I decided to go hilly today.  No idea why, only it seemed like a good idea…right until I got half way up Shipham Hill and realised that having hubby clean the chain had not fixed the gearing problem, and that I was never going to get to the top with the bottomest gear missing completely, and the rest of them jumping around at will.  So I turned tail and headed for Paul at the LBS who, luckily, was free enough to have a look at it and then to replace the gear cable – it was all frayed up and nearly snapped inside the RHS gear lever.

Take two.  Back up Shipham Hill, with all the gears this time – a huge improvement.  All the way down to Churchill and out to Wrington.  Up the long hill past the Walled Garden to the main road.  Up and across that, down Row of Ashes, and along some truly hideously mucky roads to Chew Stoke.  Unsuitable for HGVs?  Unsuitable for almost anything!  I had a quick break by the lake to admire the ducks and then headed off again to West Harptree.  From there it was past Litton, with a wistful glance towards the Kings Arms there, to Chewton Mendip and the long slog up the A39 before the lovely drop down into Wells.  I nearly managed to not brake on the way down…but not quite.  It’s still a nice down though, and you can see for miles and miles…

Due to the earlier detour to see Paul I was running a tad behind schedule so tweaked my planned route a bit.  I turned right to go through Wookey Hole, up the hill there to loop ’round and join the A371 at Easton.  From there it was just a case of hammering it straight to Cheddar and on to home.

Cycling time: 2:55:07
Distance: 41.05 miles
Avs: 14.0 mph
ODO: 3328 miles

My actual route worked out thus.  Quite a few hills in there.  Which would account for my average speed.  And the fact that I could eat a horse round about now.  My bike was filthy when I got back, so I’ve duly cleaned it, and me!  The Mad March Hare looks like it might be a bit hillier – but possibly those hills are more spread out than today’s were…here’s hoping!

At least it was that bit warmer.  And dry.  Which made up for the number of idiots who thought that6 inches gap when passing was perfectly reasonable…  And the fact that it’s February so the fields are all smelly, and the roads are full of tractors trimming hedges and leaving the debris all over the road.  Despite all of that – it was a pretty good ride 🙂