That was a blast!! So good to get a dry calendar ride in and sooo much better than riding subzero moonlit DIYs at 2am — I really enjoyed that!! It was good to meet so many yacf'ers and others — faces to names and all that
Note: this ride report is a mild rewrite of my submission to yacf, here. Codified names are the nicknames of people on the forum, sorry about that. The post date has been changed to the date of the ride.
As Chris said: lots of larking and snow-dropping and not a lot of breeze. It was good to meet you both, put faces to names — it was short-lived, though, because as Chris and Boab accelerated down a hill like a steam train (truly astonishingly quick), I was getting slower and slower … um, puncture. First of the season, out with the spanners and CO2.
Being as this was only my fifth audax and only my second calendar ride, I found I am much quicker riding with others than on my own: sub-10 hours (~8:15 moving) versus 12 hours on my own; it's also a lot more interesting having people to chat with! I hooked up with that fast group on the front for the first 50 and paid for it over the next 150 — winter fitness definitely not the same as summer fitness That said, with the speed of the first leg and Rob's and Thorn-rider's help particularly on the final leg and numerous other riders and groups along the way (thank you all), we managed to shave well over an hour off my best 200 time this season — it's important for the family, y'see, because I was home in time for dinner
Thank you to JohnT (above) for relentlessly lifting me onto the back of various groups. Thank you to one of the Norwich VC riders (I think) for the unwanted doughnut at Sea Palling — mmmm, tasty! Thank you to Rob (and his new bike, above) for dragging me and my dodgy knee all the way back to Norwich (that looks a very nice bike — one day I'll try fixed, see if I could handle it). Thank you Lars' for your suggestion on the train back to Cambridge, I have something to research re. my dodgy knees: iliotibial band syndrome.
And thank you to Keith and Sue and your army of helpers — lots of love and soup and cake, mmm
That's March done for RRTY (only seven more to go). Now I need to start getting two in per month to build the fitness for LEL. End of Hibernation's next for me, I think; or Up the Uts; or both (and possible divorce
). See you there!
Ride stats
208km. 8:15 moving time, 9:46 elapsed. 15 mins first control, 30mins in main halfway control, 18 mins puncture, 10 mins third control, various minutes lost to hats and gloves. 4250kcal according to GPS, 7555 according to watch. Met: Lars Ericsson on train Chris and Boab on tandem Rob on new, blue fixie JohnT on blue Eddie Merckx with rattley cage boss Dave on red Thorn YACF 2013-03-03