I’m trying to get out three times a week at the moment which for the last two weeks I have actually achieved. Which would make today time for the first ride of the week. Of course the fact that sunshine was forecast made the concept quite an attractive one since, as I’ve said before, a little sun makes a lot of difference.
I awoke to thick fog outside my window but decided to put my faith in the forecast and kill some time doing stuff in order to give it chance to burn off. By the time I could procrastinate no longer it was looking promising out there so I decided to go anyway, and headed off up the road, in my outfit of many layers. Well, sunny it may have been, warm it was not. Actually that’s not strictly true. Every now and then, out of the wind, with the sun shining on me there was, if not warmth, then the promise of warmth to come…which was nice. Roll on Spring!
Anyway off I went. Up Shipham Hill. 16:45 this time. I did try pushing it near the top to try and beat my last time but it wasn’t happening. The hill itself went, and felt, ok so I think I lost time getting out of town today. But them’s just excuses. I went up a hill because I have to go up hills. No-one said I had to go up ’em fast! *grin*. Once up I went down into Winscombe and out, up and left past Banwell Castle to go along the roads on the north side of the motorway. It’s a really nice bit of road that, quiet, up, down, views…especially when the sun shines. You could see the fog pouring off Crook Peak and boiling in the valley below – all very atmospheric.
Once out on to the flats past Loxton it was a bit foggy for a while so I turned the back light on to flash just in case, but I needn’t have worried as it passed soon enough, leaving me to potter along the usual roads in the usual way. Unfortunately the sunshine seemed to have prompted a hatching of small flying things so the line to take on the road tended to be anywhere they weren’t. Failing that I had to resort to breathing through Buff which works but isn’t all that pleasant. Mind you having something else to worry about works quite well in that it distracts me from worrying about corners so much…and actually from that point of view today went well – corners and downhills alike.
Sadly once in Mark I discovered the wind that wasn’t supposed to be there. It remained resolutely and constantly and irritatingly there all the way across the Levels, making what is sometimes glorious far more of a slog than was necessary. By the time I came to go up Mudgeley Hill there really wasn’t a great deal left in my legs and it felt like a real slog, so the long downhill stretch to Wedmore was very welcome. Still I wasn’t feeling quite crap enough, or I was feeling quite stubborn enough…and I did not cut my route short, though I was sore tempted. I took the Nyland loop home after Wedmore as planned and then had a lovely long zoom back into Cheddar, through and out, and back home.
Cycling time: 2:26:27
Distance: 33.41 miles
Avs: 13.6 mph
ODO: 7051 miles
I think Sunday’s long ride was still taking its toll. It was one of those rides that even when you think you’re flying you look down at your speedo and realise you’re not…and that there’s no doing anything about it. But the sun shone, and the bike didn’t need washing, and, as I believe I mentioned already, I went up a hill 🙂