Big boy shoes?

Another great week on the cycling front. Cycled most days and covered a fair few miles. Mid-week both my favourite cycles were taken for a service. Cayo still remains in the bike shop but is ready for collection. Prior to Cayo's service she completed the 'Hunting for hills' route created last week. Scotty was all working well after her service, that is until the completion of the Evans Ride It event.
The Evans Ride It event was an off road cycle in the Cotswolds and we chose to do the 30 mile (long route option). By 'we', I mean myself, Ron and Dave Meakin. Dave Meakin is a keen cyclist and likes to time trial. [The Meakins are 3 ginger brothers known well to both mine and Ron's family. All of the Meakin boys are often called or reffered to as 'Meekon', and indeed my sister even had a ginger kitten once who was named 'Meekon' after the infamous Meakins]. Am not sure as to whether this event was a real/proper sportive or not, but suffice to say it was timed and we were all fitted with starting chips attached to our ankles. We all started off together, but Ron and I ensured that Meekon crossed the start line a good few seconds ahead of us.

The event started well, but after no time the heavens opened and we were soaked to the skin. Course markers were not particularly brilliant and we took a few wrong turns at times. The actual course was quite nice with some super descents but there was also enough menace hills and climbs and lots and lots of gates. The majority of the route was off road but small sections of tarmac had to be navigated.

Ron was the first to puncture. His puncture had to be fixed in the pouring rain. At least this gave me oppurtunity to eat my gel that was given to me at the start of the event. A stop point was located about mid-ride where thay gave away delicious cake too - I had 2 slices, mmm. I punctured towards the last 10 miles of the event - a large nail ripped through my tyre and peirced my tube. Was soon fixed (though Ron and Meekon were keen to press on) but following this my rear brake played up (?air in the cable). I shouted to Ron and Meekon but they were gone.

I did not finish the last section alone, I caught up with 2 cyclists from Reading and cycled with them. The one guy had taken a fall and had bad markings covering the whole of his chest, and the Gore clothing he was wearing 'try before you buy gear' was suitably ripped (he didn't have to pay for this at end of ride either). We cycled to the end in quite a leisurely but fun fashion, sharing stories and the like.

At the end I crossed the line and was expecting to be greeted by Ron and Meekon. They were not here, they had taken a wrong turn and gotten a wee bit lost. This meant that I won (yay), I had the quickest time! Is a good job that not the fittest, strongest or fastest cyclist always comes in first. Official results are not out yet, but as soon as they are, I will publish all of our results on this blog!

The day finished in style, with the drinking of tea and much eating. I think I managed to devour a pastie, chilli, bread roll and a snickers bar! Now to clean my bike...

http://www.justgiving.com/le-jog-2010/

Weekly totals: Cycled 114 miles.

(Big thanks to sis Jane for sending me a super groovy cycling book mark which featured on last blog entry).