A hard week, cycle, work, cycle!

26^th May 2017

Sunday 21^st May 2017

Sunday the weather was bright and sunny, but windy. My plan today was to get a bit of climbing in and a few more miles.

The climb up Yarcombe Hill is alpine like, in that there is a nice horse bend, and a continuous climb on good road surface for a mile or so, even though it is the A30 the traffic on Sunday morning was light, I enjoyed the climb sitting comfortably for the distance, twiddling when required. Over the top to the ‘road to the sun’ the A303 before branching off towards the ridge road of Farway, a head wind along here meant that I would have a tail wind home! I dropped down to Beer and along the coast to Seaton ,stopping on the front, to look at the sparkling  sea under a blue sky, a lovely sunny morning.

I then met some of the local club lads who invited me to join them to cycle back home, good idea I thought [mmmm!] I sat on the back of the six riders as we left Seaton and headed up the long climb to Rousdon, a lovely climb, but! I was soon dropped unable to keep pace, it was only later I discovered that two of the riders had cycle up Mont Ventoux 3 times in a day the previous week!

They did wait at the top and I joined them on the downhill to Hunters lodge and the very busy A35. Where once again I regained the pack! My average speed had gone up considerably and was nearer 16 mph! including many feet of climbing. The road past Lamberts castle is a great descent very fast Garmin showing 40 mph on a good road surface, even here keeping up was hard, we soon hit another climb and here I decided I couldn’t match their pace anymore, so made my excuses of having a snack and drink and let them ride on, they reluctantly went on . I continued my ride home at a leisurely pace, pleased with my efforts this morning 48 miles 3373 feet climbed at 14.6 mph.

Monday, more miles, Athelney this time 50 miles covered on a lovely morning once again, a hard ride, I did find I needed more snacks this morning to avoid ‘the bonk’ . One minor niggle on my knee which is causing me a little concern as I have had it before, I hope it will not develop any further.

Tuesday, work, Bikeability for two days at a local school, the weather couldn’t have been more different from the previous week at the same school, a cloudy, dreary day but very warm. Eighteen enthusiastic 9 year olds on bikes!! Day two of the course was a hot, sunny day, we had a variety of bike problems, culminating in me repairing a punctured rear tyre over a mile from the school. Traffic seemed slower this week, and gave us a little more space, interesting compared with the fast speed of the previous wet week!!

This was to be my last Bikeability course as I have made the decision to resign my post at the end of June, to enjoy my retirement.

My final ride before my trip, Thursday was very hot and very sunny, the morning was spent on a trip to the dump and the local charity shop then after lunch I did a 33 mile ride over the levels, purposefully keeping my speed and efforts down, a really enjoyable ride in hot sunshine, the temperature said it was 26.9 degrees C.

131 miles completed this week and 553 miles this month

The evening was then spent cleaning my bike and preparing it for my Manche to Med  trip which I begin on Saturday catching the ferry from Portsmouth over the Caen. New tyres, chain and cassette, mudguards back on. The decision now is panniers or travel bag!! I seem to keep finding ‘bits I need to take’ I had to nip down to the bike shop and buy a cycling cap! In case cycling in the mountains I needed to cycle without my helmet.

I will try to add a list of what I take to the blog, when I have packed! We are fortunate as we have a following van to take luggage, which means we can travel light in the day [bit like a team car J]