Great weather and lots of cycling.

Saturday 22^nd April 2017

The week leading up to Easter the weather was fantastic, it was the time to get my legs out and dig out the short sleeve jersey. After my ‘bug’ it was nice to meet up with the Wobblies once again for our Wednesday morning ride, a bit chilly to start but definitely shorts, short sleeve jersey and arm warmers, 8 of us headed out over the Blackdown Hills round the back of Taunton, through Bishops Lydyeard to Hestercombe House for coffee and cake, Hestercombe is famous locally for its rediscovered gardens etc, it was quite busy as it was the first week of the Somerset schools holiday, we had to wait quite a while to get served but it was worth it as they did a lovely seeded flapjack, after 35 miles to the coffee stop I was glad of this as it was a long time since breakfast and I knew it was 20ish miles home. We cycled back over the levels through the vast new housing development of West Monkton and Creech St Michael, a lovely morning out 53 miles covered. 

I was out with the Wheelers again on Good Friday afternoon, lulled into thinking it might be a steady ride, which it definitely wasn’t , going up to Langport I found myself on a line of cyclists moving at a fast pace of 23 mph! it was soon my turn at the front and I managed to keep the pace for my share before sitting at the back, the pace was kept up and by the time, we had got round to Martock where we were supposed to stop for tea the average speed was up around 19 mph, unfortunately the café was shut, as it was bank holiday. After much discussion  the group [9 ] decided to call at the Pub at East Lambrook, as I was getting tired after the 25 miles so far and not feeling very warm [ the temp had dropped quite a lot and the wind was very chilly and against us for the ride home] I decided not to stop and waved good bye leaving them to their coffee at the pub. It was a hard ride home into the head wind and seemed to get colder, my average for the whole ride was 17.5 mph, very fast for me!!! Another 40 miles covered. 

My bike still had the mysterious creak, I had changed the bottom bracket etc but still the creak was there. Then I had a brainwave and took out the rear quick release greased  the cam along with the thread on the rear gear hanger, and it worked!!!! No more creaks, I now have a new BB that I didn’t need, but I now have a spare.

Easter Sunday was again a lovely day I had arranged to meet up  with Mike who told me he had not been out for a few weeks, so we went down onto the levels once again, a much slower pace this time 42 miles average speed 12.5 mph!

I had also managed to run 6 miles a couple of times in the week to keep my running legs! So a good week with over 130 miles covered.

Easter week I had 4 days Bikeability so not much chance to get miles in, however , I did manage to cycle over to the West Monkton course on day 2 , 16 miles each way, the morning was very chilly at 3 degrees, needing leg cover, by the time I was riding home though it was back to shorts for a pleasant cycle back over the hills.

Tomorrow is the Merry Monk Audax 110 km from High Ham round through Forde Abbey and Sherborne back to High ham, weather forecast is good and dry, so should be a good day out.