Regular readers may be aware of the fact that I gave up drinking to train for the Etape, and I’ve never really gone back to it.  I don’t abstain completely though, and have the occasional weekend off.  This weekend was one of them, up to and including a few glasses of white wine at the pub after Town Council last night.  I should therefore have been feeling fairly ropey this morning and I woke up fully expecting to pay the price for my over-indulgence.  But after a cup of coffee and some tentative engagement with the world, it turned out that I was fine.  Result!  My husband was not feeling quite so blessed, as his text upon arrival at work informed me.  I got to tell him how good I was feeling, he got to tell me there’s no justice in the world *grin*.

There is however a world of difference between feeling good sitting in bed drinking coffee and feeling good out there riding the bike, so I wasn’t yet counting any chickens.  Mim had proposed a 3 hour ride with the Old Bristol Road hill and a coffee stop, and considering the speed she can go at, that could have been two challenges too far.  She was late getting to my house, which is just as well as it gave me time to drink more coffee and to get some work done before we left.  Outside the weather was foggy, but warm, with hints of potential around the edges. I was getting too hot just walking around the house in my many layers, so opted to pare things down to short sleeve jersey, arms, and gilet, which worked out fine on Saturday, and as it turned out, was the right choice today too.

We left at 9:30am or thereabouts and since, as it turns out, we were going to meet a couple of other cyclists on the Wells – Wedmore road, that was where we headed.  No wind, as warm as expected, with wet roads. Fairly pleasant really.  I will admit that the first 20 minutes or so weren’t all that pleasant as we warmed up, but not much worse than usual and apparently there really is no justice, as I was feeling fine in no time.  We met up with Brian and Mike as arranged, and after the usual cyclist’s “where shall we go and how?” faff, at which point the gilet came off, we headed off again.  At this time of year it’s kinda better to stick to the more major roads, as the littler ones are covered in crap – frequently literally – and aren’t a whole heap of fun.  We went straight from Wedmore to Wells, in watery sunshine, chatting away and not going too fast.  Since our proposed coffee stop was over near Chew Valley lake there was the small matter of the Mendips to get over.  Having done the Old Bristol Road on Saturday, we decided to go straight up the A39 Bristol Hill.  Brian and Mim may have dropped me, but by the top I really wasn’t far behind, and I wasn’t the last up there either.  Having suffered going up here in the past I kept expecting it to get worse, and it just never did!  In fact it was a nice slow steady climb all the way to the top.  My kind of hill :).

We then got the blissful hurtle and descent down into Chew Mendip, where Mike peeled off and we turned left towards Litton and our coffee stop.  Gotta love a good long straight descent :D.  I was totally back in my happy zone now, and really enjoying myself, even when I wasn’t going downhill.  We took a nasty mucky little detour to cut the corner to coffee, leaving me grateful not to have washed the bike before I went out, yet guaranteeing that I was going to have to wash it when I got back.  Ah well.  Coffee was lovely and just what I needed, although considering the state we were in I think we horrified some of the more civilised clientele!   There were many options discussed for getting home, from the contour detours to keep it flat, to the nastiest of hills, and I opted for the East Harptree option.  Having descended it on Saturday I quite fancied doing it the other way, even if it was hard work last time I did it, with the ACG.  OK, so it wasn’t easy but, again, I kept expecting it to be proper horrible and it just wasn’t.  Maybe, just maybe, I’m getting better at this?  *grin*.  From there, having been out a couple of hours already, we came straight home across the top and down Cheddar Gorge, which also went well.  It would appear that today was a good day at the office :).

We parted company in Cheddar, and I headed for home in the usual fashion – fast down the bypass.  According to bikely which it would appear is more accurate for such things than bikeroutetoaster, that’s c. 2380 ft of climbing.  GB did Saturday’s route on Sunday and discovered my 2800ft climbing as estimated by the latter was actually 3800ft – which doesn’t surprise me as it felt like a lot of climbing!  So that’s plenty of climbing then, and quite a bit today.  I feel the need to keep doing hills to keep proving to myself that I can do them, and today I could :).

Cycling time: 2:29:10 hrs
Distance: 39.40 miles.
Avs: 15.8 mph
ODO: 11114 miles

There was no avoiding it, my bike had to be cleaned.  Muck and dirt in many layers were fairly swiftly dealt with by Muc-off as ever, but it still took quite a while to get the bike looking presentable again, and it took nearly as long to do the same for me.  White jersey, rolled up arms, no mudguards = splatter fest *grin*.