Looking at the weather reports on Friday it looked like we should have had a dry spell for Saturday morning so Stacey and I organised to set off at 08:00 from his place on a 40 miler.
We set off from my brothers just gone 08:00 and it was overcast but dry so we left the waterproofs behind. Needless to say 5 miles down the road it started to spit and by the 7 mile mark was steadily raining.
Despite the rain and lack of waterproofs we carried on. I had planned a route to go past Frencham Pond as well as a few other places I have never been to before. As with last week’s ride we went past some lovely scenery but didn’t get to take them in as was too busy looking at the road to avoid the puddles (it’s not the puddles you avoid it’s the pot holes they’re hiding).
We took it pretty easy as I was riding a racer for the first time in 22 years so was quite nervous about the handling and the drenched roads made it doubly so. Early on in the ride (before the rain) we had accelerated up to 39 mph down a nice stretch of straight hill and could have gone faster (2 more gears) but I made the bike twitch as I changed gear and was instantly aware of how unfamiliar I was with the bike and the speed we were doing. 4 miles later, lesson not quite learned both Stacey and I skidded on the now wet roads as we went round a bend to find a car coming towards us.
Rest of the ride was less eventful, tackled a long steep hill and realised very quickly how I need to adapt my riding style for climbing hills on a racer compared to the hybrid. Still I will earn and in the meantime really appreciated being able to accelerate without using as much effort.
We had a quick flapjack break at 30 miles and I forgot to put the timer on for a couple of miles so the route looks a bit weird and doesn’t show the full distance covered but it’s here if you’re interested
No comments:
Post a Comment