Planned route was, Chippenham > Melksham > Westbury > Shaftesbury > Yeovil > Chard > Axminster > Sidmouth > Knowle (Route here)
The total distance covered was 104.04 miles :-) covered in 6 hours 57 minutes..
The conditions were perfect (Note the smoke from Wesbury cement works chimney)
The first 35 miles or so to Shaftesbury flew by, It was familiar territory and formed part of my first south coast jaunt. I think partly due to the cooler weather and because I now knew what to expect it was much easier than expected :-) I even went up my nemesis hill withought stopping (last time I hade a chain issue and due to the gradient of the hill I had to walk)
The first couple of miles out of Shaftesbury were great, massively down hill! Cycling through Yeovil however is not something I ever plan to do again, it is a busy town with dual carriage ways crossing through it, things settled down when I turned of the A30 towards Chard
At 87 miles there was a massive hill, It defeated me :-( But rough guess puts the tough section at 15%
From that point onwards it was plain sailing :-)
Photo of my triumphant arrival ;-)
Bottom line is the food and drink strategy worked, I am confident that I could have continued for a considerable number of miles, the hill that defeated me would have had the same effect at mile 1
I am NOT expecting to cycle back on Monday now as we have planned a nice slow day :-) and tommorows plan is for me to sit on a beach reading...
3 comments:
Congratulations; let me be the 1st to say it.
Shame a hill defeated you; hope that means you had to slow down and NOT get off and walk in cycling shoes! You will need more experience if the passes on JOGLE are taken as planned :-(
Congrats John, feels good to get the first century under the belt, doesn't it?
Thanks Dave
No unfortunately I got of and walked :-( it was just about 40 feet I walked but the gradient was allready steep and it got steaper as it went round a corner. It would have got me on mile 1 let alone 0n 87! (next time it won't get me!)
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