the golf club. On the way home we started going a bit faster and then at Welwyn myself and john mac stretched our legs all the way to Hertford. Great.
Double Dutch audax.
An early start as graham picked me at 6;20 am for the drive to Huntingdon. We set off at a reasonable pace in a group with Peter. Then I punctured after 5 or 6 miles. Turns out there was some flint in my tyres from the previous day's ride. My co2 cylinder didn't work too well either leaving me a soft tyre. Alex caught us up having started late and he rode with graham and I for most of the ride. Heading northeast towards March we rode into the wind. Stopped in March for pork pie and a coke and then onwards north east directly into the wind. Alex led the way and despite his best efforts to shelter us and not push the pace I found myself hanging on for dear life in places. Some nod from hitchin nomads joined the hw peleton as did another bloke for a while. The nomad couldn't match Alex's pace and fell back first. Then I dropped and finally Alex and graham waited for me at the next junction. The other bloke rode on but our reformed hw peleton of three took him later and left him behind. We rode into kings Lynn which looks a pretty town. More food and a ferry ride across the river gave me an opportunity to pump up my front tyre better. After the ferry my garmin got confused and decided to keep finding the shortes route back to Huntingdon instead of following the route. So lots of beeping and basically ignoring the directions on the garmin meant we followed the paper instructions and made some headway as the wind was behind us for a while. After a ride along a cycle path sections my tyre blew again. Must have been a pinch puncture after riding 30 miles on a soft tyre. Back riding again we made good progress riding through the bleak exposed lanes in the wash. Finally we turned south and had a break from fighting the wind. It was a good spell to spalding and beyond riding alongside the river welland occasionally into the wind and mainly with it behind us. At thorney, graham suggested a cup of coffee which I needed. Alex headed off to meet his family as he didnt need the break. Graham and I were refreshed from the sit down and did well on the last 25 miles of fairly dull road but we did encounter some small climbs back to Huntingdon and home just after 6 pm. We had done 8:08 hours of cycling but it had taken 9:43 hours of real time. Graham drove us home and I enjoyed a take away curry as I was too tired to cook!
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