Poor George. The last few times we’ve ridden she has definitely not had the best of me. Not so much on the riding front, but on the not feeling great and therefore quite grumpy front. Sorry! I’d like to think I got better as the painkillers cut in though…well, in so far as they’re working today, which is not an 100% successful thing. Anyway…
The weather has been great for days, and if the forecasters are to believed (which is always possible) it’s due to break any day now. Which is inevitable considering that I’m doing The Joker on Sunday. They may have a point though, in that today kept the lovely sunshine but threw in a nasty and unexpectedly chilly wind, which meant that as I waited for George outside the New Inn at Cross, I had to dig out my gilet from my saddle bag and put it on. I didn’t regret that either, as it didn’t get much warmer for the whole ride.
George suggested we did the seaside which I know I’ve done frequently of late, but this would be clockwise which of course is a completely different kettle of fish, whole new ballgame, or some other metaphor to imply that this makes repeating myself ok. Besides which, as mentioned, I wasn’t really in the mood for decisions and just wanted to take it easy and ride in the sun for a couple of hours.
So we did. I’ll give you the Strava version of our route, as Bella (GB‘s suggested name for the Garmin) had a floop around our coffee stop vis-a-vis satellites, and got herself into quite a tizzy what with beeping and buttons and the like. Actually I’m not sure Bella is the right name for her, though it may stick anyway in the absence of anything else, as it just makes me think of a large blue Tweenie.
Bella
This is probably a fairly good way to figure out my age. I am far too old to have been watching them legitimately – ie as part of their target audience – so I must therefore have been forced to watch them as their antics sedated my offspring. Grateful for the effect but despairing at what my life had been reduced to *grin*. I am therefore of a certain age ;). I bet every parent out there knows that feeling though – even if the Tweenies was not your drug of choice. Teletubbies? Thomas the Tank Engine? The Flumps?… I could go on, but last time I checked this was a cycling blog. Besides which it has just occurred to me that Bella is blue, so maybe it’s not such a bad name for the new toy. Just for comparison’s sake, here’s Bella’s route on Garmin too.
Following on from my grumpy email to the New Castle Inn following Tuesday’s ride – yes I did send one – I was informed by reply that at this time of the year they only open from Thursday to Sunday, so I knew it would be open today. We had a brief chat as I ordered coffee and apparently they don’t put their opening hours on the website because then they would need keeping up to date, but if you call them before you leave and they don’t answer the phone then they’re not open. Hm. It’s not hard to keep a website up to date you know (or to spellcheck its content either!), lots of other cafés manage it, and that’s not the world’s most satisfactory response. Still at least today they were open and serving, so we sipped and gossiped, as you do. I wonder why gossiped only has one ‘p’ and sipped has two? Should we ask Bob for a ‘p’ please? Hm. The vagaries of language.
Time to head off again, into the still really chilly air. Bitter for a while in fact, especially along the seafront. A little less wind than that on Sunday would be nice, just in case anyone influential is listening. However it was still better to be out there, than in one of these though:
My winter tyres are a couple of years old and getting on for well past their best. Not so much when it comes to tread, but I think they may actually be perishing. Doing another sportive on them might well be pushing it so I persuaded t’other half to put my summer tyres back on this morning, on the basis that I should get a ride in on them just in case there was a problem, with enough time in hand to resolve such a problem if necessary. Plus if I changed them I might brake a fingernail or chip my manicure right? *grin*. As it turns out they were as lovely as ever, and very happy to be rolling along in the sun :). Plus the blue stripes makes my bike look even more swish ;).
I took George back home over the new bridge which, since she hadn’t realised it had ever been closed, lessened its impact somewhat. But hey, I still like it *grin*. I love being told to go “slow” going up hill, I love the implication that there’s any other way! ;).
We came home up Winscombe Hill where I equalled my Strava time and maintained my QOM status. Not bad but…dagnamit, I wanted to beat it! I guess I should have tried harder then, right? Next time… *grrr*.
Cycling time: 1:53:03 hrs
Distance: 28.5 miles
AVS: 15.1 mph.
ODO: 12814 miles
Not the fastest ride ever, but George did ask me to go slower after we set off, which is good for the ego, and makes a perfect excuse. Thanks George! *grin*