damerell

I spent most of the night riding alone, katieastrophe having not been able to come for tandem shenanigans.

This was partly because, for some reason, I really _really_ can't climb hills at the moment with more than about 30 miles in my legs. Anything steep, I'd have to crawl up at 4mph, with people shooting past me who I'd then pass on the flat (or downhill, with the adipose advantage... or, for some of the very racey looking groups, as they all waited yet again for someone to fix a puncture) so we could do it again at the next hill.

I didn't see any storms but had a steady drizzle for most of the night. At one point it rained hard enough that I put my jacket on in order to take it off again, but I spent basically all ride in jersey and shorts.

Outgoing text messages tell me that:

Arrived late, started about 21:15. Almost no-one around.
21 miles: pint! Slight tailwind. Very warm.
30 miles: pint! Also 2 Twixen.
44 miles: pub open but no pints sold. However, at 32 miles was in tearoom with two Ordinaries. Highly recommended.
51 miles: formal feed stop, as ever, planning not to rely on it turned out to be the right plan, but I did get tea (coffee was Nestle, alas) and a flapjack.
62 miles: pint! Impressed by the 24-hour bike shop just beforehand. Somewhat sorry for the enterprising 24-hour cafe just up the road, who are within 10 miles of the formal feed stop and whose sign you tend to blow past at 35mph.
81 miles: loos at the lake, pretty well fuerked, rain stronger, and cyclecomputer failed. I was not happy, and over the next few miles was suspecting I really should have eaten something and looking for a dry place to stop.
86 miles: Scouts with tent, coffee, bacon rolls. Rain off. Cyclecomputer mysteriously started working again just after despair at 81 miles. Still fuerked, but fuerked in high spirits.
105 miles: in Peasenhall, where advertising annual pea festival with pea activities, pea eating, and pea games.
Finish: 0845, so riddle me this, why when I enter a formal 200 the weekend beforehand am I beaten at 1/3 distance, but I can ride the Dunwich Dynamo at audax speed while stopping every time someone offers to sell me booze?