Another Sportive Coming Up

I didn't manage another ride last week and had to settle for the 'cross trainer' instead because of foul weather. Had a great club ride though yesterday, 60 miles over a very hilly Dartmoor route and had to work really hard to keep with the leading riders the whole way. Had to have a little lie down afterwards!
Our next goal is the Magnificat in Newbury on 12th June. We are both doing the 127 mile route and will be the furthest either of us have ridden in one day! Looking forward to it now!

Fast and Furious

I've just done my first evening club ride. Evening rides are designed to be faster over a shorter distance (25 to 35 miles). There are usually two groups covering the same route but at a different pace.
For some reason tonights turnout was low, about 12 riders, and apart from myself and one other, they were all from the faster group and included a few 'Shred' riders who are the super elite riders. This was going to hurt!
The route was approx 32 miles up to a reservoir on Dartmoor and back. I was working at my absolute max for virtually the entire ride trying to hang on to the back of the pack, and failing most of the time. They had slowed their usual pace as well! It was great experience though, I would never be able to push myself that hard riding on my own, and thoroughly enjoyed the ride. I am definitely going to try and do more of these evening tempo rides as they are probably the best training there is.
That takes this weeks mileage up to 170 miles because of last weekends trip which is a new record, so if I manage another evening ride this week I might hit 200.

Bath Trip

Another good day with a bit of a westerly blow. This was going to be the first ride fully loaded up. Each pannier weighed a bit over 4.5 kg plus the tent was perched on top. We wobbled off down the road from Georges place but soon got used to the extra weight. The first time I tried standing on the pedals and rocking the bike from side to side was when I really noticed the weight, but I soon changed my motion and smoothed things out.
The route we took to Bath provided a very pleasant ride, and what a lovely city it is. We seemed to ride right through the middle of it and it looked great in the afternoon sunshine. We arrived at the campsite and set about putting the tents up. It was the first time I had set my tent up properly and it did cause some amusement amongst the other campers. No it wouldn't be much use in a howling gale and torrential rain but we'll be in a B&B if we get that kind of weather on our End to End - although I think George has really got into this camping idea after his initial reservations and might want to prove his tent is better than mine in adverse conditions!
After a couple of beers and something to eat in the on site bar it was time to retire. Rain was forecast overnight and it did! It sounded pretty heavy at times as well but I slept fine thanks to the self-inflating matt, and I woke up fresh and raring to go.
We had another good ride on the way back with a strong westerly which was fortunately mainly behind us.
So all in all it was a great success. We had covered 140 miles in two days fully loaded, managed some big hills and survived camping overnight! A few tweaks here and there to what we will need to take with us is all that's needed now and we're ready to go! 

Our Trip to Bath

This weekend was our first trip carrying all our camping equipment. Adie arrived first thing on Saturday morning, we were meeting Phil and John at the campsite near Bath that evening. Phil has done a lot of bike touring so we were keen to pick his brains to gather tips for our trip. John is riding from Ludgershalll to Italy later this year, unfortunatley he has been poorly all week and will just be doing the camping bit this weekend. We set off at 08:30 and again we were really lucky with the weather. We climbed up to the causeway towards Hungerford, before taking the back roads towards Swindon. We passed through lots of beautiful villages on quiet roads. We stopped for lunch at a little cafe in Wootton Basset, I was amazed when the bill arrived and was only £7 for both of us. I was using the Garmin to navigate for the first time and it took a while to understand how to set it so that I could clearly see when to turn. It was doing quite well until we got to Bath and then the screen had far too much information on it to make any sense. Fortunately I had had the foresight to make a note of the postcode. After entering it in the Garmin, things started to become clearer, until it decided to take us round and round a park. We finally forced it to work by sticking to the roads and ignoring all attempts to take us off road. We finally arrived at the campsite about 15:30 having ridden 75 miles. Phil was already there so we pitched our tents down in the meadow.

The campsite was lovely and the shower block was excellant. After a shower and a change of clothes, we popped back to the meadow, where lots of other cyclists from Bristol CTC had arrived for a weekend camping trip. There was a lot of talk about Adie's tent, comments like "thats's the smallest tent I've ever seen" and " I have one of those but I wouldn't use it for more than one night" are among some of the more useable comments. I must say that it does pack down well and for under 1kg of weight it doesn't take up much bike space.

At 18.00 we headed to the bar for something to eat and a beer. John arrived just in time for dinner, he had driven over, but had still brought his bike and touring gear. We spent a few hours talking about bikes, touring and camping, getting loads of good advice from Phil, before retiring to our tents for the night. This was the first time I have ever slept on a self inflating mat and I must say that it was the most comfortable night I have ever spent in a tent. I was woken by heavy rain in the middle of the night, this put a smile on my face, at least in the morning we would get an idea of how the tents coped. I woke around 5:30, went for a shower and started to pack my gear. Adie surfaced about 6.00 and by 7:30 we were ready to go. We had both had a good night sleep and were raring to get back on the bikes. Sitting on the saddle was initially painful, but after a short time the aches disappeared. We headed West into a strong head wind and up some steep hills, before turning South then East again to gain the advantage of the wind behind us. By 10.00 we had reached Melksham and stopped for breakfast, it was Sunday and there were no cafes open, so McDonalds provided breakfast (we will need to remember about Sunday hours on our trip). We carried on towards Calne and then Malborough, where we were lucky enough to stop for coffee and cake, missing a really heavy shower. The rain passed quite quickly and we managed to get all the way home without getting caught in any of the heavy showers, Phil however, who had taken a different route home, later told me that he got soaked on the way back. We arrived home about 14:30 having completed 65 miles and our first camping trip. We had carried everything we would need to our End to End without any problems, we're ready now and I can't wait to start our tour. 

Preparations For Weekend Camping Trip

George had organised a weekend trip, camping overnight in Bath on 21/22nd May. At this time I hadn't bought any camping gear so it was time to get some essentials sorted. When it came to a tent, weight was the deciding factor and I purchased a Coleman Exponent Rigel weighing in at less than 1kg. Next was a self inflating roll matt by Vango and the same panniers that George had gone for, the Raleigh Avenirs.
When the tent arrived I popped it up in the lounge. Its single skin design is very basic and easy to put up but there really isn't much to it. But what the hell, I am only going to sleep in it and as long as it keeps me dry that's all that matters!