60 Far, 60 Good

Went on the third of the rides organised by Richard on Saturday.  Really surprised at my commitment as it was tipping it down when I got up just before 7.00am and the sound of the rain sent a chill down my spine as I was getting ready.  Huge bowl of porridge and time pondering over which layers to put on later I loaded the bike into the car and headed to the office (I know I should ride there but not quite ready for 77 miles in one day).  Turns out someone (no names) took the opportunity to bail on us when Richard called them at 7.00 for their opinion on calling it off but the rest of us where raring to go at 9.00.  It was still pretty blustery but the clouds had decided stop raining for a while and we even had patches of blue sky as we set off.  Richard had planned a 61 mile course which had us heading south (straight into the wind) for 28 miles, then 8 miles west (trying not to get blown over) and finally a 25 mile northbound return (hopefully blowing a gale behind us for assistance).  With it just being the four of us, and all having ridden together previously we accepted how the wind needed to be attacked and quickly had a peloton going and took turns to take the brunt of the wind up front.

We stopped for a ten minute rest around the 32 mile mark in order to eat.  I had my now melted twix and a flap jack.

Richard had a really long climb for us at the 38 mile point which had us climb just over 500 feet over 2.5 miles. Which was nice.  This did of course lead onto a fantastic down hill, but as with last week I could not take full advantage for fear of other road users (cars) coming the other way on this single track road.  The gradient was so steep that when you let the breaks go it felt like you were on a jet propelled bike.  This was a great feeling but the 4x4 coming at me as I hurtled down the hill whilst shouting "CAR" at the top of my lungs to warn the others behind me provided enough of a wake up call to pull the breaks a bit more and slow down.

It turned out to be a really pleasant day weather wise so was nice to see lots of places I have not been to before and take in the scenery.  Ride seemed to go very well and we made good time still averaging 15mph over the distance so feels great to say 60 far, 60 good. 

Edit - Apologies to those who are not blessed with being dyslexic, so far so good.