Did my first CTC ride today. The A group were off on a "hard ride, lots
of climbing" so was a no brainer: B Group.
This was a trundle at about 12mph which, although a bit slow (was hoping
for a bit more of a workout), had the upside of making it a nice and
pleasant and lovely ride. Three (3!) stops for CAKE, one of which was in
a pub, where BEER and PIES were consumed. Out of Marstons Pedigree so
plumped for a Tetley's[1]. Gnarggh, but at least it was cask.
The ride was about 3/4 bicycle and 1/4 CAKE stops, and almost everyone
had big floppy carradice saddle bags - it's always good to have a few
stereotypes confirmed :-) The people on the ride were great - very
friendly and chatty and really made you feel welcome.
Weather was good - not too cold, no rain and no wind to speak of.
P*ncture Fairy struck a few miles into ride. Fortunately I'd made some
recent offerings so was someone else that got it. Good thing too as
realised that morning that I had no way to attach pump to new bike - yay,
more kit to buy.
Most of the ride was in Cheshire, which meant mostly flat with ickle
hills. These were welcome as the extra work warmed me up a little. Still
getting used to the bikes twitchier handling (how is this a selling
point? - it slows me down!) so held back on most of the downhills. Did
change up to the <gasp> big ring for one descent intending to really go
for it, but the car in front decided to wait until it was safe before
overtaking another rider so was forced to brake. B'ah, safe drivers -
who needs 'em?
Changed 'puter from km to miles halfway round[2] so not sure of total
distance but guess it was 60+ish.
Road kill count: 1 (very dead) pheasant, 2 rabbits (but still no badger).
[1] It could have done with a top up, but she'd have only poured in more
Tetley's.
[2] You can do it without resetting it, but it doesn't convert the data.
Turning the first half of the days km into miles with a 1:1 ratio gave us
some impressive performance boosts - 88 miles at an average of 16mph
Cripes!