I shouldn’t have been riding this morning, but I was. Partially because when I arranged it earlier this week I’d forgotten that my sportive is on Saturday not Sunday. And hey, it was dry, and that’s rare, and I’d have had to do something, and it was better than the gym… So I went for a quick loop with Mim, which was mostly flat, but very windy. Done. The hardest part was making sure I didn’t wear anything I might need tomorrow!
Cycling time: 1:16:24 hrs
Distance: 20.13 miles
Avs: 15.8 mph.
ODO: 13589 miles
Then I had to wash the bike, wash me, pack the car, faff a great deal before finally admitting there was no more faffing to be done, and then set off towards Pembrokeshire. It was a 4 hour drive, if you include a stop at Swansea West services for a Costa break, but it went smoothly. The sun was shining, the motorway gods were smiling, and the roads were fairly clear even once the motorways had turned into A roads. It’s like getting to Neverland. Not so much “Second star to the right and straight on ’til morning”, more keep driving west until you run out of M4 then keep driving some more until you hit the coast :).
It must be a leftover from summer holidays as a child, but there’s that moment when you see a glimpse of shimmering silver on the horizon, when you get to be the first one to see the sea, and you grin like a child 🙂 And then it opens out before you…
It’s a bit like going on holiday and everything! A holiday where you get to ride your bike all day. That can’t be bad, right? 😉
Oriel y Parc
The Tour of Pembrokeshire HQ is at Oriel y Parc this year, and because I was here today not tomorrow, I actually got to sign on in advance, which makes a nice change. I wasn’t the only one doing the same, and as we did that, the start village was rapidly going up around us.
Registration
This is at the start village. I’m guessing it’s a sound system, right?m 😉
Signing on took no time at all. I caught up with Peter and Carlos and some of the other riders I’d met at the Prologue ride last year, but I still had/have hours to kill. So once I’d checked into the Alandale Guesthouse again, into my very small but perfectly formed single room, I decided to be a tourist. I didn’t visit the Cathedral last time I was here, and it seemed verging on rude to come here again and not visit it again, so I took myself off down the hill and went and wandered around it.
How about an arty shot for you?
Even then I hadn’t killed enough time, so I decided to go to the seaside. Here’s my little red car at the seaside 🙂
It’s at a place called Whitesands, which seems quite appropriate.
I love wide open spaces, and wind, and waves, and blue, and space…it’s all very zen like and very good for my head 🙂 I’d forgotten how much I love it, and it was a very good time to be reminded. The beach was practically empty, and I walked down to the water’s edge and listened to the sound of the waves for a while, before walking over the headland and back to the car.
Have you seen the colour of the sky? Wouldn’t it be lovely if it stayed that way for tomorrow, and the wind dropped a bit? Of course I now have NO idea what layers to wear…I don’t know what to do with a 12C sunny not very windy forecast! *grin*.
I have eaten leftover pasta. And nutella on rice cakes. Very soon it will time to get a reasonably early night before getting up and getting on with it again. Night all :).