I got up this morning and had the weird feeling that I didn't want to ride. One look out of the window told me that would be criminal but nether-the-less I felt quite reluctant. On setting off that instantly changed. After a week riding the 29r to work my road bike felt incredibly quick. I have however really enjoyed using the 29r for commuting because I get to have some off road fun and a few PR's have been achieved. With the help of the trust e-cars I've been able to bike to work four days out of five. It will be brilliant if I can keep that up.
As usual a decent sized group gathered at the shop. Any thoughts I could slope off to the banter bunch were quickly dispelled by Steve who is determined not to let me go back. The plan was to use Andrew Brown's Castle Ashby route but as no one else had uploaded this to their Garmin we fell back on an old faithful with the 'Pitsford Classic,' loop. Ironically this route does not actually got to Pitsford but it does cross Pitsford water at the Holcot causeway. We need to sort this out as a club though. Not enough people are taking responsibility for planning the rides and we can't just leave it all up to the Dark Helmet (C&D manager Andy.) So the plan for next week is to get organised and do Andrew's route. It's less hilly than usual so even fat lads like me will cope.
The route takes me straight back to where I'd just come from and by Rothwell I was keeping up just fine. That's the problem with these fast rides, I can cope for 5 miles so it's obvious the problem is they are too long not I'm too slow! Heading up to Harrington I started slipping back and I also started to get a gippy tummy. Perhaps my body was trying to tell me something when I was having those uncharacteristic feelings of reluctance. By Lamport we were all back together and then stayed that way heading towards the causeway.
Beautiful day for a ride
It was along that fast road that we got really fragmented as first a horse box and then several more cars started to over take half the group then sit hesitantly in the middle of us. The effect was to split us up even more and actually cause the motorists more delay. Then one of the numpty cars overtook the horsebox that was struggling to overtake us. It was dangerous and Steve had a near miss. Then the driver had a near miss because Steve nearly caught up with him for a 'word.' The video below gives an idea of this.
By this time that Gippy Tummy was like a washing machine and I had chronic indigestion. I probably would have struggled to keep up anyway but this definitely did not help.
Going through Holcot was a pain due to a car boot sale and lots of congestion and then when we got to Sywell we remembered there was an airshow and had to modify the route. After the detour through Mears Ashby we had that fast road to Little Harrowden that even though I'd been dropped by the group I managed to wheel suck Graham and enjoy a bit of a tear up. The group continues to perplex me. Once again they needed rests due to going too fast at which point I rode straight past. I'm sure they'd be better off taking it steady like me ;) All joking aside it was great to catch up with some people I haven't seen for a while and this may not be the banter bunch but there's still plenty of time to have a laugh.
We were back at the shop by 10:35 which is definitely a first for me. Tea and Nat's Bakewell Tart (explanatory guest blog to follow,) was in good supply. Steve also managed to fall in love with a garish bike.
With my tummy still grumbling I took it easy on the ride home. A very long sit on the toilet and indigestion tablets have sorted the problem. Then I discovered Mrs Lindsley was experiencing similar symptoms. Maybe it was something we ate!
OK now I need to sort out that guest blog.
Happy Pedaling
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