Distance: 66.4 miles. Elevation: 3082 ft.
Another club ride with the Sunday Intermediates. It was a cold (7°C, feeling like 4), windy morning. So it was on with the winter gear: skull cap, Roubaix longs, base layer and winter jersey, The roads were quite dry though so, unlike last week, I didn’t feel the need for mudguards and I took the Colnago.
I was late leaving so I rode with haste to Marden, averaging 19.2 mph. Just as I got into the village, the church clock was chiming 9, so that was good timing, or cutting it fine, depending on your perspective!
There was a good turn-out of 8 riders. We set off soon after and made our way to Wye. It was a windy day and the wind was mainly behind us for the 28-mile ride there. It was sunny but chilly. My feet were cold and my body wasn’t that warm either. I’d had nothing for breakfast again, so I was really ready for some food by the time we arrived at Wye. But, to our dismay, the café was closed, possibly for good by the look of it. Plan B involved riding 8 miles to Great Chart Golf Club, which took us another half an hour. By now I was even more ravenous. But the small snack bar at the golf club wasn’t geared up to serve eight hungry mouths in a hurry. It took another 40 minutes before I finally got some food inside me, in the shape of scrambled eggs on toast.
Eventually we set-off again, this time mainly into the westerly breeze. Just as we left Staplehurst, with about 5 miles of the ride remaining, we rode into heavy rain. I didn’t have my rain jacket and I got drenched, which was particularly uncomfortable due to the chilly wind. Despite that, and various other delays that we had on the way back, we averaged 15.4 mph on the return journey
