DNF

Stonehenge 200km. May 17th.

OK, let me just list out in rough chronological order the things that went wrong on the ride yesterday:

1) It rained. Not just a little bit but big time. Torrential downpour for around 3 hours then gusty showers for the rest of the day.

2) I got wet. Not just a little bit but really really wet. You would not believe how wet.

3) The roads were flooded. Cycling through 2 to 3 inches of water at times, streams running down the sides of roads etc

4) 50km, first puncture. Rear tyre. Why is it always the rear tyre that's the harder of the two to fix?

5) 75km, second puncture. Rear tyre again...

6) 100km lunch stop. Nice plate of bacon eggs and chips. I grab the salt cellar and pour it on the chips. That's quite a big salt cellar I was thinking and hm, the granules are quite big as well. Oh turds, I've just poured a pile of sugar on my chips.

7) "Stonehenge 200km". You know, I was sort of expecting the ride to actually go past Stonehedge. I've never seen it and would like to have. Well, I saw a brown tourist sign pointing to Stonehenge and a tourist bus marked "Stonehenge tour" but that was it. I think we went near it though.

8) Military police. Why did you stop me cycling along the road just so one of your army buddies on some mountain bike event could go across it?

9) Watercress festival??? After 160km the last thing I want is a 5km diversion because a village has shut it's high street to have a watercress festival. Watercress festival? Please.

10) 165km my trip computer packs up. Waterlogged probably. Not helpful when the route sheet says "at 171.8km turn right into unmarked road". Er, right, what road's that then...

11) 175km, third puncture. Rear tyre again (and yes, they were all different punctures before anyone asks whether I fixed it properly before). But alas I was only carrying two spare tubes so that's it, I'm shagged, no way of getting back to base now. The air was blue in that country lane. Decide to cycle along with flat rear tyre for a bit to the next village to find help. Can't be far, surely?

12) 185km Yes, it was 10km to the next village. 10km on a flat tyre... Found a garage, called a taxi and bagged my first "Did not finish" for a couple of years.

But apart from that it was a great day out.

Who's that girl?

High Easter 210km.

Managed to pick the wrong day of the long weekend to spend the day on a bike with Saturday and Sunday being lovely and Monday being a little cold, wet and breezy.

A really big group for the 210km ride, around 100 or so riders and it soon settled down into the lead pack of around 30, a second pack (all from one club) of around 20 and then the remainder. I tucked into my normal position, smack at the back of the lead pack where the work rate is least and you only need to worry about yourself, not what's going on directly behind you.

Alas though if you are at the back of the pack you are rather at the mercy of whoever is at the front - most Audax rides the lead pack is "brisk but consistent", they crank it up to around 27 to 30km / hr and grind away. This time around though a girl at the front had other ideas, she was engaging in road racing tactics with the speed being continually varied from 25km up to 40km+ / hr, loads of surges up hills, round corners etc. A consistent fast pace is good, the body adapts to it but surges like this were a killer and not something any of us were used to (except the girl at the front, I guess...).

We were aided by a following wind but the first 50km was dispached in 1hr 20 mins at a blistering average of 38km / hr. I had debated many times whether I should drop off the back but it's always best to stick with the pack if you can - short term pain (of the increased pace) versus long term gain (of the overall workload being less by being in a pack). Thankfully whilst we were all catching our breath at the first rest stop she decided that 30 seconds break was enough and off she went on her own, never to be seen again, leaving behind 30 wild eyed knackered guys asking "Who's that girl?".

Thankfully sanity then returned and the pack now cruised along at it's usual tempo for the next 70km before alas the combination of rain showers, grit on country lanes and thin summer tyres then picking up the wet grit led to the inevitable puncture, my first of the season, leaving me all on my own for the next 40km, a withering stretch into a headwind with my legs grumbling somewhat now from the earlier efforts.

The last rest stop at 150km was littered with semi-dead cyclists, all asking "Who's that girl, and why did she kill us all". A little group of 3 of us set off for home, 60km to go, thankfully now with a tailwind again most of the way, and Megans "red tonic" pure caffiene gels (I love that stuff) helping give me a second wind.

By far the fastest 200k ride I've ever done, an average ride pace of just under 29km / hr which would have been 30km(+?) / hr but for the puncture and having to do 40km on my own which dragged the average down quite a bit. Totally wasted last night, really really spaced out for 3 or 4 hours after the ride and feel like pants today. Hey ho, only 5 weeks to go before the Raid now.