I set of from home on the Merida at 7:50 to get to Castle Combe for 8:30, I dressed for a 23 degree day, but at 7:50 it was definitely NOT 23 degrees! Once I started moving I had warmed up nicely :-)
I got to Castle Combe at 8:15 and spent the next 15 minutes cooling down, just as I was about to start shivering we set off :-)
I really didn't know what to expect, it turned out to be a rather pleasantly paced chain gang experience :-)
The first 25 miles (including the ride from home) was up hill :-( then the best descent you could ever wish for....700 feet in 3 miles....
The first 40 miles were on either B roads or on nice quiet country lanes with next to no traffic, once we got to Gloucester and the busy roads we travelled along the cycle paths.
After the 40 mile point we were climbing again to the 60 mile point, then a descent to the lunch stop...The Forest of Dean Heritage Centre. I treated myself to a mug of tea, bacon sandwich and a can of coke. The sun was out and it was perfect :-)
Our choice of parking could have been a little better :-)
At the 74 mile point we had our first glimpse of the Severn Bridge...It was a perfect view of the bridge down a wooded valley, although it was still nearly 20 miles away!
When I stopped to take the photo everybody else continued on....It didn't take long to catch them up though!
When we started the ride there were about 20 of us, at this point we were down to about 15...
It was another massive descent from the point I took the picture, then another tough climb (The Garmin had it as 850 feet in 5 miles)
I was then back on familiar territory and it was a quick blat over the old Severn Bridge (M48 - when they built it they also included cycle lanes/paths as they closed the ferry crossing)
Once over the bridge I needed a pee stop so pulled over and everybody else raced on. It did give me a chance to stretch my legs out and use the Aero Bars for a change of position and catch them up. (By this time we were down to 8)
My legs were now starting to feel the affects of all the climbing, although I can cycle ALL day, the first thing that starts to get me is the speed of hill climbs - I still think its because I do not spin up them but power up them in to high a gear, at 100+ miles it starts to have a detrimental effect on my speed!
By now I had completely run out of water, so made the suggestion that we ought to stop at the next convenient place for a fluids top up.
We stopped at a garage just out side Yate and filled up the water bottles with nice chilled water, I added a freebie (with a magazine) Zero tab to both bottles and took a nice swig of the cold stuff :-)
It was then plain sailing back to Castle Combe.... I didn't stop but continued on the 5 miles home...
The Garmin had the ride as 123.39 miles in 7 hours 26 minutes with an average speed of 16.6 miles (The elapsed time was 9 hours 14! damn lunch time, and group riding does unfortunately mean stopping!) The GPS track can be found here...
Ohhhhhh I have cycled OVER 7000 miles this year! :-) Lets see if I can do 9000 this year?
2 comments:
That sounds like an horrifically hard ride. My ride had no hills what so ever, so much easier!
Ahhhhh yes the climbing became a bit of a pain...My legs are NOT thanking me!
At least I can eat lots :-)
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