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muddy slop that is the Saturn Trail (THANKS SUSTRANS!)
http://www.sustrans.org.uk/support-us/donate-now/safeguard-network-appeal
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where I promptly lost a glove
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As if being turned inside out by @eyebrows, @6pt, @branwen and @Hovis on the LFGSS.cc 'training' (read 'punishing') trip to Mallorca wasn't quite enough, I thought it would be a good idea to race the Gorick XC spring series Round 2 at Deepcut on Sunday, too.>
....these guys were kicking my arse on strava, compared to my trip a week previously.
(........unfollows)
As if being turned inside out by @eyebrows, @6pt, @branwen and @Hovis on the LFGSS.cc 'training' (read 'punishing') trip to Mallorca wasn't quite enough, I thought it would be a good idea to race the Gorick XC spring series Round 2 at Deepcut on Sunday, too.
This would mean that rode more mileage and elevation over the course of one week week that I have in the last... four months.
Anyhoo, things didn't start well when on arriving at Westminster square on my way to Waterloo at 7:15 I found those Top Gear cunts had completely closed off the square and bridge meaning I would miss my train to Farnborough.
Plan B then - worlds slowest train to Woking and a nine mile off road ride on the muddy slop that is the Saturn Trail (THANKS SUSTRANS!) to Deepcut. Arrived with twenty minutes before the start of the 'sport' four lap cat. Experts do five laps.
I'm always amazed at what an absolute animal you need to be to do well at XC. The sport race went off the block like a rocket leaving me trailing at the back with a chap from WindyMillar and a couple of other stragglers picking their way across the tight, muddy, rooty, loamy circuit. Two laps in and I accidentally dropped my co-sufferers and rode the rest alone, only company the beasts on the front lapping me towards the end of my penultimate lap. They were polite beasts this time, a nice change.
I rolled in thirty minutes down on the winner, more or less last of the finishers in 24th, but happy to finish without too much drama and the bike in one piece, then rode another five miles to Farnborough to get the worlds slowest train home where I promptly lost a glove (Fuuuuuuu!). Stats reckoned 150 minutes in zone 4.5 - recovery time estimated at 72 hours.
On my return I found a south bank in complete chaos - some kind of protest - and so my return journey was duly lengthened making my return some eight hours after I left the house.
I was fucked.