GB is still on holiday. I still need to ride. 2 + 2 = 4. Or 1 + 1 = 2 I guess. So we rode. In order to try and beat the very cold NE wind, we decided to repeat Monday’s route but in reverse. Thus we started by going up Shipham Hill, which took about 17:00 if you knock off a bit for faffing around in the Square etc. Well, it was Very cold. And I wasn’t pushing it as it’s supposed to be a tapering week. The first 1/2 hour of any ride is fairly hideous, and it’s not helped by going up hill, but at least I was nearly warm by the time I got to the top.
We took the nasty little steep bit towards Charterhouse, which I still don’t like, and found the wind for real. Oddly enough on the top of the Mendips is quite exposed…who’d a thought it? My descent down Burrington Coombe went quite well but if I was cold to start with I was freezing by the time I got to the bottom! It really was bitterly cold… So coffee at the now open Walled Garden, and a warm scone, went down a treat. Having said that, it was £5 for coffee and a scone, whether or not you have cream and jam (which I didn’t) and that’s just a rip off. Especially when at Brean Down it’s £2.35. £3 for a scone? You can buy an entire cream tea for that in some places! So lovely as it is there, I don’t think I’ll be going there often… Plus it wasn’t very warm inside. Did I mention I don’t like the cold? I was born in the wrong country – I so should have been Mediterranean…
From there we headed for home, retracing Monday’s route, which was going all very well, with the sun coming up, and the temperature rising…until Winscombe where I hit a pothole and punctured the back wheel. GB was ahead, but came back to help which is just as well as neither of my inner tubes worked, and by the time it came to putting the third inner tube in I’d pretty much lost the will to live. Besides which he’s much better at it than I am, though if I’d been on my own I’m sure I’d have managed. Well actually I wouldn’t have as the third inner tube was his, so on my own, I’d have been walking home! Actually come to think of it I could have called my breakdown insurance but knowing my luck they don’t cover you for tyre problems. (Yep, just checked, thought so). So it would indeed have been Shanks’ Pony.
After all that palaver, although it was sunny and warmer by then, I just wanted to go home, even if that did involve going up Winscombe Hill. It did, so I did, which went ok, and just left me to fly downhill home. And left GB outside his front door which must make a nice change for him.
Not a ride that went according to plan. Again. The only good bit was the hills really. Both up and down. Other than that it was slogging against the wind. Again. Ah well…that would explain the average speed then! Plenty of good conversation though, on those occasions when we could actually hear each other speak, and who knew how many minefields there were out there?
Cycling time: 1:53:27
Distance: 24.93 miles
Avs: 13.1 mph
ODO: 7278 miles
Now, where did I put my spare inner tubes?