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Really enjoyed that read, nice one. Great effort, too!
We joined a table of riders nervously checking the weather
This is me from a couple of weeks out, I'm sure I'm in the top 5 Met Office website users by now.
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while Xavier lay beneath a tree with a bag of Coop iced peas on his head
I do hope he snacked on them for the rest of the ride when they had defrosted... #wastenotwantnot
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Nice write up of Arts and Sciences, brings it back! I think I spotted you guys on day one when I had taken a wrong turn and was retracing my steps. I also came across Pete just after it had happened and @mustardbeak and another ACH member were marshalling an ambulance (v tricky to give a location when something happens on a tow path). I spent the night beyond Rugely at the Loughborough Travel Lodge. Picked up the obligatory receipt at Rugely Esso (bit late for a bike ride said the lads queuing for post pub supplies - they had a point). Slept longer than I planned so started day 2 late. Wow it got hot and painful headwind after Colster something services (where I had a rank semi warm Greggs pasty). Then it was many stops for ice creams, lollies, juices, salty chips and just got slower and slower and losing the will somewhat. About late afternoon on the approach to the bus way to Girton realised I was out of time and called it quits in Cambridge (was determined to get into the Network Card area to get a cheap ticket!). Fun in parts, shame PBP is out the window but will look for other things...
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ElGonzo
jdp
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@Rik_Van_Looy
I don't know if any of you lot did Arts and Science at the weekend - here's a quick write-up.
We set off 30min late due to train times and the course led along the Grand Union towpath dodging dog walkers and scooter commuters to escape to the suburbs.
Sadly we caught our first rider early as Milltag's Pete Kelsey was having his broken leg attended by paramedics. This was my biggest ride since I hit the deck in the Surrey hills precisely one year ago and broke my hip so my heart goes out to him and the recovery work he'll need to do in the coming months - heal soon man.
Once out on the country roads Xavier and I were properly in our stride rolling at evens - my 66 inch gear was starting to feel like a bit of an error as I span along at >100 rpm!!!
By the first control at Thame we'd caught the back of the group including a few fellow fixed wheels which was reassuring.
Up through the Cotswolds for a control at Moreton-in-marsh we started hitting the hills and feeling the sun (35 deg on the Garmins). At Kinver Coop control the young folk were topping up their tans on the sunny side of the street whilst we old gits conserved energies in the shade.
Shortly after Kinver we passed our friend Michael and settled in for what was for me the toughest leg of day 1, I was bitterly regretting my saddle choice (which had been purely on aesthetic grounds) and suffering in the heat and hills but still making a steady 24 kmh moving average.
Although just an info, we made a meal of Ironbridge, stopping for a plate of chips and coffee. The next leg up to Rugeley was probably my favourite part of the whole ride, rolling hills, wheatfields, charming villages enjoyed in the cool of the evening and the late golden hour. Stunning. Climbing and descending cannock chase in the dark was great fun and Xavier was in his happy place banging out the miles....
We decided to go lux at Ashby around 1230 with a room at the premier inn by a 24h MacDonalds - 200min of sleep sandwiched between cold showers and chicken sandwiches. Over breakfast, a local lad showed us his wounds from small town saturday nights - I'm quite squeamish so a lacerated wrist in blood soaked bog-roll was about as much as I could handle and we were back on the road again by 0445 and I tucked in behind Xavier, rolling through Loughborough to the golden arches of the Colsterworth control for breakfast muffin and coffee...
We joined a table of riders nervously checking the weather - both the mercury and direct headwind were due to rise to epic levels making the remaining 210 km some of the hardest of my life and we very soon began to regret wasting the coolest and stillest hours on sleep and food....
A brief lie down in the Peakirk churchyard and on to Oundle control - a charming town of scholars in voluminous pin-stripe-pantaloons. Fortified with salted peanuts and caramel iced latte's we pressed on to Cambridge, stopping briefly in St Ives to lie on the floor of an air conditioned Shell and refill bottles.
The toughest was still to come as we faced the dystopian guided busway - 15 km of concrete utterly exposed to the midday sun and full-frontal headwind. At Girton I moved onto Mars ice cream while Xavier lay beneath a tree with a bag of Coop iced peas on his head conisidering his life decisions.
From there back to the Ally Pally, a mere 80-odd km was mostly silent - ignoring the pitiful average speed, winds, hills, horrendous Cambridge road-surfaces, and focussing on turning pedals.... By this time I was less focussed on my saddlesore as my achilles tendons were approximately the size of table-tennis balls and really starting to hurt...
Around Potters bar I lost all feeling in my 4th and 5th fingers (who'd have thought that a fixed 600 on velox cloth tape and 25mm tyres would cause discomfort?) and at just over 36h we rolled up the ramp to the finish just as our mate Michael was heading home having had a couple of hours of roadside nap and a largely wind-free lincolnshire leg.
All in all a fabulous ride. I was up at 5 for an early Monday flight but made it to my physio on Wednesday to thank him for his sterling work on my broken leg last year and get some reassurance about the ulnar nerve situation.
The achilles have died down and I've discovered that the carefully learnt 'ankling' techniques I'd picked up in a racing manual from the Poole public library in the early 80's were genuine bollocks so I have some re-learning to do as well as tackling my snobbish antipathy to tri-bars.