I have been training regularly with the club and everything has been going really well, so when the club calender said that there was a longer ride on Sunday, I was raring to go. I woke up looked out the window at the dry frosty day, 1.5C, but at least it was dry ad sunny. I left the waterproof coat behind, I wasn't going to need that today. About an hour into the ride the heavens opened, the wind picked up and I found myself pedalling into a very wet head wind. That wasn't too bad, about 50 miles in, winter arrived with a vengeance, it started to hail so hard it was stinging me through my clothes. By this time I had lost all feeling in my fingers and when I squeezed the handlebars a waterfall came from my gloves, adding to the amount of water running out of my shoes. My brakes decided that it was too wet for them and the hail was piling up on the road, this made the down hills very scary (the blocks had completely worn out). The initial plan was to stop for coffee and cake around about 40 miles in and do 80, but because it was raining, we decided to cut the ride short, missing out on the food stop. I had only taken one flapjack with me which was well and truly used up by the time we had done 60 miles. I considered just pulling up at the side of the road and letting nature have its way with me. I had no energy left my legs felt like I'd torn every muscle and I was carrying 2 stone of water. I crawled home the last few miles in a great deal of pain, poured my clothes into the washing machine and soaked in a hot bath. After a hot bath I found myself sitting on the sofa with a big smile on my face, what a Buzz!! :-)
