5.15am is quite early in the morning. But then if you hope to start riding at 6.30am that’s the kind of time you have to get up. Which is why George and I, and L2P Kevin, had opted to stay at the Ibis Hotel opposite the ride start the night before. Well, we’d have had to get up even earlier if we hadn’t! Besides which it meant that we all had a very pleasant evening out on the Saturday, consuming pasta and bemoaning our complete sobriety when faced with a Bristol full of people obviously having a great time being anything but. I’d love to know why dressing as a superhero for a night out on the Town improves it…and no, it wasn’t a stag night *grin*.
Back to the early morning. It was hard to figure out what to wear, what with it being dark ‘n all so it was really a question of relying on the weather forecast and crossing your fingers. We joined the initially slightly daunting queue for registration but found that actually it was organised really well and moved pretty fast. I left the desk with a panoply of things to carry and sort out. A tag for my bag so as to collect it in London. A number for the bike plus one for the jersey. A ticket for the coach ride home and one to hand in to deregister on arrival. It took a while to get this all variously attached and sorted, but shortly we were near the start getting our rider briefing. Steve joined us there, making it a group of 4 who set off not long after 6:30, pretty much as planned.
Cycling through the streets of Bristol is not something I’ve really done before, so it was quite a novel feeling. Luckily at that time of morning there isn’t a lot of traffic around which is just as well as we nearly came a cropper when missing a sign early on, causing much hilarity and u-turning to get where we actually supposed to be going. That would be one of the times when I actually managed to un-clip on time… We headed out of Bristol on the A4, towards Bath, which involved quite a lot of dual carriageway and wide road. This is probably good for warming up, but did seem to mean we were going pretty fast. Steve and George sat at the back chatting away whilst Kevin and I tended to be ahead. We’d have been chatting but we were breathing… It seemed to take no time at all to get to Bath, and I’m sure it’s usually further away than that. Having been amongst the first away from Bristol and having also overtaken a fair few folk along the way, we then had company again when we started passing those who started from Bath.
Leaving Bath behind the road, though mostly nice, ceased to be reliably flat. OK, this isn’t the hilliest route in the world, but there are a few long hills. However there was also a great tail wind – which is practically unheard of – blowing strongly from the west. Nigh on perfect for cycling and just what I’d been hoping for. It was even forecast! 🙂
I know this stretch of the A4 really well. When I was at UWE (a long long long time ago) my Austin Allegro and I commuted (slowly) up and down it regularly. I’ve even done it on a motorbike, albeit east to west. I’ve done the odd bit as part of the White Horse Challenge. Hubby’s family leave around here too. It was kinda weird to be cycling the whole way though, with all the familiar scenery and places. I think it helped make it more enjoyable though. I played tour guide and told Kevin all about various bits of it, for which I’m sure he was very grateful.
I knew the first food stop was at Box. I know the hill at Box. I know there’s a layby at the top. Which is where the food stop was bound to be, and duly was. Complete with photographers of course. Slow slog up, grin for the camera, and stop… We stopped, grabbed coffee and supplies, used the portable loo, and I stuffed my arms into my bag. Although it was warm enough when riding, it was quite easy to get chilly when stationary, which proved to be good motivation to get going again, and proved to be true all day.
The stretch from there to when we next stopped at Marlborough, in the very pretty Town Hall no less, was very scenic, quite up and down, but mostly quite pleasant. By that time we had averaged over 17mph which was worrying me slightly. I mean, I know the wind was in our favour, but that fast surely wasn’t going to be sustainable, and I really didn’t want to wipe out later on… More coffee, and some jelly beans, and off we went again. Up a couple of what I will describe as big hills, though some would no doubt argue that they weren’t really. Like George, Steve and Kevin for example. However after the last of these it turned out that that was pretty much it for going up in the world. We cruised carefully past a disbanding party that had clearly taken place the night before and all of whom were slowly walking down the A4 back to their cars. Judging by the state of some of them, I think it’s a party I’m glad I wasn’t invited too…and I’m fairly sure some of them shouldn’t have been getting in a car to drive home either…
The A4 from thereonin was wide, fairly straight, and….fast! And, not to put too fine a point on it, a great deal of fun. We all took our turns at the front, I avoided being dropped, and we reached our lunch stop at Theale, about 75 miles in, early enough for lunch to be practically second breakfasts. It was a darn good lunch too, though I didn’t eat too much. As it turns out by now I was suffering from cystitis and the last thing I fancied was an added dose of indigestion.
We headed off again with about 40 miles to go in somewhat gloomier weather. A front must have come in because the wind moved, and got very gusty, the clouds gathered, and there was a bit of drizzle. The nearer we got to London the worse the traffic got and the less fun the roads were, but it didn’t actually seem to slow us down much. I was suffering with every bump, and trying to drink enough liquid to dilute the effects, which worked in the long run but not soon enough to please me. Our final stop was about 90 miles in and although not everyone wanted to stop, I wanted/needed to – more coffee and the loo please. While we were doing that, it flung it down, so my timing was pretty good.
The last 25 miles were notable mostly for the number of viscious speed bumps there seemed to be! And the amount of traffic. Although we stuck together, I was aware that being tired, I wasn’t possibly paying quite as much attention as I should be so I made a conscious effort to look out for myself – to look for the signs myself rather than following someone else’s wheel, to watch for traffic, and so on. Avoiding casualty is a priority of mine…
Near the very end George and Steve found a more attractive pair and headed into the distance. Not that they’re at all competitive at all. Given that both of them had done sod all training it seems a tad unfair that they did the whole thing so easily…but I should be used to it by now. That just left Kevin and I to negotiate the last bit, which always seems to take forever, especially when you arrive in sight of Kempton Park and then have to go ’round the houses to get in! *grin*.
We cycled in to applause, sunshine, and even posed for the obligatory photographer. George and Steve emerged and joined us in shot, not wanting to be left out, but I like this one of Kevin and I. Well, it was us that finished together. Then it was time to look at the stats:
Cycling time: 6:13
Distance: 116.5 miles
Avs: 18.6 mph
Man. I mean man! Have you seen how fast we went? Clearly that’s what a tail wind, a peloton, and a flattish route gets you. I am so impressed with us. Well, me at the very least. I’m fairly sure George and Steve could have gone a lot faster, but Kevin seemed to share my jubilation. 😀 We were very very fast!
Time to check in, put the bike into AMR’s tender care for the journey home, and to start the après-ride. Being amongst the first 30 or so in, our bikes practically started the back to Bristol pile, adding to our sense of superiority 😉 We headed for the showers, and George and I both had a free sports massage. I wasn’t really aware that my legs hurt until he started work on them…but I’m sure it was good for them. There were some very funny sensations involved in having some of the muscles manipulated and I yelped at least twice, which provided great entertainment value for everyone else. Do male masseurs enjoy making female clients squirm?…
After that it was up to the bar for some rehydration therapy – medicinal you understand. As I sat, drinking my lager, feeling fast, outside the heavens opened. Really and truly and properly. The fact that I wasn’t still out there cycling in that was just the icing on the cake…as the same can’t be said for nearly everyone else *grin*. I know, smug is very unattractive isn’t it? 😉
It was an AWESOME ride. I’m fairly sure I should never do it again as it would be nigh on impossible to duplicate since the wind is never going to be that kind to me every again. Again – awesome 😀