It was a bit of a showery ride out from Grazely village hall against a fairly stiff headwind so tucking in on each others wheel was the best idea .....however the downside was that after a few miles we were all splattered with muck off the road to the extent we looked like we'd be off-road ona cyclo-cross event! Despite the headwind and thanks to Lee's hardwork on the front the Faccombe4 appeared to be turbo charged; and foresaking tea and food in Hungerford (50k) we arrived in Bratton to have done 100k in 4 1/4 hours .. much to the amazement of us and others!
We had a special guest waiting for us at the Bratton control ...namely my brother John who was joining us for an hour of the return leg ...but not before we had stoked up on grub at the cafe. The weather was still a bit showery but certainly improving ....and as we set out we soon benefitted from the tailwind to assistance us back west to Hungerford. We did ease off the pace a little and it was greatto have my bro' as my wheelman for 20k before he headed off back towards Bratton. Hopefully more ofthat to come as he gets drawn into the world of Audax! It looked like we would be in Hungerford for tea at 3 ...however a front tyre puncture for Dave delayed that by 20 mins. After Hungerford the route heads north to pick up a few rolling hills just to make sure that you've not had a completely easy day on the flat. The lanes on this 50k loop back to Grazely were in a bit of a state and it's amazing that we only picked up one more puncture ...shame it was me!!! So another 20 min delay ....but time for the others to have a break , eat some food and offer me advice on how to change a tube! After about 35-40k the route levels out and so we put the hammer down and managed to get back at 18:30 precisely for a pretty respectable 11hour 200k.
that the end of the 'easy' rides ...next up is the Dean 300K qualifier on the 26th March ...but more about that later!!
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