Oh the shame....
It started well. Well, mostly well. I made one error of judgement before leaving the house and that was choosing the highly reflective
Proviz 360 over the black as night Paramo. Well in my defence, the forcast showed mildly moist and temperatures almost shorts level.
Despite my irrational fear of train-usage,
@Salty seadog was kind enough to organise a ticket and met me at the station. Sandwiches were grabbed at M&S in St.P station and a short sprint found us at the allotted start in good time for the briefing.
Routing was to Parliment Square, Battersea to Clapham, Tooting common, Mitcham Carshalton and the long climb to Coulsdon and the never ending drizzly ascent of Downs road.
The first signs were just before Battersea bridge with the first of 4 punctures sustained before the dey solace at the scout hut around 35 miles. Bob. C was good enough to have his puncture in parallel with somebody else so saving time! Chapeau!
But the frequent stopping and starting through the London Traffic, waiting for the punctured, the lack of weather protection and warmth from the Proviz, and the constant peering through rain covered glases were slowly doing me in. Normally I laugh in the face of rain, but this night I lost my sense of humour.
By the time we made the fab scout-hut feast I was cold and soaked. It was 0415 and only 35 miles of progress had been made. A quick look at a map showed thst Bognor was still far whilst Gatwick trainage was very close-by.
It was a no-brainer. 6 others had the same thoughts.
Now on a train to St. P and home.
My first ever bail. Last September not only did I ride to Bognor, but then on to Deal via the coast for a PB of 220 miles. Today will be 40.
C’est la vie.
Big thanks to
@mmmmartin @GrumpyGregry @rb58 and
@sagefly for Tec duties.
Thanks also to everyone else for the super-usual Friday’s Bonhomie, and Dan for trainage assistance.
On the plus-side, the FNRttC mudflaps front and rear work a treat!
The learning from all this is: If rain be forcast.... wear the Paramo....