Well actually the dress is purple, but the smile brought on by today’s ride is pretty white, and very wide :).
Yesterday was gorgeous and sunny. Which would normally have brought on some sort of biblical, I need to give you a rainbow to apologise afterwards, type of weather today, what with the fact that yesterday I wasn’t riding, and today I was. I have been known to joke that I can be paid to stay home and not ride the bike – my rates are very reasonable – just to ensure that other people get decent weather to ride in! 😉 When I drew back the curtain this morning, it was pretty impossible to ascertain what the weather was doing, because I couldn’t see beyond the end of my (extremely small) garden! Resorting to the ‘net, as ever, I was informed that it was foggy (no, really?) and chilly, with practically no wind. But that’s forecasts and we know how much faith I now place in those. I layered up just the same as on Friday, and headed out for the Square to meet the ACG. I was the first there…so got my camera out. The fog was a fluid thing, but looking up the sky was an unfamiliar shade of…can it be really? No, yes, oh, hi, oh my eye! Blue? Blue!
High Street, and a funny coloured sky...
Flowers. It's Spring, right?
St John the Baptist Church, Axbridge
GB was the first to turn up, and by the time we were all gathered together at 9:00am, there were 6 of us. A good round well-matched number. By which I mean that 6 is a round number, not that any of our number is round 😉 Myself, GB (self-explanatory), DM (I eat hills for breakfast), Mike (mine’s an Etape please), Steve (from MTB to Maratona) and Gary (been away, and very welcome back). Our proposed route was a hilly one, a fact that we’d been kind enough broadcast in advance, so we all knew what we were letting ourselves in for. In consideration of this there was a reasonable flat stretch to start with to get us all warmed up, and we headed off towards Wedmore. Yes – I’ve been taking photos when riding along again. I’m practising for my first Cyclosport review at the Mad March Hare next weekend :).
GB leads the way into the mist
I always forget how wet mist is. In a way that completely covers your glasses with water and makes seeing through them impossible. I ended up with my glasses sitting right down the end of my nose, and breathing/talking like I had a clothes peg on my nose as a result. Not massively comfortable, but I do like to see where I’m going. Especially on the road across from Wedmore to Westbury sub Mendip which is Paris-Roubaix-like in its surface on a good day, which, mid winter and covered in crap (probably literally), this was not. Ick. I think I shall continue to avoid that particular road.
No more procrastinating. No more putting off the inevitable. Time to start climbing hills and leaving the Levels behind, by heading up in the direction of Wookey Hole, towards the climb up past Dear Leap. Time to engage crawler gear as ever. A small breakaway group hared off, but I figured I’d stick to what I knew best and pace myself.
atmospheric, no?
We re-grouped before the left turn and then headed for the hills. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it went. It fits my kind of profile – steepest at the bottom, a bit better after that, whilst be long enough to settle into. After a brief out of the saddle bit to get that steep section out of the way, which also saw me overtake a couple of people, I hunkered down and actually quite enjoyed plodding my way to the top, where the skies were blue, the roads dry, and the fog was behind me :).
nearing the top of Dear Leap
And the views from the top? Almost worth it. In fact, most definitely worth it. Time to stop and take some photos, just in case my little camera was up to capturing the scale of the scene. I’ll let you be the judge of that.
see the Tor rising above the mist? Very Isle of Avalon.
fog filling the valley below
Mike coming up to admire the view
That was but the first climb of the day however. It was time to go find the next one. Being on top of the world already, with therefore nowhere to go from there, the only way find an up is to start with a down. In this case the very lovely, and long, and very fast down that is Old Bristol Hill. Such fun :D. Well it is as long as it’s dry and not too busy, which was the case today. Add moisture to the mix there and it’s a whole different ballgame. We flew all the way down into Wells and out the other side, through some very pretty villages, to where GB had found us a brand new hill to go up. Yes – fanfare time – tarantara – we now have a Guy’s Hill! Took long enough, but I think it was worth it. It turned out to be a very lovely long steady climb, up from Dinder and pretty much all the way to the Rock Cake Café. A climb worthy of the name association :). There was a steeper bit at the bottom, again, but after that my plodding turned out to be faster than some of the other plodding going on, I gradually pulled ahead, and it was left to me to try and catch GB up as he disappeared into the distance with nary a glance behind him. I didn’t so much catch him as get close enough to yell at him to wait for us mere mortals! 😉 Definitely time for coffee :).
Gary and Steve deep in thought.
a well refreshed ACG 🙂
Thus refreshed and rehydrated it was time for the second leg of our ride, albeit one we decided to curtail a little due to time, and democracy. We cut out the loop that would have involved climbing a Harptree and headed straight over the top towards Burrington Combe which I really fancied descending. It’s a long essentially straight wide route to get there, although with a surprisingly amount of incidental climbing. Three of the ACG decided to head home via Charterhouse, leaving 3 of us to carry the ACG flag a little longer. My maths is good like that. The Sunday driver traffic, having also seen the sun, was out en masse. Silly season has definitely started. Too many cars, too much behaving badly. Luckily there was a pause in hostilities for the actual descent of the Combe, and the car behind me stayed well back, which is just as well as I spooked myself a little on one of the bends near the top and came a tad close to the already occupied wrong side of the road. Disaster averted though, and the rest was as much fun as ever :).
Steve, GB and I wiggled through Langford and along to the next climb – up through Rowberrow to Shipham. I swear that climb used to be worse! Maybe I’m getting better at this? 😉 It was all worth it to get to go home down Shipham Hill though. Well nearly. I particularly enjoyed Mr White Transit Van Man, who absolutely had to overtake me very fast…before realising there was a bend coming up and then having to brake hard enough to make me have to brake to avoid him. *sigh*. I’d quite like to have been able to communicate to the driver that usually brake lights come in pairs, along with sharing my critique of his driving skills…but luckily for both of us he hurtled off down the main road in the wrong direction before we regrouped and headed down the bypass to home. Still he didn’t ruin it totally for me, so I’ll let him off. It’s amazing how much more I enjoy downhills these days. I’ve even been known to go up hills I’m not keen on just to get to some of my favourite downs. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee! *grin*.
Cycling time: 2:56:46 hrs
Distance: 48.13 miles.
AVS: 16.3 mph.
ODO: 12205 miles
I had SUCH a good ride. I can’t tell you how much difference the sunshine makes, and it feels like so long since it’s been around. Sun, no wind, miles, friends, great hills, glorious descents….I mean, man, does it get any better? My max speed was 41mph which is truly amazing for me. Today I could do it. I could do hills. I could do flats. I could do fast. I was solar-powered! Yep – still smiling :).