The ACG turned out at 9:30am, to unseasonal warmth and sunshine.  There were 6 of us, split into two groups, which worked well.  One half went off one way, and the other half, myself included, headed off to the Walled Garden at Wrington for coffee and cake.  It’s nearer than I’d remembered, and it only took us about 45 relatively easy minutes to get there.  It’s clearly very popular with cyclists too – as there were others there, and a group of 24 due in!   It was a very lovely place to sit – nice cake, great views.  What more do you want?  Well, if you’re K, a bacon butty, but he reckons just for once that he wouldn’t have had one even if he could *grin*.

Off we went again, and discovered the reason it had been relatively easy all the way there.  Very strong headwind!  That’ll do it every time…  We slogged back towards Sandford from whence we were due to loop out and ’round again…

The wind blew.  The roads were horrible – wet, covered in leaves, muddy, full of pot holes and manhole covers, one of which nearly took me out in Winscombe.  Every obstacle was panicking me, and I’d slow down too much, and then have to try and catch up – I just couldn’t loosen up today.  And it’s not like I was fast anyway – I don’t know if it was knowing I had to get back in time to get out again, or due to the time of the month, the related medication I’m on, being slightly over dressed, the red wine last night, the moon being in Capricorn (or some such), but it really wasn’t happening for me today.

So, when we got back to Sandford, I bailed.  The other two headed off as planned, and I took the direct route home up and through Winscombe.  Oddly enough, my average speed went up, probably because I only had myself to worry about and could relax a bit more.  And then there’s the 25mph down the bypass which was very enjoyable 🙂

Cycling time: 1:27:01
Distance: 20.50 miles
Avs: 14.1 mph
ODO: 2528 miles

Not the greatest ride ever, but it was still good to get out.  I’ll be posting again later, but that’ll do for now 🙂