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That sounds tough, glad they could help you turn it around for yourself and have a good day out
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I was on this ride, and you're right the second half was a much nicer affair. Glad to hear you persevered though, it was a nice hilly 100km, and well organised by Bob Millar. I believe he is organising a 200km in September too. If you are local to South Wales i can recommend the a few upcoming rides. The Trefil Travail is a great 100, similar to the ridges of Mon. My mate Dave Hann is putting on a couple too, the Witches Hat (hilly 100km) and the Gower Getter (windy 200km) both leaving from North Cardiff.
yoshy
LeChef
@Polygon
Did my first audax today Monmouthshire Ridges BP, not a great start, got up late and arrived as everyone was departing. Tool roll emptied itself on to the floor as I left. No bother, I passed a few people a few miles down the road which I know shouldn't matter, but it helped knowing I wasn't miles behind everyone.
Rolled on steadily and without incident for about 30k more, first major climb done, but couldn't seem to get myself to be fully immersed in enjoying the ride, put it down to the self imposed pressure of doing a new structured thing. Front mech had been over-shifting. Tool roll emptied itself again, more lethargy. 40k, closest bail out point to the start, very tempted but pressed on. Stop start stop, chain off, adjusted mech, pressed on, more of the B4293, which felt more like an A road. Fuck this, I thought, turned around, quick piss, I'm hungry, checked phone, was actually quite close to the lunch stop.
As I arrived a couple of people I ride with sometimes were leaving. Explained to them I was gonna grab some food and maybe bail, and bless them they came back and waited for me. 2nd 50 much more enjoyable, fun even, and they were very nice about not making anything of how much slower I was making them go.
I'd done 100k a couple of weeks ago at night, the tiredness was tough, but this was harder in some ways, psychologically, not my finest ride. On the upside I didn't really notice that there was over twice as much climbing and I don't feel too fucked now.
tl;dr ride with nice people, just keep going, arrive on time