GB is turning into my weather vane.  Weather vanes are usually cockerels.  And it wouldn’t be a good ride if there wasn’t a joke about a big cockerel at some point…*grin*.

Last time he turned up in time to help me decide which layers to wear.  This time he did a warm up ride before arriving at my place so was able to give an accurate assessment of the iciness or otherwise of the roads.  He even had a map of the SCC precautionary gritting network to help figure out which roads were likely to be ice free.  He’s quite useful really ;).  Armed with all that information we altered the planned route, and even with a new plan in place we still made bits of the route up as we went along – I think it’s called improvisation?  Well it was, not to put too fine a point on it, bl**dy freezing out there, even if there wasn’t any wind to speak of, which was not cruel but unusual.  Having said that, the air rushing past us as we hurtled along trying to keep warm was still pretty nippy, there was indeed a little ice around here and there, and the idea of discovering that going downhill appealed to neither of us, so we decided to keep it flat, sure and steady.  As GB said, nothing slows you down like crashing!

Essentially we went to Glastonbury for coffee and back.  It was, as is almost always the case, more complicated than you think, but that’s what it boiled down to – as can be seen here.  We very nearly wimped out and didn’t make it any further than Sweets, but that would probably have led to a heinous breaking of the two hour rule so we pushed on past to Fairyland.

Oh dear oh dear.  Heaphy’s has changed hands.  Gone is the olde worlde snuggly warm inviting fug of a place.  In its (not quite finished) place is more of a city sandwich bar style place – all light wood and chrome and bland and anodyne.  It’s only been re-opened since yesterday and they’ve not got it all quite figured out yet either – getting cake out of the chiller cabinet for GB was a bit of a logistical nightmare.  And it was cold.  Both visually and climatically, not helped by the gaping hole in the bottom of the front door, but probably mostly caused by the massive windows and not enough heating.  Not good for clammy already cold cyclists.  Being unable to eat properly at the moment the lack of their usual carrot cake was not a problem, and the coffee (with added caramel shot for sugar boost) was still pretty good.  But I think I shall be relegating it to somewhere to go only when I can sit outside.  Such a shame.  It wasn’t broken and it didn’t need fixing :(.

Heaphy's Cafe - primed but not quite ready.

We came home in a slightly circuitous fashion, and it seemed to have become even colder.  Every time the sun threatened to shine you could actually feel the temperature rise a little before it dropped back down again.  Oddly enough it was noticeably warmer this side of the Wedmore ridge too.  Although I use the word warm merely in a comparative sense, and it may well in fact be better just to say less cold, in case you should make the mistake of thinking that it was anything like warm out there!  I wore every layer going – winter jacket, thermals, winter hat…but there’s only so much you can do, and slowly your core temperature drops and your feet go walkabout, and it’s time to get home and warm up.

GB was trialling his new high vis polite notice jacket – as ably modelled below – and it was amazing to see how much of a difference it made to the behaviour of the drivers around us.  It’s not our fault if you presume he’s a policeman is it? 😉  I think I shall acquire one, or maybe two, for the ACG, since it could make group cycling a whole heap safer for a while, until enough drivers out there twig to what’s going on *grin*.

GB would like you to be polite.

GB in uniform

Left to my own devices I’d probably have ended up at the gym today.  After last year’s ice induced accident I no longer go casually out in such conditions, so when I looked out of the window this morning and saw the frozen fields, I would have listened to my head and been sensible.  But my heart really wanted to go out, and I’m really glad I did because otherwise I’d have missed out on a good ride in good company.  ‘Rah!  My mileage for this month is still worse than last January’s which was hindered by snow and ice, but t’is only marginally so, and I’ll just have to live with that :).  I’m not going out tomorrow and cycling 17 miles just to make up the numbers *grin*.

Cycling time: 2:04:49 hrs
Distance: 36.13 miles.
AVS: 17.3 mph.
ODO: 11819 miles

As mentioned in my previous entry, the Rapha sample sale took place this weekend.  My woman on the inside, to whom I remain eternally grateful, picked me up a pair of women’s shorts for less than 50% RRP and they arrived yesterday.  Ok, so I’ve only tried them on briefly, it not being (as you may have gathered) shorts weather, but they are the most comfortable wonderful pair of shorts ever!  Better still, in a good for the ego sense, they’re an S and fit like a glove :).  Bring on Spring!