Another mild day yesterday and there were 5 eager faces at the start, Sam, Emily, Jeff F, Alex and Me (I was definitely a little jaded after yesterday’s exertions on and off the bike). We picked up Ross at Whitegate and the 6 of us headed off in to the stiffening breeze taking ad-hoc turns to lighten the load. Sam got a phone call not long after Bickerton and needed to get home so turned off at Malpas.
Towards Bangor-on-Dee and then on to Plassey and the headwind was really solid & conversations had pretty much dried up with the speed dropping to below 15mph. Near Ruabon Jeff and Ross turned for home, both having prior engagements so leaving just the 3 of us arriving at the cafe soon after 12.00. Service was pretty quick, the food was OK and Emily got the world’s largest ever chip which she took home in her saddlebag as a souvenir.
The first 5 minutes out of the cafe were still in to the wind and with cafe legs and not having warmed up, were pretty dire but then we had the most glorious tailwind just about all of the way home. We did a steady through and off for some miles as much as the roads would allow until I took us into a farmyard where the road ran out. It was at this point that Emily decided she really needed to get home (perhaps thinking of the giant, potato reward at the end of the journey) and in spite of the fact it is still early season and she isn’t in the best of form, she showed us why she has won a million medals. For the remaining 2 hours the workload was split Emily 94%, Alex 5% and me 1% with Emily’s bits being consistently 25mph – 30mph. Obviously we were wind-assisted but even so it was super impressive & I was hanging on by my finger tips at times.
A brilliant, satisfyingly hard day on the bike with just under 90 miles covered.
