Sunday 4th Dec, staggered out of my warm bed to discover a grey, cold and windy vista, outside was just the same
. Myself and Dr Pink [DrP], my better half by some margin, thought the Discover
Rutland Mk2 ride might be a windy squib with the others deciding staying in bed would be a more sensible option. As it turned out Cycleruk [CU] was already outside the house waiting for a small bike fix after riding up from the Oundle area, this done and well wrapped up we headed for the station to find Angel-Diva [AD] Batesy16 [B16] and Orange [OR] ready, frozen and eager to
go home set off. No sign of Tigerbitten but we had to go, adventures awaiting and all that [hope you are ok TB wherever you are, we did wait well beyond the allotted time].
The first 17 miles felt like there was no wind as it was tail, I wasn't fooled. At about 10 miles we saw our first Red Kite, a great aerobatic bird of prey easily dealing with the wind [better than we would], pleased for OR as it was his first. At just over 16 miles we turned into the wind but at the same time the sun came out, apologies for the quality of the photos but they were taken from my phone and sometimes on the move [artistic pic of my finger included].
It had emerged when we met at the station that AD was riding a brand new hybrid bike she had only picked up yesterday and neither she or OR had ridden more than around 35 miles before. I think this knowledge made me more nervous than they were, however they both kept
grimacing smiling throughout the ride. I took this picture at about 19 miles just before the first big downhill, AD had already set off, Grantham is in the background with what I thought was a very picturesque telegraph pole.
And at the bottom of the hill, L to R - CU, AD, DrP, OR, B16
The first "off" you could say was a "one off" because it happened on the first climb at slow speed. CU's foot slipped off his pedal [cue an advert for clipless] and he did a slow motion head plant into [luckily] into the grass verge. That gave us all a breather before we got going all of 200m before I realised our group had shrunk to four. This time CU's rear skewer had come undone, I say skewer because that is a loose description of what looked to me to be something that holds tractor wheels on. That sorted we cycled past Belvoir Castle [between AD & OR's heads]
The last leg before the tea stop was a grind into the wind in single file at the not quite earth shattering speed of 9mph. At the stop we all gratefully refuelled with AD attempting to work her way through the menu ably abetted by B16. It's a quirky little stop run by volunteers for a hospice which we use regularly. Outside it began to rain but stopped [as I had planned
] when we set off.
Well, what comes down must go up and so we set about getting ourselves out of the Vale of Belvoir. Our only car incident happened just before the first climb when a lady tooted at us on a dead straight wide road and passed close to the front group. DrP made a "gesture", the car slowed, DrP gave chase, the lady changed her mind and accelerated away, quite funny really.
These are a few not very good pics taken from the top of the last climb, a triple whammy. That last one in the photos is steeper than it looks and everyone is still
gimacing smiling. Vale of Belvoir in the background.
After that it was pretty much plain sailing [literally] and we trundled into Oakham in light rain that was gradually getting heavier, 54 miles done and I imagine a few tired legs, hope I didn't put anyone off. After seeing AD, B16 and OR to the station I had my "off" on the way back home at about 20mph, not witnessed by anyone and no damage done. Feeling sorry for CU we got a hot drink inside him and then put his bike in the car and took him most of the way home.
Thanks to everyone for great company, If there is interest the next one will be end of Jan / beginning of Feb. Well done to all.
