Audax rides

Ride report – Gently Bentley

Is it time to do this again? I guess so. Yesterday I rode Gently Bentley with @WhitleyJay , @Amcharl and a few others from Peckham CC. Steady rain forecast in the morning but not very cold so layering was once again a bit of a conundrum. My rain jacket is a bit thicker than most, a bit boil-in-the-bag so not ideal for double digit Celsius days. Regardless, I’m soft so I opted to wear it paired up with a summer base layer and LS jersey. Bibs, leg warmers, merino socks and overshoes and winter gloves. Forecast was for improved conditions later in the day so I packed a gilet, lighter gloves and spare socks into a BigxTop seat pack.

Set off at 6am from Greenwich bound for Surbiton, a glorious 10 mins before the drizzle started. Got to Surbiton way too early and had to wait about 30 mins before we were allowed to get going, vows had been made of an ‘efficient but not smashy approach’, i.e. minimum faffing at controls. We set off, grim conditions made worse by a few with either sub-optimal mudguards or none at all. It only took 30 seconds of sitting behind someone around Hampton Court to be sprayed with grime, the road grit in my mouth was enough to convince me that I was only going to ride at the front or behind someone with full-length guards and flaps. Grim conditions continued but the pace was rapid, pretty sure there was a 40k stretch on the way to Henley where we averaged around 30km/h which was quite frankly unsustainable. Tried to grab something at Harris & Hoole but was thwarted by a Karen kicking off about the lack of gluten free options AFTER she’d placed her order so had to bail and run to Saino’s for an egg & cress sarnie. I had let the group down with my faffing (thanks, Karen) so I wolfed down half my sarnie, stuffed the other half in my barrel bag and off we went, straight into that little climb out of Henley. Almost saw that egg & cress again.

Finally into some lanes and good riding until a puncture for @Amcharl around Pangbourne, tubeless jizz everywhere but it was a good place to stop for a wardrobe change and to eat the other half of my now sweaty and sorry looking egg & cress. The sun was out. Past an info control, plenty of flooded bits and potholes everywhere. It was a long drag with a few hills to Lower Froyle at 131kms, the group had momentarily broken up and none of us had fuelled all that well so the sight of baked beans on toast put on by the organisers was like curry to a pisshead, glorious. Suitably fuelled we moved on quickly to an info control at Churt just 15kms down the road where an inspired call was made to have a quick stop for a can of Coke. Out of Churt we hit some quick, smooth roads and a train of now 7 was working well, riding hard in the mid-afternoon sun. It’s at this point I should admit that I’d been riding pretty dumb, having a few digs up hills and surging out of most corners for no good reason, just living up to ‘Ride Dumb ™‘.

Out and back control at Brookwood, welcome stop with a bit of faffing, Lucozade and a nut butter sachet. 38km back to Surbiton with a brief stop at an info control and we appeared to have reached some unspoken agreement to absolutely bury ourselves, rolling bits around Esher saw the group break up and come back together several times after repeated surges, no need for it whatsoever but ‘fun’ nonetheless and got us back to Surbiton in decent time. I skipped the pasta, said my goodbyes and trundled up CS7 accompanied by intermitted wafts of curry and fried chicken. It was around Balham that my new rear tyre decided it was a good time to stop holding air very well, couldn’t see any sealant leaking so just one of those lovely tubeless mysteries, pumped it as best I could and carried on, got me as far as Camberwell where I was too tired to get the pump out again so I fired a canister into it and rode out of the saddle putting most of my weight over the front wheel all the way home. It held, just. Solid day out.