It had been raining ALL night but the forecast was for a dry morning, with rain in the early afternoon, I wasn't so sure especially as when I opened the back door the heavens opened.
I set of at 8:20 and Richard was already waiting for me, I unfortunately forgot to start the timer on the Garmin :-(
David pitched up a few minutes later and we were off :-)
The pace was reasonable, with me catching them up and staying with them on the flats and them leaving me standing on the hills :-(
As we progressed the sun came out and it actually got quite warm, I wished I had taken my sunglasses!
The ride to Burford was very pleasant, we managed to avoid cycling down any major roads, although there was a fair amount of standing water.
Just as we passed over the A303 David realised he had travelled to far with us! he was supposed to have turned left earlier on, Richard and myself were still on track :-)
We cycled through Amesbury and onto Stonehenge Road...and then on to a road I vowed NEVER to cycle down..the A303 (It was only for less than half a mile but there is NO other way to get to Stonehenge)
From Stonehenge we travelled on 2 major roads (A344,A360) they are both very exposed roads going directly across Salisbury plain.
We appeared to be cycling directly into a headwind and there was no way to get out of it, I really was starting to feel tired....
I enjoyed the ride last week so much that I decided to finish this ride by following some of last Sunday's route...Just short of Potterne we turned left off the A360 and cycled through Keevil and out towards Hilperton.
Then we headed North to Staverton and Great Chalfield
Just before we got to Atworth there was a VERY deep and long flood, with a car stopped in the middle of it, the water was deep enough to go over the wheel hubs on the bike - It must have been wet in the car! my feet were already cold, and now they where soaked to!
As we headed out of Atworth towards Neston- towards the end of the ride, I started to feel a little more with-it and energetic - shame I hadn't felt like that for the past 60 miles :-(
We went through the last major flood at the top of monks lane, there is no longer a boundary where the pond stops and the road begins!
From there it was plain sailing (so to speak) home.
The Garmin had the ride as 67.85 miles in 4 hours 24 minutes with an average speed of 15.4 mph, the actual distance was 72.64 miles (As mentioned earlier I forgot to start the timer) The route can be found here...
According to Lyneham the weather observations for the ride was..
| 0800 |  | 8.1 °C | SW | 8 mph | 15 km | 990 hPa, Rising | |
| 0900 |  | 8.1 °C | SW | 13 mph | 25 km | 991 hPa, Rising | |
| 1000 |  | 8.5 °C | SW | 17 mph | 25 km | 993 hPa, Rising | |
| 1100 | | 8.4 °C | SW | 19 mph | 32 mph | 45 km | 994 hPa, Rising |
| 1200 | | 8.9 °C | SW | 18 mph | 32 mph | 25 km | 995 hPa, Rising |
| 1300 | | 9.3 °C | SW | 19 mph | 30 mph | 30 km | 996 hPa, Rising |
When I got back home I showered and changed, had baked beans on toast for lunch, put the mince-meat I prepared yesterday into the oven for 3 hours. Spent a few hours cleaning and lubing the bike.
I am now in the process of making chilli for tea....
Ohhh I just updated the stats and I have done OVER 9000 miles this year!!!!!
5 comments:
Twas a good ride today. Also spent the afternoon de-gunking the bike. Nice and clean now - and me too.
You have not posted the route, tut, this service is degrading rapidly.
Rich....Yes was a good'n one to be repeated in the summer I feel :-)
I do fear you are mistaken at the lack of route posting. It is as always a hyper-link from the statement "The route can be found here..." and it links to http://connect.garmin.com/activity/20128138
Apology accepted :-)
9,000 miles!!! 20 days to do another 1,000 - possible?
Joby...I unfortunately think its unlikely now...even in the hight of summer I only managed a couple of 1000+ months.
I am however gonna give it an extra push :-)
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