Winnershsaint
Guru
Well the omens were good. Blue skies and no wind. Off to the Hambledon Valley I went. A detour off the Marlow road by Toad Hall Garden Centre took me up Icehouse Lane. Starts off gradual with 1% increases as you progress, but gets seriously steep at the top 20% for last 500m. The road keeps climbing, until a descent back to the main road. From here it's a mile or so to the Hambleden Valley. The road undulates along the valley past Hambleden to Skirmett more than I remember from last year to Turville. at Turville I'm torn. Do I text my daughter (big Vicar of Dibley fan) and say I'm in Dibley. No no no no no no! Frankly I can't be arsed. i know Holloway Lane beckons. This ascent I've done once before with a triple (lowest gear 30-25) now I'm on a compact double (lowest gear 34-25. The climb starts OK but just as reach the first really steep bit I drop to my lowest gear and lose my chain. Not the greatest pace to have a mechanical. As I get the chain back on another slave to Turville Hill comes past and asks if I'm OK. I was so I set off up the mud strewn lane eventually getting on his wheel. Both of us were on Ridley Excalibur's so we exchanged pleasantries about the virtues of our bikes before he headed of towards the Stonor Valley. At Christmas Common I turned onto the flattish road before descending down Pishill back towards Henley. Everything went fine until Wargrave where my 36.5 mile ride became a 5 mile walk home. Going along at a fair lick (for me) at around 20+mph there was a sudden loud noise closely followed by a complete back wheel seizure. Basically a spoke went and pulled the rear mech et al into my back wheel. Cue long walk home. Now I'm not one to complain but this is the scond time the stock 4ZA Flandrien on my bike wheels have had spoke problems. Big thanks to the fellow cyclist who helped me in Twyford so I could push bike rather than carry it home. Telling me it was one for Dave to look at. Which was exactly who I was going to take it to. How did he know that? Anyway it was a bad day only compounded by Saints playing Reading off the park and getting beaten y a team who only had three shots on target all game. The bike being knackered I can deal with, but that bunch of Div 4 wannabees beating us when we dominated is a bitter pill to swallow. So the omens turned out not so good after all.
