Once again I’m two rides behind. Shoddy I know.
In my defence the first of the two rides, on Friday with GW, was uninspiring, unexciting and oddly unsatisfactory, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to say about it anyway. The only noteworthy thing about our ride to the seaside and back was that GW was on her shirehorse which meant she actually had to ask me to slow down. This happens but rarely and should be savoured at all costs…*grin*.
Cycling time: 1:54:34
Distance: 28.6 miles
Avs: 14.9 mph
ODO: 5803
Sunday’s ride with the ACG was far more pleasurable. For starters the sun was shining, which always helps. And there wasn’t any wind. But then there never is in Axbridge, and I’m not daft enough to fall for that anymore. Which is just as well as when we got out of the shelter of the Mendips, there certainly was wind! Anyway, there were 8 of us to start with, including three newbies. One of which is also a GB which could get very confusing so I’m going to have to think of a way ’round that… One of the other two had tried to join us before and on this, his third attempt, had turned up on what he termed the wrong bike, and sadly didn’t make it even as far as Shute Shelve with us, for which I feel quite guilty. Since I’m unable to get in touch with him – I shall apologise here in the hopes that the ether will carry my apologies in the right direction…
So, we were seven, and three of us were wearing shiny new ACG kit, which gave me a chance to see what it looks like out on the road rather than just on me. Not only is it comfortable, it looks pretty good too, and when we’re all wearing it, we’re going to look awesome! *grin*.
We let DM set the route today which is always well, if not a mistake, a challenge. Today he took us to the cafe on the seafront on Burnham which, going direct as normal folk would do, is relatively flat and easy. Which would presumably be why we went via Winscombe, down past Banwell Caves, just so as to go up Canada Coombe and over Brent Knoll. Canada Coombe is really quite an up – I think I had been up it before, and the views along the top to Bleadon are awesome – but it’s very easy to avoid, and there are views in other places so, on balance, I may not add it to my repertoire *grin*.
Our coffee stop on the seafront was very good. Well, the stop was, the coffee isn’t. The sea wall nicely sheltered us from the strong winds, and stopped us having to watch the posers on jet skis messing around on the uncommonly high water. In fact all the water made the coastal path to Highbridge, where the boats are usually sitting on vast expanses of unattractive brown mud, seem positively pretty. I reckon some of them must only get to float about twice a year, which is presumably, as someone commented, when you discover that they leak *grin*. Mind you, I couldn’t hear anyone swearing so…
Due to the hills and the roads and terrain, it had been a fairly slow ride, so once we got out of Highbridge and on the road to Mark, I have to confess to having had to put my foot down and stretch my legs out. We fair hurtled out way along until the left turn after Mark, which was a lot of fun. After that things went a little haywire as the group spread out, split up, splintered apart… There was a degree of reuniting at junctions and the like, but we were down to six for the last bit up the A38 and back to the Square. Having said that, we’ve done worse in the past, so from a start of 8, ending up with 6 wasn’t bad! And the last rider in arrived shortly afterwards, thus restoring the status quo.
Cycling time: 2:23:03
Distance: 35.33 miles
Avs: 14.8 mph
ODO: 5839
Hopefully we’ll be out again on Wednesday to see the Tour of Britain come into Glastonbury. Any excuse for a ride 🙂