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@The_Seldom_Killer
Long - Please ignore if easily bored.
That has to be the best DD as far as the riding was concerned.
Fuck up number one came with suggesting that if you just nip out round the back of the pub you'll avoid the massive train trying to leave. Only had to rejoin the train on the other side of the pub. Should have gone further out of the park and joined the ride properly at the rail bridge. Sorry, Hackney never was my part of town and isn't about to become so now.
Jumped on the back of hillbilly and Plagiarist to get towed at high speed out to Epping. Wish I could have returned the favour but the only service I could have offered you was to slow you down horribly. I owe you beer for getting me so far past the crowd and the Dulwich group.
Stopped at North Weald for a water fill and a lights faff. Promptly jumped on the back of the Dulwich group who were strung out in order of how seriously they were taking the ride. At some point I got dropped only for them to see how many times they could come past me before Great Dunmow. I swear they were throwing in loops for funsies. A quick stop out the far edge of Dunmow for food and another layer of clothing where I tempted fate by texting the gf to say all was going wonderfully, was having a great time and wishing her a good night. Fate responded with a puncture 10k on, shortly before Finchingfield (in the darkest place so far naturally). The cause of the puncture was fairly easy to work out as the tire had a small split in it where the inner had bulged through. Cue making a temporary boot out of a patched wrapped in some carrier bag.
Back on the road, fuck up number two came by following some people out of Finchingfield (thought the climb was a bit easy this year) and then overtaking them. Half a k down the road I realised no one was behind me so stopped to check the route and realised I had been a twat. Rejoined and continued onto fuck up number three when I overshot the one way system in Sudbury. Looped back through town over loads of broken glass but no punctures from that.
On the climb out of Sudbury I spotted a rider messing with his chain. Not the usual puncture repair stuff so offered help. One of the plates seemed fucked and I was too hungry to hang around more than a couple of minutes so lent my chain tool for him to play link removal games. Got the feed station and realised the collosal mistake as the area was swamped with riders and the queue was out to the road. Swiftly lamented the loss of my chain tool and prayed for mercy to the link gods. Prayers were answered when the rider bimbled into the hall caught my eye and handed my tool back proclaiming that he was amazed to find me among all the other riders wearing yellow.
Not wishing to wait an hour to be served on the beach I set about hunting down red lights and overtaking as many people as possible. All went well until my impromptu boot gave out with 50k to go. At least it was daylight this time so I made another using more patches and keeping the pressure down to 80psi. Watched people getting lost coming out of Framlingham and several missing the Fiddlers Hall sign. I shouted but only a few responded. Perhaps the upthread mentioned mini rainbow had distracted them. It was pretty.
Last stretch was a breeze, even the shitty By Road and especially the heath road.
Pity I didn't meet more people. Alas I won't be seeing you again next year or beyond. While the riding is great, the ride itself has become to big. I estimate over 800 riders this year which negates any chance of a head of the queue feeding/breakfast unless I thrash it and don't want to do that. I remeber my first and second rides well where the make up of riders seemed 1/4 seasoned riders looking for a little summer madness, 1/4 mad riders looking for a little summer seasoning and 1/2 clueless, talentless riders on a massive adventure. Now it feels like to many clubs treat it like a training ride and too many others do it because they think they should, not for the enjoyment. I'm going to call that my last DD for now, in favour of it's smaller imitations. There's the Exmouth Exodus and I've heard of one ending up around Bournemouth.