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@bothwell
Yep, was a nice day out even in spite of it being possibly the biggest organisational disaster I've ever managed on a bike*. Really nice atmosphere there, too - a lot of cool people riding with some fun bikes too. Two tandems!
*Missed the train. Got the next train which took a whopping 40 minutes to get there. Almost missed the start. Lost my brevet card somewhere between the start and the first control. Realised at this point that I'd forgotten to bring my water bottle. Missed the second control completely by following another group of people who'd got lost. Foolishly overtook those same people thus failing to realise they'd stopped to check their map and turned back. Didn't see Ed once even though we must surely have only been 5 minutes apart at any time. Then when I eventually got back into London I got epically lost coming out of Kings Cross and turned the 7 mile journey back home into a 14 mile journey.
After missing the second control I basically gave up on the idea of doing it properly and figured I'd just enjoy the ride. So much had gone wrong already that I didn't want to risk enraging the pagan god of Audax any further. That's what I get for not having a beard, I think. The only things that didn't go wrong are the things that wouldn't have mattered much if they had - no mechanicals but I had a full toolkit with me; no punctures but I had a puncture repair kit, tyre boot, pump and three spare tubes; didn't lose any gloves but I had two pairs, etc etc.