Audax rides

Was a (mostly) fun experience! I had my moment of doubt in a maccies at 1am, was ready to move in and call it home but ended up carrying on. I was lucky enough to be riding with some great pals which made it all the better and kept eachother going. We had a pretty dreamy tailwind to carry us all the way, did not envy those going north to south!

I mapped out a route taking snippets from a number of other audaxes with a lot of chunks from LEL. Made for a super nice route and worked in the luxury of 2 well positioned 24hr McDonalds for somewhere to warm up as our overnight controls at 300 and 380km.

I had seemingly endless bikes issues though. An early puncture followed up by a big slice in my sidewall. Took 4 attempts over 50km to find the correct combination of bits of cardboard, £5 note, sweet wrappers and plastic to make it hold. My rear gear cable then snapped at 160km which I didn't have a spare. Didn't want to hold up the group again so spent the next 40km in the 11t. At the next stop I was able to do a pretty horrific but functional bodge to get the derailleur to stay mid cassette which actually held quite well. However, a while later while stood outside a Spar in Louth at 9pm a guy came up to asking if we were on an audax as he always comes out to watch LEL pass through. 5 minutes later we end up in his back garden taking apart a road bike he recently bought off Facebook marketplace to try salvage some parts for mine. His family were so lovely inviting us in for teas and biscuits while I faffed on trying to fix my bike to no avail. I did however manage to make a more secure fix and was able to use the two front chainrings and the 23t at the back which worked out kind of manageable for the route. Thanks Greg if you ever see this, an absolute hero!!

Poorly timed trains home did mean a 4 hour layover in the spoons at the finish but was fun to sit and watch as all the other groups filtered in, some looking way too fresh after 24 hours on a bike

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