about 18 runners and riders headed off in the direction of chepstow. the ever popular belmont hill followed by the the begger bush bash up proved as popular as ever. obviously, i was in no position to report on the climb but the begger bush bash was taken by the reverend burns on is new 'extreme power' colnago (as if he needed any more!)
at king weston house the runners alighted for a sensible ride whilst the 6 riders set off for a day of attrition.
the reverend burns along with msr. williams set off at a dizzying pace leaving the mortals fighting for their wheels. unfortunately, the rev. burn's sense of direction had not received the same upgrade as his bike, hence the knitting pattern route you may wish to gloat at here...
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/461569682however, we were all most grateful for the extra 8 miles afforded us as the rev' enjoyed a 32mph jaunt along a 'nice new road' (in the wrong direction!) had i enough breath available i would have pointed out the missed junction. clearly, the boys were getting in a kerfuffle as their homeland approached (though not as quickly as it should have done.)
welsh hospitality was given a thorough test as the group found a lovely cafe to sit outside drinking coffees, 2/3rds of the group (no names, no names) saw nothing wrong in eating baguettes from the greggs down the road at the cafe's tables. fortunately, 'rugby fever' (whatever that is) was in the air and the locals didn't notice.
the full attrition began pretty quickly on the way back as we fought an ever increasing head wind. initially our numbers swelled as we met chris gough coming into chepstow as we were leaving, he was clearly disappointed that he was unable to splash the cash at the local cafe with us, but a few nano-seconds of consoling soon put this right.
the rev' and msr. williams were clearly perturbed by this swelling of numbers and spent the majority of the home leg dispensing of us. at shirehampton chris and merion finally gave up the ghost and this got us down to 5. things hotted up even more past portishead and kenn moor, but the 3 hangers on showed commendable tenacity. one even had the audacity to take the sprint into yatton, but this only led to an admonishing sermon from the reverend burns on cycling etiquette (whatever that is!?)
at congresbury, burns and williams headed back to whence they came for a 35mph cool down for their final few miles. this left myself, nice south african paul and adrian to fight our way against the wind back to worle. paul and i shared the front for a few miles until a kindly farmer came by in his 20mph tractor, naturally, we latched on as he led us all the way to the crem', a godsend (the rev' must have prayed for us) however, in keeping with the main theme of today's ride, adrain hadn't made the jump onto the tractor's wheel, he's probably still out there, wobbling home.
in summary..... to those we dropped, sorry, but it really was survival of the fittest today, charles darwin would've loved it.
mileage: 87
ttc rating: n/a but gregg's baguettes never tasted so good - 7/10
knacker rating: 8/10 tough but the summer's young....! (unless you're welsh in which case this ride was a PoP 1/10)
ojc: 1