Saturday 11th July - Wellington

at last, a dry weekend!

following our northern sojourn we'll do the inevitable this week and head south.

paul and i found this route last month and methinks you'll enjoy all 95 miles of it.

tri option will be north curry.

route out will be via the anchor, brent knoll and burtle.

Seeing as the A and B teams worked together for the first leg of today's ride I'll leave the full report to Martin. I'll pick up from the split at Burrowbridge when we stood debating how far it was to Langport and North Curry.

Ivan's intuitive guess at 4.5 miles was confirmed by the sodding big sign post that said 4.5 miles to Langport. However, having ridden to Langport it appeared that the sign was totally misleading. Bike computer clearly indicated 4.7 miles when we got into Langport and I feel the council should make it clear exactly which part of Langport the distance is measured from. They clearly do not understand the importance of pacing your effort to arrive at the finish line in Langport totally spent after tearing up the road on the ride in. Having stamped on the crank for 4.5 miles to catch and pass the peloton it was like Corsica all over again, but without the Orica team bus. Can't wait till 'le Tour' comes to Somerset and they pass the 1k to go banner only to find that it is only approximate. Alberto would be fuming: "Juat is dis juan kilo to go? C'it is more like juan hundred!". Talanksi:" Goddam British signs. The fact that I fell off 500m from the finish has nothing to do with it, goddamit. It wasn't my fault the sign was wrong."

Anyhow, back to the ride.

Arrived safely at Kelway's garden centre, aka the potting shed. I did chuckle when a nice young chap suggested we park our bikes around the back in the seating area. Would have been a fantastic place to stop but some bunch of roudy cyclists had turned up and taken over one end of the cafe. Rather than sit on my own I decided I had better go and join them! Bernie appeared very keen on a midweek ride to Portishead. Apparently he fancies his chances with the waitress in the cafe by the pool. Sounded good to me but then I remembered that Bernie is 603 years old and his idea of a fancy women would be anything just short of 100.

Good ride home across High Ham, Pedwell etc. Lost one rider at the bottom of High Ham who had detoured to Street to phone his missus for a lift home. Almost lost another when Sam decided it was a good idea to sprint over the motorway bridge and locked up with cramp. His phone was in his hand dialling 999 before he'd even hit the deck. We ignored such trifles and hurtled on leaving him laid out at the side of the road screaming. Afterall, it's only what they'd expect in the tour.

Think Mark won the sprint up Accomodation Road. I can't be sure as I was completely f##### and couldn't see from 600 metres behind.

Nice weather, good 68 mile ride at high average of 29.2 kph in new numbers. Convert it yourself if you want to be old fashioned. Personally I feel classier using km, more continental. Looking forward to A team report.

Good report. Iv never had cramp like that before, painful. I'll man up next time! Nice ride today cheers. looking forward to riding Wednesday. Thanks

Glad the Wednesday rides are resuming.

Who's organising? I fear that if we leave it to bern it could become a tour de blue rinse totty. This week Portishead, next week Severn beach etc etc.

I've just seen that Halford's have a 10% sale. Don't be surprised to see nick out on a new carrera next week.

I was going to say looking forward to riding Wednesday with Bernys gang! I'm not sure who organises them. I'll put on the old spice for the blue rinse waitresses!

It was a fantastic morning with the temperature the Arising already by 8am. Twenty six riders turned up which is probably a record for this year. We also had a guest Tri rider from the North. He turned out to be a very good rider so we won't be inviting him again :-). As we set off down the toll road the usual nonsense kicked off. By the time we got to Mark I checked my speedo and we had done an average speed of 18mph or in new money 29kph.
We split into two groups at Burrowbridge and ten of us set off south for Wellington but by the time we got to North Curry Mark decided he had to get back. I think we lost someone else but i forgot to take the register.
We then headed into new lands as we crossed the A358. The climb up from Staple Fitzpaine was relatively steady and i thought i was doing ok at the front untill i turned around and saw Mr Burns stalking me. At the top we pulled over to the side of the road while we waited for everyone and were treated to some "granny abuse" when a car came past and an old granny leaned out the back window and shouted "get over".
The decent into Wellington was excellent and we touched 48mph.
The cafe turned out to be a sandwich bar. Supprisingly most of us had sandwitches! We left Andy sitting outside guarding the bikes like a bouncer. He also get back earlier so we lost another rider. On the way out of Wellington Ivan and Paul kept warning us of steep climb which would rival Crowcombe. I thought they were joking until we started the climb. It was a narrow lane with gravel down the centre but it was also made harder by loads of hedge cuttings stewn over the road. Most riders had to dismount before the summit! Its definitely a 28 cog hill. The decent from Pines down to Enmore was rapid. After we made our way through Bridgwater we did the usual rant along the A38 with Nick doing a fine job leading us. When a tractor passed the red missed decended over Paul and he went on a mad chase to catch it and follow it.

TTC - 6/10 - no cakes!
OJC - 2
KF - 8.6/10 - usual long ride and a high average speed
Stats - http://ridewithgps.com/trips/2989317

Turned out to be a bloody good ride, with quite a challenging route. Nice weather, splendid scenery, rewarding descents and the odd climb, which on the face of it was quite necessary given the forthcoming excursion to Bourg. More hill work required methinks.

Another century ride under my belt. 103 miles for me chaps . . . . . Yes yes, allright then, 166km!

Marvellous!

 

. . . . oh by the way Richard. I loved your Spanish tongue!

. . . . just not sure about the dialect. Reckon you must have picked that up from Paul Whitehouse.