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@illy
Tour of Wessex Day 2 Report
Started riding about 9 o'clock in the rain. The ground was already soaked with it having rained since 4am (I know because it woke me up). Lots of riders set off at about the same time so there were plenty of people on the road. Coming down a hill we saw someone's frame snapped in half, we think it was a Carbon Dolan. The rider looked ok.
The route was well sign posted, and we hit the first feed station after 35miles. The feed station was total chaos with riders trying to force as much into their mouths in as short a space of time as possible, and with as little talking as possible. The jelly babies were a hit.
At about midday, the rain cleared and the sun came out, so the jackets and leg warmers came off (went to all the effort of shaving my legs so was glad to show them off). Couple of cat 2 climbs saw the groups thinning out as we made our way forward. The hills were quite muddy and slippy so there was lots of wheel spinning by all; I tried to sit down as much as possible for grip. There was a second crash going round a corner at the bottom of a hill; one rider down and another rider into the back of him in an almost comical manner. The middle section of the route was fairly flat, and we ended up chain ganging with a good group at a fair lick. Second feed station came at 70 miles, which was welcome - by this time we were on our own. I stuffed my jersey full of Nutri-Grain bars and soldiered on. At 80 miles I begun to get tired, compounded by right cleat coming loose (so I couldn't pull up at all), and had to work harder with the left leg.
Luckily there was another feed station at 90 miles so I tightened my cleat and carried on. There was some confusion as to the length of the route, which was a bit demoralising when you thought you had about 10 miles to go and the organisers said it was more like 20. Managed to keep the spirits up and rolled home just over 6 hours at 107 miles. Didn't get lost once thanks to the well sign-posted route.
Bumped into hippy for a cup of tea aftewards, and it sounded like he'd had a good day too. Was glad I'm not riding today given this weather. Roll on dragon ride.