Thursday 18 August 2011

Who needs a rest - not me!

Chocolate Box Cottage somewhere in Wales
Day 10: Clun to Welsh Bicknor
The idea for today was to have a sort of rest day even though we had to travel. Resting on the bike is better than laying on your back doing nothing, you have to get the blood moving through your muscles to clear away any lactic acid, and provided you don't over exert yourself it can be pretty beneficial.

In training I worked to build stamina which meant a combination of shorter harder rides mixed with longer slower rides. Ideally you then do as much of the actual ride as possible without getting out of breath. The terrain and distances do make a joke of that sometimes, several days on this trip have had more than 6000ft of climbing!

I'd spent part of last night fitting the Speedplay pedals I bought in Alf Jones Cycles. 5 mins to change the pedals but what a fuss to fit the cleats! There are shims and a baseplate and springs and a metal plate and 7 tiny screws. Each side. I see what's going on here - the pedal body and retaining mechanism is now attached to your shoe. All that's on the bike is axle and bearings. First impressions are good, positive engagement and release with your foot completely free to move within a 15 degree arc. I'll be happy if they last longer than 4 months ( which the Time ones haven't).

We set off this morning on great roads, gently rolling with a tailwind. Heading for Leintwardine at first and the first 18 miles passed uneventfully. I was just thinking 'hmmm I'd like a coffee' when hey presto there was a cafe sign. We rode up to the Watering Hole cafe in Amsterly to be told 'OK you can select from these sandwiches and these cakes, and would you like tea or coffee?' We asked for coffee and cakes only and the chap said he'd bring them out directly, this took him a scant 5 minutes. But then an odd question 'do you want the sandwiches bagged?' The mystery cleared - he had assumed we were the advance party of a group of 22 riding South to North which had phoned ahead to pre-pay!  Great place and very friendly.

The route then took us swinging round to Hereford, where the cyclepaths took us to some of the least attractive areas of the town. All pretty uneventful stuff. But then came the climb out of Hereford towards Ross on Wye and aaarrgh that's a bit tough. The road got all uppy-downy but thankfully just a few more miles to go, heading first to Symonds Yat East and finally our destination Welsh Bicknor. No, make that the 2 miles of 1 in 6 to Welsh Bicknor. What a majestic place, what a view. Rest day - why am I so knackered?

Today 54.2 miles Cumulative 656.6 miles. Today's max speed 36.1 mph.

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