Forgive me someone for I have sinned, it has been three rides since my last blog.  Oops.  Sorry.  Mea culpa.  Etc.  Still, the third time’s the charm, and here we are, three rides later.  Which, in case you were wondering, makes four rides in a row…

Where to start?  Why at the beginning of course.  After a very sociable morning in Andrew‘s garage, Christmas finally came to the Cinelli and it got its long awaited summer makeover.  New wheels, tubes, tyres, pedals and cassette.  Ooh so perty.  And shiny 🙂  After all that time spent watching him work hard, and with a busy schedule, I didn’t have time to actually try it out until Thursday night.  I spent the rest of the day mentally on the road, physically having to be in various other places, with time ticking by at a snail’s pace, just waiting ’til I could go out to play.

By the time Chris and I did get out, it was 8.00pm.  Well, I wasn’t going to go out on my own.  For starters, if something did not work properly, the chances of me knowing what to do about it were inversely proportional to him knowing what to do.  Besides which what’s the point of having new toys if you can’t show ’em off to someone? 😉  I’m pleased to report however that mechanical skills were not required.  We did a relatively hilly hour’s loop around the usual evening ride territory.  The new pedals pushed the new wheels round, the new gears changed, and the new tyres nicely matched the new wheels in admirable sartorial style.  Was I faster?  Ooh, wait and see, it’s a little soon for conclusions, I have two more rides to go! 😉

Cycling time: 1:05
Distance: 17.0 miles
Avg: 15.5 mph
ODO: 5593.3 miles

I wasn’t feeling great on Friday morning, and it was very tempting to roll over, go back to sleep, and make my way to coffee at George’s in the car later.  But…then I remembered that I was due at the pub for drinks after work, so an evening workout was not going to work out.  And doing no workout, be it ride or gym, is wrong.  Besides which the sun was shining, and my slowly waking brain remembered that I had new toys to play with.  We have been so lucky with the weather lately.  It’s so easy to go and ride.  Put kit on, put gadgets on, leave house.  Why wouldn’t you?  So I did an hour’s loop to George’s.  It was all very pleasant but my legs were feeling it after the night before, so I wasn’t pushing it.  I’d said I’d be 45 minutes, which, presumably explains why when I turned left outside Mark after nearly an hour, heading towards whichever Allerton it is she lives in, there was a white rabbit in the middle of the road!  Escaped pet?  Pet gone wild?  Diluted gene pool gone wild?  Who knows?  It hopped off wherever it was going, and I hopped off likewise.  Luckily it wasn’t a time critical coffee stop, although it was caffeine critical.  We spent an hour or so putting the world to rights in the sunshine, and George duly admired my bike, whilst pointing out that the rear cassette was a little loose, before I headed for home worrying about it.  Most impressively, well I was impressed, thanks to YouTube and my multi-tool used in conjunction with one of my lovely socket set bits, I managed to tighten something that was loose, and I think it’s all ok now 🙂

Cycling time: 1:08
Distance: 19.6 miles
Avg: 15.3 mph
ODO: 5612.9 miles

Which brings us to today.  An ACG ride.  Only five of us this time, but that’s a lot easier to count and keep track of than seventeen!  Jon, Martyn, James, Chris G, and me.  Having done a seaside loop on Wednesday I’d decided to do much the same with them, with the addition of a hill just to prove that my routes aren’t completely flat.  So, a seaside loop with Shipham Hill it was then :).  My legs were definitely feeling it as we set off, and going straight up that hill didn’t improve things any!  Four days riding in a row…definitely elements of ow!  But once the climbing was done, I was doing alright on the flat, and as it was mostly going to be flat, I figured I’d be ok.  On that basis it took us a little over an hour to get to our coffee stop at the once again open New Castle in Kewstoke.  Quite fast, or maybe too fast according to Chris, but he wasn’t really complaining, just working hard to keep up 😉

We sat outside, drank a lot of coffee, ate a lot of cake, and I revealed my dastardly plan.  Here’s why we were really doing the seaside loop again.  For the first time ever, I went out with the deliberate intention of trying for a Strava QOM.  Well, after discovering that I’d done the long fast Accommodation road segment better than ever on Wednesday, and was only 3 seconds off the top?  And with an ACG lead out train?  Had to be worth a go right?  Especially when that train included those three – Chris having decided to leave us to playing silly b*ggers and catch up with us at the end – it’s only 1.1 miles after all.  However with tired legs, I had my doubts as to whether my ambition would come to fruition.  Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and the guys were more than up for giving it a go for me.  Imagine that 😉  So after playing with the traffic in Weston, and spending a very long time trying to turn right onto the A370 after Uphill, it was time.  Right turn, past the bleedin’ car boot sale traffic, over the railway bridge and…it was on.  I did my very best.  I hammered along behind Martyn, and then when he pulled over, behind James (once I’d caught him!) with Jon next to me.  It was hard work, I was pushing, I seriously doubt it was a pretty sight to behold, and yes, it hurt.  But in an oddly good way?  It certainly felt fast.  And when I looked down it was fast.  But was it fast enough?…   Well I could make you wait until later, as I had to, but…I shall put you out of whatever limited misery you are in now…

…Woohoo!  We did it!   Not only did I beat my PB by 11 seconds, I also took 8 seconds off the previous QOM’s time.  Thanks guys!  It was a lot of fun and I’m very chuffed 🙂  There’s a lot to be said for setting yourself a challenge and achieving it.  Remind me I don’t need to go and get it back when it goes to someone else though…that way madness lies!

After that, it was time to go home.  Still fairly fast, but we reined it in a bit, stuck together, and the climb back over past the Webbington put me firmly back in my place.  I enjoyed the down the other side as much as ever though 🙂  Another quick hop, that last final drag up from Cross, and we were back in the Square, and I was done.  Properly done *grin*.

Cycling time: 2:07
Distance: 34.1 miles
Avg: 16.1 mph
ODO: 5647 miles

So, shall we have that conclusion now?  Oh go on then, I do believe the time has come…  Are my new wheels faster?  It’s possibly a little hard to tell.  At the moment I think I’m getting faster myself.  And there’s bound to be a bit of placebo effect – if I believe they’re faster, maybe I am faster?  But…nah…I’m pretty sure they’re actually faster.  This doesn’t make much difference up long hills (sadly!) but on the flat?  Yes.  You know how you look down and know roughly what speed your Garmin is probably showing?  Well with these wheels, you look down and your speed is that speed plus about 2mph.  They initially seemed a little skittish on wiggly descents but now that I’ve ridden them a bit and the brakes have settled in and the tyres have worn in a little, that seems to be less of a problem.  They’re very responsive and love to sprint.  They quite like out of the saddle climbing, up those silly bits that aren’t really hills, just to get to the top and head off again.  And I’ve just anthropomorphised my wheels.  But after three rides, I think I’m definitely fasterer 😀  Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do and fly *grin*.

PS: this is The Cat in the Hat (Box)! Apparently my Giro helmet pod fits her perfectly!