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notoriousBMT
Ride Report – Moonrakers & Sunseekers 300
@WhitleyJay and I rode Moonrakers & Sunseekers from Bristol this weekend. With a 10pm Friday start, and the luxury of some annual leave that needed to be used up before the end of the year, I opted for taking Friday off work to set me up well. I ruined this by meeting former colleagues on Thursday night and getting horrendously drunk. Awful night’s sleep led to an even more awful hangover all day Friday then the joys of GWR out to Bristol.
Big turnout of well over 200 riders, setting off in waves. We actually set off as a group of 6 with @Amcharl and a couple of others into what resembled a mini-PBP swarm of red lights on our way out of Bristol. Jay and I rode fixed, the rest on gears. Usual uneasiness around riders you don’t know, combined with a crawl up a little hill in suburbia behind geared riders was enough to set me off, I moved out of the group and accelerated in an effort to escape the bulge. This seemingly set the tone, Jay followed and we were off. Swift progress through Bath and then Bathwick Hill; hit it a little bit too hard but just about hung on. We continued at a decent pace to the first control at Devizes, minimum faff and a quick hello on our way out to the rest of our group who were coming in. Wouldn't see them again until the finish.
The pace only quickened from there on fast roads through the moonlight and occasional mist. Salisbury control at 92 kms had a fantastic selection of cakes, and whilst I was stuffing my face Jay made an astute observation: We were surrounded by efficient, mile-munching machines. Aero, tri bars, Fairlights… We had absolutely no business being at this control at the same time as them on our fixies. We rolled out before getting too cold and were soon into agonisingly flat section so I barked instructions: "2km turns until the next junction, no smashing, GO!" Negative splits had our average speed creeping up and up, by the time we encountered the info control at 132 kms our average speed was a hair off 27km/h. Madness. Petrol station iced latte downed and we aimed for Poole and hot food. As soon as we hit Bournemouth it was noticeably warmer. Slow progress and a bit of sand surfing through the Promenade at 4am or so, not a soul around. Control at Poole at 157 kms and some very welcome warm food. It was here, over a jacket potato with sausages, beans, etc. that I made my grievance known: The sound of freewheels in the dead of the night is really pissing me off, downright antisocial.
Leaving behind another efficient stop we made our way out of Poole and into the most testing section of the ride, a couple of hills almost had us walking but we pushed through past Milton Abbas and a few more hills. A little after first light we descended into Sherborne, I should have taken it easy but ended up chasing max souplesse in an effort to shake the dozies. Not long after, but certainly flagging in the daylight, we arrived at Podimore Services and what should have been the welcoming bosom of Greggs at 228 kms. Except it wasn’t warm in the slightest. In fact, sitting inside it was probably the coldest we were all night/day. We didn’t hang around long and continued towards Glastonbury, but shortly after leaving the services disaster struck: Jay felt a debilitating sharp pain in his right knee and we stopped straight away. I doled out some ibuprofen and mandated we roll super easy, but it was not looking good. At all.
We made it to Glasto where after a failed attempt to buy a knee brace Jay called it and said he was done, time to check logistics for getting back to Bristol. Turns out, not easy. The decision was quickly rowed back and we continued, gingerly through The Levels to Axbridge. Somehow Jay kept going on one leg and at a decent pace through to the end of The Mendips. All that was left was some grav on the shared path of the Strawberry Line dodging dog walkers, and a maddeningly convoluted way back to the ride HQ through Bristol city centre.
Enjoyed most of it. But riding through the night, at pace, fixed... well, it hits differently.