13th December 2009

During the day yesterday I started to feel that I was coming down with something nasty (Started to get a runny nose and my throat was feeling like I had swallowed a bucket of gravel.)

When I woke up this morning I didn't feel any better :-( A wise person would put all of their cycling plans on hold.....I'm not wise!

I started out by searing the beef that had been soaking in red wine/carrots/garlic/leaks/onions over night in the fridge.

After it was well seared I put the beef back in the slow cooker pot (with the red wine etc....) topped it up with some stock then put the slow cooker on low for the day.

I then sorted myself and the bike out for the Cycle Club Challenge ride :-) it was quoted as...
'On Sunday the 2^nd of our Challenge Rides will be setting off from the Chippenham Cemetery Gates at 9:00am and going around Slimbridge, River Severn and Cotswolds edge.'

This was unfortunately wrong as it was destined to start at the rugby club at 9:30 (The other-side of town), I decided that I would head of to the Cemetery first at just gone 9 to make sure nobody was waiting there and then head on over to the Rugby Club for the 9:30 start.

I got to the rugby club just in time, David mentioned the words shall we start then? and I was off :-)

After a mile I realised it was only David and myself nobody else was to be seen, we then trudged along slowly and were told that some more peeps had turned up and they would be with us shortly...We span along slowly...

Eventually everybody tagged on and we were off......Although we had a stunning (and unusual) tail wind up the Fosse Way yesterday, this resulted in an unfortunate headwind travelling in the opposite direction today :-(

We also dropped people off the back along the way :-( as we pulled up to wait I suggested that we split into 2 groups, a faster group and a slower one so that people didn't struggle. (We went from about 20 to 2 groups of 10)

I found myself in the faster group (I was the only one that knew where we were going - I had bunged the route into the Garmin). The pace was instantly very fast...uncomfortably fast.......very very fast....(Get the message?) I was getting dropped on almost every hill :-( But I was catching them up on the levels :-)

I am wondering if the pace was to quick for the others as well, quite a few turned of route and headed home?

We eventually settled down to 7, the second quarter of the journey was quite easy :-) very much down hill...

Three of the guys decided they wanted to stop for tea at Slimbridge, the rest of us (4) decided to plough on with the ride (It was only 11:30 and was looking good to be back home for late lunch) they decided they would wait for the second group and tag on with them.

This did unfortunately mean that I was cycling with three incredibly quick people (I did have the advantage that I was the ONLY one that knew where to go :-). The already quick pace picked up a gear, I was able to hang on to a back wheel (just).

Unfortunately EVERY time it came to an incline they dropped me :-(

Anybody would think I was BAD at hills, I am not, they are just better!

Fortunately they did not have to wait for me on any hills (Just slow down a bit) that was until the hill to Hawkesbury Upton - It was steep and slow! (I blame the cold that I am in the middle of getting) They stopped at the top for me to catch up :-)

From Hawkesbuty Upton it was more or less downhill back to Chippenham :-)

It was a really nice ride, although it was a little quick for me(During the summer it would have been fine)

I got back home, shoved the dirty clothes into the washing machine, rotated the beef in the slow cooker (Just to make sure it ALL had a chance to cook), then spent most of the afternoon cleaning the bike......It was minging again!

At least I didn't get cold on the ride, I was working to hard to get cold!

Just hope I don't suffer to much with a cold after not giving it a rest today...

The Garmin had my ride as 77.54 miles in 4 hours 46 minutes with an average speed of 16.2 mph, route here...