In a few weeks from now, we’re going to need all the photos I took today to remind us of what riding is supposed to be like, and how lovely it can be.  Which will partially explain my reliance on the photo diary aspect of today’s ACG ride.  That and the fact that I’m supposed to be doing other things, not blogging!

There were 8 of us this morning, for a longer than usual ride, thus billed in advance by GB so no-one could complain they didn’t know what they were letting themselves in for.  Myself, GB, Figgy (aka Chris), Chris (aka Broadway Danny Rose), Peter, Steve, MTB Steve and Martyn.  I think that makes 8.  Counting to 8 is tricky.  In that brief glimpse over my shoulder to check on those behind me, I’m lucky if I get to four before I feel the need to be looking in front of me again! Still at least it’s an even number, that always helps.  The cyclists went in two by two?

If you’ve clicked on the link, you’ve seen the route.  Basically it went south to Langport for coffee and back again.  Which would be just typical directionally speaking for a day when the wind was from the west and therefore a crosswind all day.  No fair!  There was quite a lot of it too, making sure our sunny day, already that bit cooler, didn’t get too hot.  In fact temperature wise it was pretty much perfect :).  Not just temperature wise either…

There has to be a photo of GB in front of me somewhere right?  It’s somewhat of a tradition by now.  Martyn gave our ride a thumbs up again, resplendent once again in mustard jersey.  It’s apparently not yellow.  Oh no it isn’t.  Oh yes it is…  Too early for pantomime?

It was a fast ride.  With silly sprints.  And mini races.  And so on.  Something to do, just possibly, with the amount of testosterone around.  Which is probably true, but also means I have no excuse whatsoever for me being just as bad! *grin*.  We got to Wedmore having averaged 21.1 mph.  Now I know I’ve been complaining about the last few rides being slow, but that’s just taking the p*ss…

We continued our way South, and up into Shapwick…

…before getting to hurtle downhill, around the obstacle course formed by two buses and two horses.  OK, so I should have sat behind the bus and sedately made my way down, but where’s the fun in that?  I can just about do downhill – please don’t take that away from me too! *grin*

Having gone down, it was time go up.  You could practically hear Figgy’s cries of childish glee as we hit the bottom of High Ham Hill and he pulled away into the distance like the rest of us were standing still…  I did my best, got me a PB, and was the third to the top.  Not bad.  Not bad at all :).

It’s quite pretty up there, as you can see.  We gathered on the green, one by one, until we were all back toGether again.

It’s thirsty work climbing that hill, especially in the sun!

The coffee stop was nearly upon us, and the descent from here is one of my favourites.  My legs wanted to hurtle, so I decided to let them, which was massive amounts of unsociable fun.  I let them take me all the way to the sharp RH bend from whence to play sportive photographer and capture the ACG hurtling by.

Don’t we look fast?  Practically an action shot!  I need to find the setting on my camera that does that kind of thing…

Coffee was at the Potting Shed in Langport, where we’ve been before, and it was just as nice as on our previous visits.  Nice flowers too.

Having said that, there were so many cyclists there – not just us – that I think we over-whelmed them a little, in that I got change for my coffee from £2 not £5 and didn’t notice until it was too late.  Still, as hubby pointed out, it’ll come back to me one way or another.  Life’s like that.  Easy come, easy go…

So there was coffee.  Drunk in synchronised fashion, because we’re, like, a group or something.

And cake.  And conversation.

And this…the food of champions?

Maybe if TeamGB had had a few of these for breakfast, the road race later would have gone better…? :/.  *sigh*.  Ah well…  Duly refuelled it was time to head North again, tempting though it was to sit there in the sunshine for a little longer.

There was quite a lot of stopping and reGrouping as we made our way back, but we did pretty much manage to stay a Group that way, which I feel is important.  After all, like it not it’s not a race.  Which didn’t stop yet more juvenile behaviour from all of us.  It’s so hard to behave when the sun is out and it’s all going well and your legs feel rocket powered *grin*.

Look – a yellow cyclists dot to dot.  The breadcrumb trail for Hansel and Gretel?

The Tor.  In Glastonbury, not London ;).

It would be wrong to mention hay and sun shine again right?  Oops…too late *grin*.

If you’re lost, you can look and you will find me (pointing a camera in your direction inevitably)…or alternatively, just follow the sign? :D.

And then, just like that, we were home.  Even the little climb up from the A38 into Town didn’t bother me.  Although I did p*ss off some female motorist on the way in.  She was in her car waiting to turn right into Houlgate Way, and moved over just as I got there so as to not leave any room to pass her on the inside.  So I went round her on the outside just as she was starting to turn.  OK, not ideal but…  She was apparently quite vocal in her disapproval of me to those who came after me.  I’d like to say I cared but…*diddums* – next time position yourself in the road properly, you don’t own it!  *grin*.  Oops, did that testosterone rub off on me after all? 😉

Cycling time: 2:39:55 hrs
Distance: 46.40 miles
Avs: 17.4 mph.
ODO: 15147 miles

Fast – though slower than it might have been as we were a little more leisurely on the way back :).

As you can see, the wondrous folk at Rapha have been very lovely indeed.  They agreed to replace my torn gloves with nary a quibble, but they discovered that they couldn’t because they’re out of stock of my women’s gloves in small.  They rang me to discuss it all with me, and I ended up with these, the men’s GB gloves in XS.  It was that or no gloves at all and a credit note.  I need gloves, and there’s nothing else I’m desperately after at the moment so it was worth a go, right?  I was a bit worried they wouldn’t fit, and they are a teensy bit bigger but…I wore them today, and we’re going to be just fine together :).  Plus they’ll match the new bike – bonus! *grin*.

And finally…

Did you know, that as of today, taking into account the mileage on both my bikes since I started paying attention to such things, I have now done the equivalent of cycling around the world?  I have done 24,904 miles.  Which is just AWESOME!  I’m very proud of me and my legs.  It’s amazing what the human body can do.  I’m no Olympian, but as feats go…wow :).  Blowing my own trumpet it may be…but I think it’s pretty impressive.  So there! :P.

As well as being proud of them, I’m also really pleased that my legs were back today, I missed them last week.  Hello legs :).

They were back.  Back and flying.  Unstoppable.  Sorry but when they’re like that there’s just no arguing with them!  Unsurprisingly I had a great ride :D.  Time, however, to go and do what I’m actually supposed to be doing rather than this…  Painting my nails is very important I’ll have you know! 😉

Just in case you hadn’t noticed, it’s Easter Sunday.  A Sunday, in the middle of a free holiday weekend.  Which would probably explain why, when I left the house at 8:30am, it was eerily quiet out there…

The ACG ride was due to start at 9:30am.  GB had planned a route, whilst pointing out that if we did his route it was actually shorter than it looked unless I picked him up at his house.  That looked like a gauntlet to me…  After some to-ing and fro-ing we agreed that I’d meet him at his house, having done a loop to climb Winscombe Hill, we’d both do a loop around Shipham, and then we’d do the ACG ride.  Clearly doing one ride isn’t good enough.

So that’s just what I did.  Except Strava has the Winscombe Hill segment down as being longer than I did so I have no idea what my time was.  I went past a waiting GB and over the brow of the hill and everything.  *sulk*.  Yes, I know it’s juvenile, but I was only racing myself, and I was curious to see how the hill would go with relatively fresh legs.  Next time…  Back to the still waiting GB, both physically and literarily.  It turns out that he’d just done the Webbington loop to warm up.  Always goes one better…not that we’re competitive or anything.  Much ;).

We went back down the hill into Winscombe and then up the pretty back lane climb up through the valley to Shipham which went well enough.  Then up those couple of steep kicks out of the village there that meant that I got one of my favourite descents done and enjoyed before we’d even started the ride proper.  Wheeeeeee…..! :).

We waited in the Square, aware that there was a distinct possibility that it was just going to be us two today, what with the complete lack of positive response to my ACG ride email.  But at the last minute we doubled in number.  Ex-MTB Steve joined us, and a newbie by the name of Peter who, with a sudden flash, I remembered I was supposed to have emailed with details and so-on after his Mrs had called me earlier this week.  Oops!  Ah well, least said soonest mended right?  Although we did have a planned route, we didn’t go to plan.  I don’t know why – blame the wind, the grey weather, the Easter holiday, the loops already done – but there was a degree of apathy floating around.  Both GB and I were feeling like the coffee element of the ride was a higher priority than usual, so we decided to head for the coffee stop first and then decide what to do.  Off to Fenny Castle we went, via the Levels and the odd lump, as well as a very lovely descent of Mudgley Hill which I totally nailed :D.

No portraits today.  Apparently the sweaty men in lycra weren’t feeling that attractive, so I agreed to spare them the gaze of my camera lens.  So let’s focus on the more important shall we?

As I have mentioned before, not only is the coffee good here, but refills are only £1, and it felt like a two coffee day.  So you get two photos of my coffee though, for the sake of journalistic integrity, I should point out that it’s the second cup twice.

Ok, so you really don’t care.  Nice flowers though right? 🙂  After quite some debate, democracy led us to some sort of decision as to how to get home.  Mostly this was all about trying to avoid the really unpleasant headwind that we didn’t fancy facing on the Levels on the way home.  Using the usual warped logic it was agreed that going uphill would be more sheltered and therefore nicer.  Hm…

It was hard getting going again, as we wiggled our way around to Wookey.  Which way to go?  Right, up Old Bristol Hill, over the top and home?  Or left and up Deerleap, past Ebbor Gorge, over the top and home?  Decisive was not happening…and left was pointing towards home and right wasn’t…so I figured left was the way to go.  On my own head be it…  It’s something to do with not wanting to wimp out, and knowing that hills are good for me even if I’m not good at them.  The only way to get better at going up is to keep going up.  It’s quite a climb and it wasn’t feeling any easier than usual today.  Some spring chicken in full team kit on an Orbea went past us halfway up like we were walking (which I suppose we nearly were), which always does wonders for morale…*grrr*.  But it gets easier, marginally, as you go up, and as it flattens out at the top and the views open up behind you, it’s almost pleasant :).  GB was waiting at the top having made it look nearly as easy as Orbea guy, as usual.  I was quite chuffed not to be last up :).

Time to be a crow and take the direct route home.  Crows have one of my favourite collective nouns.  A murder of crows.  I blame Sting.  Actually he has a lot to answer for.  A significant percentage of my brain must be taken up with storage of his lyrics, having had his music as the soundtrack to large parts of my life.  Imagine how much better at everything I might be if I’d used those little grey cells for something useful?! 😉  Anyway…I appear to have wandered off the racing line again.  In the absence of a judge to relegate me, I shall metaphorically slap myself on the wrist, and resume the narrative thread…  So.  Where were we?  Ah, look – there we are.  A little peloton going across the top of the Mendips, heads down, into the wind, going as fast as possible to get it over and done with, off to go down the Gorge.  Another descent which I did pretty well, helped by having to take the worst bit (to my mind) at the bottom pretty slowly anyway, whether I wanted to or not.  Well it’s Easter, silly season is here, and there were flocks of randomly wandering grockles around.  Nothing to do but to slow down, sit up, take it easy, and keep your wits about you.  I don’t know why, maybe because of the element of calorie consumption beholden on visiting the Gorge, or the quality of the clearly quite sedentary grockles, but there was a slightly smug feeling to cutting a swathe through them on our racing machines in our sporty lycra.  No?  Ok, maybe it’s just me being catty ;).

Cycling time: 2:41:22 hrs
Distance: 41.03 miles
AVS: 15.3 mph.
ODO: 12996 miles

Our actual route looks like this – with the earlier loop being mine and GB’s.  Not a bad ride all in all.  I may even have earnt the right to eat some chocolate, which is something I can actually eat – rah!  And today’s “Rabbit” title?  That would be the Easter Bunny *grin*.

The forecast was good.  The weather the day before was good.  All was boding well.  But it’s not until you wake up and draw back the curtains that you know what’s really going on out there, and…

There.  That’s better, right?  What an improvement :).  Both visibility and sunshine.  Bring it on!  Time for an ACG ride which, due to the busy nature of my weekend, was being slightly squeezed into the schedule, whilst still being an integral and essential part of it.  To not ride on a day like this when you have the opportunity to so so would be verging on the criminal.  Days like this are what cyclists wait for…

I threw caution to the wind, and went for the one layer option.  Which was pretty much as much wind as was involved on the ride ;).  I revealed my pasty white limbs to the world, and stuffed a gilet in the saddle bag just in case.  I was truly a Rapha girl too – even more so than usual.  My mitts, my Galibier jersey, and my sample sale first time out women’s shorts.  And man were they ever comfortable!  Just as with the mitts, it’s almost like you’re not wearing anything at all, yet without the indecency charge that would come with that 😉 *grin*.

There may have been a minor nip in the air when 5 of us ACG stalwarts set off for a flat easy ride but it didn’t last long, especially after the long A38, get it out of the way as quickly as possible, stretch.  I mean look at it, wasn’t it glorious?

Guy had planned our route, and also found a brand new coffee stop – much kudos to him.  I’ve ridden past it many times and paid it little attention, I think it’s always been closed, or I’ve presumed it is.  It sort of hides behind the adjacent building and as you’re flying past down the nice straight bit of road there, it’s easy to miss it.  Missed it before, won’t be missing it again – and I think we’ll definitely be back :).

How wonderful is it to be sitting outside a café, in March, in the middle of the countryside in the sunshine?  As usual I had to eschew the cake, but the coffee was up to par which, as we all know, is the important thing.

Some lucky people do get to eat cake.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a cream tea where the allotted portion of clotted cream was bigger than one of the scones!

Since Guy had planned an extra hilly loop to do at the end of the ride, I think this probably counted as fuel rather than reward.  I think I’d probably have to do an entire sportive to walk all that off though!  To be fair, his main focus was the scones, most of that lovely cream went to waste, and scones are just a tasty round form of carbs right? ;).

We sat there in the sun, discussed the weather, admired the view, appreciated the new café, and took photos, as you do.  Sunny it may have been, but it was still a bit hazy.  Or atmospheric, when it comes to admiring the Tor lurking on the horizon.  It wasn’t easy to decide to leave and get underway again but, as I said before, places to be and people to see.

We took a fairly direct route back, via Godney.  I wasn’t hanging around, though I should probably have been trying harder to.  But after a couple of distinctly average rides this week, and with weather like that, when the going is good it’s good to be going, and believe me, it was good :).  Dave got a puncture on the way into Wedmore and we ended up splitting up.  Mike stayed to keep him company though, so at least no-one got left behind.  Once we got to Cheddar I headed for home, and Guy and Gary headed for the hills, literally.  I was almost jealous, what with it being such a perfect day to be out there but hey, I’d had a great ride in the sun, and complaining would be churlish.  With any luck there will more of the same this week :).

Cycling time: 2:09:04 hrs
Distance: 37.2 miles
AVS: 17.3 mph.
ODO: 12752 miles

The last entry could have been said to be brought to you by the letter ‘M‘.  ‘M‘ for miserable, maudlin, malingering and moaning…  Well today ‘M‘ is for a moratorium on such behaviour.  And for MTFU and get on with it!  Enough already, right? 😉

Today’s ride was an ACG one, and today’s route was created by yours truly.  I don’t know why, but I decided it would be nice to go back to The Potting Shed in Langport.  This has the advantage of including a few lumps, most notably High Ham Hill, is somewhat flatter on the way back, and is a respectable length loop, being about 46 miles.  To be fair, I did advertise it in advance as it was a bit longer than our usual rides are, and I’d happily have done something else if necessary, as this is after all a democracy not a dictatorship.  Honest ;).

So another Sunday morning dawned.  Tell me, how am I supposed to figure out what to wear when it’s so foggy I can’t see the end of the field behind my house, let alone the weather?  Heaven forbid there should be any consensus to the weather forecasts and the actual weather conditions being recorded out there…*sigh*.  I guess I should maybe have gotten out of bed even earlier to allow for more outfit consideration (aka faffing)?  As it was, it looked like it might be chilly, I was feeling a little mentally chilly, and what I wore on Friday pretty much worked.  What’s more it was all clean and dry too, so…stick to what you know, right?  And since that’s mostly Rapha, I was unlikely go far wrong, and I didn’t :).

There were four of us today – myself, GB, DM and GH, which made us, I like to think, a fairly well matched bunch.  It was grey, and foggy, and a little chilly, and to use a lovely word, just kinda claggy.  Not being able to see anything much made for oddly boring and monotonous cycling, though I’m not one to complain about a lack of wind, so I won’t.  All that fog was annoyingly wet again and rather than turning my sunglassees into a pince nez like the last time, they ended up in a back pocket for most of the ride.  Being a contact lens wearer this is not ideal, but it was better to risk bits in my eyes than not being able to see where I was going, and for the most part I got away with it.

It’s a fairly direct route from here to Langport really – Wedmore, Shapwick, High Ham, and you’re there.  High Ham was the usual slog so I distracted myself by taking photos of GB and DM disappearing into the distance, which lessened the pain somewhat ;).

The descent the other side was lovely, and the coffee stop was just as welcoming as last time, albeit without the free cake *grin*.  This is not to say that there wasn’t cake, as you can see.  I think GB would have preferred a bacon roll, which he could have had but he’d assumed it wasn’t that kind of place.  Never assume… ;).

Time to come home again, avoiding retracing our steps at all costs obviously.  It was pretty chilly setting off again, which is always quite motivational, and makes you go faster to warm up!  Not only did taking a different route make the return journey somewhat flatter as previously mentioned, but it also involved using a lovely road from Catcott to Burtle that may actually have been new to me!  At the very least, one of the roads less travelled for sure.

There was somewhat of a tailwind on the way back, in so far as there was any wind, and that never does any harm…so there were brief patches of zone…and stirrings of mojo :).  Slowly the fog was lifting, the skies were lightening, and as could have been, and indeed was, predicted, we were back in Axbridge just in time for the sun to come out into blue skies…  Ah well, at least if the sun wasn’t out, neither were the Sunday drivers.  Well, not as many of them as could have been anyway.

It was a really enjoyable loop – including enough up to be a bit challenging, some nice descents, and some lovely fast flat.  I can see me doing that one again.  As long as there isn’t any wind to speak of that is – it’s a very north/south loop, and it’s quite exposed for a lot of it, which means there’s no such thing as a good wind direction for it!  We did a much better job of ‘G‘ being for Group than usual too, which always leaves me feeling better about an ACG ride.  It is, after all, the point.

According to the usual cycling computer – I did this:

Cycling time: 2:47:10 hrs
Distance: 49.16 miles
AVS: 17.5 mph.

According to Strava – the latest fad around here – I did this:

Cycling time: 2:46:49 hrs
Distance: 46.2 miles
AVS: 16.6 mph.

Considering that the bikeroutetoaster route was designed to be 46.17 miles, this would imply that my cycling computer is indeed over recording.  Don’t know why, so I guess I’ll have to check it’s all set up properly again, which will probably only hold true until I change the tyres again anyway!  In the meantime I guess we’ll go with the Strava route as actually ridden, with the relevant facts and figures, for the sake of accuracy, even if it does make me slower 🙁  Which takes the ODO to 12465, should anyone other than me care… No?  Thought not :).

Well actually the dress is purple, but the smile brought on by today’s ride is pretty white, and very wide :).

Yesterday was gorgeous and sunny.  Which would normally have brought on some sort of biblical, I need to give you a rainbow to apologise afterwards, type of  weather today, what with the fact that yesterday I wasn’t riding, and today I was.  I have been known to joke that I can be paid to stay home and not ride the bike – my rates are very reasonable – just to ensure that other people get decent weather to ride in! 😉  When I drew back the curtain this morning, it was pretty impossible to ascertain what the weather was doing, because I couldn’t see beyond the end of my (extremely small) garden!  Resorting to the ‘net, as ever, I was informed that it was foggy (no, really?) and chilly, with practically no wind.  But that’s forecasts and we know how much faith I now place in those.  I layered up just the same as on Friday, and headed out for the Square to meet the ACG.  I was the first there…so got my camera out.  The fog was a fluid thing, but looking up the sky was an unfamiliar shade of…can it be really? No, yes, oh, hi, oh my eye!  Blue?  Blue!

GB was the first to turn up, and by the time we were all gathered together at 9:00am, there were 6 of us.  A good round well-matched number.  By which I mean that 6 is a round number, not that any of our number is round 😉  Myself, GB (self-explanatory), DM (I eat hills for breakfast), Mike (mine’s an Etape please), Steve (from MTB to Maratona) and Gary (been away, and very welcome back).  Our proposed route was a hilly one, a fact that we’d been kind enough broadcast in advance, so we all knew what we were letting ourselves in for.  In consideration of this there was a reasonable flat stretch to start with to get us all warmed up, and we headed off towards Wedmore.  Yes – I’ve been taking photos when riding along again.  I’m practising for my first Cyclosport review at the Mad March Hare next weekend :).

I always forget how wet mist is.  In a way that completely covers your glasses with water and makes seeing through them impossible.  I ended up with my glasses sitting right down the end of my nose, and breathing/talking like I had a clothes peg on my nose as a result.  Not massively comfortable, but I do like to see where I’m going.  Especially on the road across from Wedmore to Westbury sub Mendip which is Paris-Roubaix-like in its surface on a good day, which, mid winter and covered in crap (probably literally), this was not.  Ick.  I think I shall continue to avoid that particular road.

No more procrastinating.  No more putting off the inevitable.  Time to start climbing hills and leaving the Levels behind, by heading up in the direction of Wookey Hole, towards the climb up past Dear Leap.  Time to engage crawler gear as ever.  A small breakaway group hared off, but I figured I’d stick to what I knew best and pace myself.

We re-grouped before the left turn and then headed for the hills.  I was pleasantly surprised by how well it went.  It fits my kind of profile – steepest at the bottom, a bit better after that, whilst be long enough to settle into.  After a brief out of the saddle bit to get that steep section out of the way, which also saw me overtake a couple of people, I hunkered down and actually quite enjoyed plodding my way to the top, where the skies were blue, the roads dry, and the fog was behind me :).

And the views from the top?  Almost worth it.  In fact, most definitely worth it.  Time to stop and take some photos, just in case my little camera was up to capturing the scale of the scene.  I’ll let you be the judge of that.

That was but the first climb of the day however.  It was time to go find the next one.  Being on top of the world already, with therefore nowhere to go from there, the only way find an up is to start with a down.  In this case the very lovely, and long, and very fast down that is Old Bristol Hill.  Such fun :D.  Well it is as long as it’s dry and not too busy, which was the case today.  Add moisture to the mix there and it’s a whole different ballgame.   We flew all the way down into Wells and out the other side, through some very pretty villages, to where GB had found us a brand new hill to go up.  Yes – fanfare time – tarantara – we now have a Guy’s Hill!  Took long enough, but I think it was worth it.  It turned out to be a very lovely long steady climb, up from Dinder and pretty much all the way to the Rock Cake Café.  A climb worthy of the name association :).  There was a steeper bit at the bottom, again, but after that my plodding turned out to be faster than some of the other plodding going on, I gradually pulled ahead, and it was left to me to try and catch GB up as he disappeared into the distance with nary a glance behind him.  I didn’t so much catch him as get close enough to yell at him to wait for us mere mortals! 😉  Definitely time for coffee :).

Thus refreshed and rehydrated it was time for the second leg of our ride, albeit one we decided to curtail a little due to time, and democracy.  We cut out the loop that would have involved climbing a Harptree and headed straight over the top towards Burrington Combe which I really fancied descending.  It’s a long essentially straight wide route to get there, although with a surprisingly amount of incidental climbing.  Three of the ACG decided to head home via Charterhouse, leaving 3 of us to carry the ACG  flag a little longer.  My maths is good like that.  The Sunday driver traffic, having also seen the sun, was out en masse.  Silly season has definitely started.  Too many cars, too much behaving badly.  Luckily there was a pause in hostilities for the actual descent of the Combe, and the car behind me stayed well back, which is just as well as I spooked myself a little on one of the bends near the top and came a tad close to the already occupied wrong side of the road.  Disaster averted though, and the rest was as much fun as ever :).

Steve, GB and I wiggled through Langford and along to the next climb – up through Rowberrow to Shipham.  I swear that climb used to be worse!  Maybe I’m getting better at this? 😉  It was all worth it to get to go home down Shipham Hill though.  Well nearly.  I particularly enjoyed Mr White Transit Van Man, who absolutely had to overtake me very fast…before realising there was a bend coming up and then having to brake hard enough to make me have to brake to avoid him.  *sigh*.  I’d quite like to have been able to communicate to the driver that usually brake lights come in pairs, along with sharing my critique of his driving skills…but luckily for both of us he hurtled off down the main road in the wrong direction before we regrouped and headed down the bypass to home.  Still he didn’t ruin it totally for me, so I’ll let him off.  It’s amazing how much more I enjoy downhills these days.  I’ve even been known to go up hills I’m not keen on just to get to some of my favourite downs.  Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee! *grin*.

Cycling time: 2:56:46 hrs
Distance: 48.13 miles.
AVS: 16.3 mph.
ODO: 12205 miles

I had SUCH a good ride.  I can’t tell you how much difference the sunshine makes, and it feels like so long since it’s been around.  Sun, no wind, miles, friends, great hills, glorious descents….I mean, man, does it get any better?  My max speed was 41mph which is truly amazing for me.  Today I could do it.  I could do hills. I could do flats.  I could do fast.  I was solar-powered!  Yep – still smiling :).

‘Rah!  A blog post that actually involves me riding the bike…how exciting is that?  Well, ok, it’s not that exciting, but it feels a bit novel.  As I got ready to ride this morning it felt like it had been so long since I’d been on my bike… I’d gotten to that place where you almost think you’ve forgotten how.  And my layering yardstick was all off kilter too.  The faff factor increased exponentially…  Luckily GB turned up at my place early so was able to offer informed advice as to what to wear.  Off came the Gore winter jacket, on went the black Rapha winter jersey.  I figured that even if he wasn’t right I would at least feel and look good in it.  That’s important, right? ;).

I was a bit apprehensive about riding full stop.  I had to call yesterday’s gym session short when I wiped out completely which didn’t really bode well.  I figured it was better to cut my losses and come home and have half a chance of being able to ride today than to push it too far.  But still…  So I made a point of eating properly yesterday, even if it didn’t sit well with me, and got me an early night.

Which brings us to this morning, when 7 of the ACG massed outside King John’s Hunting Lodge.  A real mixed bunch – from the usual suspects to newbies and returnees.  It was grey, fairly mild, but bl**dy windy!  It was GB’s route, since he wanted to be taken up the Gorge for the first time this year.  Apparently double entendres are juvenile and not at all funny…so we spent some time coming up with some equally immature jests involving motions and movements.  The things you do to pass time going uphill… ;).

The climb spread the group out quite a bit, but I did way better than I expected to, and particularly enjoyed the moment when, after the last steep bit, the tailwind cut in and helped push me along for a while!  There’s a gathering place not far from the top where generally we wait until we’re all together again, to which 5 of us made it…  The last two were so far behind that GB and I went to look for them – since that kind of delay implies puncture, as was indeed the case.  One of them was on his way back to join us already, so we continued down to find the afflicted rider.  GB stayed to help fix it, I sallied back up to the others and we decided to split up as it was too nippy to be hanging around waiting any longer.  Our recent newbie IT came back down with me to pick up the other two (more miles never hurt right?) – so, in case you’re confused – that’s 3 gone ahead, and 4 to catch up. Keeping up?

Across the top, along a beautifully resurfaced bit of road, which caused GB at least to wax most lyrical even if it was into the wind, before descending down Burrington Combe.  Wind braking!  In fact there may well have been some pedalling required.  Outrageous but…at least that way I get to feel more in control of the bike.  The car behind me sat a very respectful and restrained distance back leaving me to get on with having fun all the way to the bottom :).  I thanked him with a wave and a smile at the crossroads too – gotta love a cycling friendly motorist.  At this point one of our 4 musketeers decided to take a more direct route to coffee, having worn himself out doing something tri-related yesterday, while the remaining 3 cut across in a Blagdon type direction and caught the other 3 on the way.  So that’s 1 gone ahead, and 6 to join up.  With me?

We wiggled around the back roads there, which are always lumpier and muddier than you’d think.  There’s one which is actually more riverbed than anything else – complete with flowing water and everything.  There’s also quite a long climb out of Nempnett.  The sort of long slow climb where you can sort of forget what you’re doing, leaving your body to get on with it and your mind to wander…in other words my kind of climb.  And Brockley Combe is my kind of descent.  Nice and sheltered, nice and smooth, not too bendy.  Fun :).

The wind across the flat bits after that wasn’t a lot of fun, and we spread out a bit again.  Mind you overall GB’s route did a pretty good job of keeping us out of it in so far as that’s possible.  By the time we got to the Strawberry Line Café, I definitely needed a coffee though.

Not only was our advance scout there waiting for us, but so was Dad, which was nice :).  We colonised the café pretty conclusively, as you can see.

Coffee and cake for £3 can’t be bad.  Well actually if you’re me, it can.  The banana loaf was very nice, it really was, but food really isn’t doing me much good at the moment so…

..time to go home.  Nice, direct, fast.  We totally split up and spread out, which ain’t great on the G is for Group front, but I really needed to be at home feeling sorry for myself, and besides which it was cold, so pushing a bit warms you up.  I know, enough with the excuses already :).

No hanging around.  Yatton, Congresbury, Churchill, Sandford, and back up Winscombe Hill, just as a final kicker.  Someone is very concerned about the possibly plight of frogs there.  Or toads.  Last year’s signs were a little on the amateur side, but this year’s are in a whole different league.

I have to admit to having taken the last two photos a little later on, as had I done so then it would have meant stopping and losing what little momentum I had!  I’ve never seen a frog or toad there, squashed or otherwise, but clearly it’s a big issue ;).

Cycling time: 2:43:50 hrs
Distance: 42.36 miles.
AVS: 15.5 mph.
ODO: 11748 miles

I hit 31 mph down the bypass to home without really trying, thanks to the wind, which was the best kind of way to wrap up a ride.  Since we’d been scattered starburst stylee by the wind and the weather, each man for themselves, I just went straight home. A good ride, which went far better than expected, and also an about time too ride 🙂

It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a New Year…  Outside the window the sun was shining, the sky was something vaguely resembling blue, and the wind had finally dropped from intolerable and dangerous to merely annoying and challenging.  Time to ride!  Good thing today was an ACG ride then, right?  Maybe because it was the first official ride of the year, there was a pretty impressive turnout too – 9 of us in total.  Myself, a recovering GB, the latest addition to the cycling blog world GF, MD and his two domestiques (aka his sons), and SD & Figgy, who brought a newbie by the name of Ian out to play.

GB had crafted us a route that he promised would be flat and not too troubling, and he was as good as his word.  Just as well since inevitably a chunk of it was going to be fighting into that westerly wind.  I’ll leave the precise route to the gadget equipped amongst us, but it was essentially of a ride of 4 quarters.  Out into the wind, along with the wind behind us, back into the wind to Sweets (having discovered that Fenny Castle café’s website was not up to date and they were in fact closed), and then back home into the wind.  I am so bored of wind!

Having said that, after four days straight confined to the gym, today I was like one of MiniMe’s toy cars – the sort you pull backwards to wind up and then just let go – me and my legs were definitely off on one.  It was just so nice to be on the bike again!  All wrapped up in my snuggly Rapha layers, with my knee strapped up properly, and a good few days between the excesses of the festive season and today; my cycling mojo was definitely back :).  It was hard to do the “G is for Group” thing when my legs were yelling “G is for Go”!  Especially on long sunny wide flat roads with the wind behind us…ah, “such stuff as dreams are made on” *sigh*.  I settled for trying not to get too far ahead, and pushing a bigger gear than usual, which I’ve not had to do in a while.

We had a long stop at Sweets, where the service is friendly but definitely not fast, along with several other familiar cycling faces.  It’s clearly the place to be on a Saturday morning, which would presumably explain why we ended up sitting outside.  At least that way we never really got warm, right?

Apparently if you cycle a lot you’re entitled to eat lots of cake.  And bacon butties.  And the like.  Can’t say as it works for me, and there are those that were with us today who were later to regret their dietary choices.  Not me – I had a filter coffee with an extra espresso in it, otherwise known as cycling rocket fuel *grin*.  Now if they’d had carrot cake, which, as everyone knows, counts as at least 1 of your 5-a-day, it might have been a different matter… 😉

6 of us did a very good job of standing in the sun and watching MD change a puncture, which he discovered as we were about the leave.  We make great spectators.  We even refrained from telling him how we’d be doing it if it was us.  Which was as close as any of us, barring his domestiques, came to being helpful.  Well, too many cooks would spoil the broth right?  And don’t try countering that with “many hands make light work”!

It’s a chicken ok?  A girl.  Not a boy.  Oddly it was almost as fascinated by bikes as we are.  Thanks to my back pocket, it even gets to be in soft focus…*grin*.  Well I had to do something while I was waiting, right? ;).

Puncture duly repaired, and it was time to head home the quickest way possible.  No point wiggling to add miles when they’re just going to be unpleasant miles.  I was properly cold by the time we set off again, and more than ready to go.  Wound up and properly caffeinated *grin*.  The wind, and Mudgley Hill, became my friends – something to fight against to warm up!  I think I unintentionally led pretty much the entire way back, but I just had to be going at my speed to keep warm, so this is probably by way of being an apology to those I may have left behind.  Besides which if I’m in front, I don’t have to worry about the wheel in front of me, and I can see all the obstacles ahead of me, so I feel safer :).

Cycling time: 2:30:29 hrs
Distance: 41.58 miles.
AVS: 16.6 mph.
ODO: 11628 miles

It was a good ride, in very good company, with a lot of laughing.  Laughter is good for the soul :).  I felt on form, and capable, and happy, back on track, and not at the gym.  That’s a lot of boxes ticked :).