Re: Sunday 15 Jan 2012

[ValleyMan]

Prologue

On Saturday morning the time had come for my quarterly haircut (I will forgive you for not noticing as I had my helmet on all day). Popping into the barbers shop opposite the Rugby Club I was soon in conversation with my stylist and the matter of cycling came up. ‘You cycle with the local club don’t you’ she asked, ‘only I had a Doctor in here recently, he told me he was having his hair to shed a bit of weight so he could catch Andrew Rees going up hills, you don’t know him do you?’

I promise there is only one more Roger anecdote coming…

The Main Event

Kim and I were late again and took the usual amount of abuse from the assembled throng. Joining Andrew, Roger, Mark, Huw and Celia were newcomer Richard from Haverfordwest and a welcome return by Dave ‘Sweaty’ Edwards.

The plan was to cycle over to the top of Pendine Hill and then complete the Daffodil Ride, a distance of some 63 miles.

Huw was on his new (subject to contract) Look 695 Frame complete with SRAM groupset and was at pains from the outset to stress that this was to be changed for Campagnolo or Di2 as part of the deal. It was gratifying for once not to be the butt of the jokes on the reliability of my bike as the chain parted company with Huw’s bike at every downshift under pressure. Even when keeping company with the chainring, the gears sounded like a bag of spanners.

The only other ‘mechanical’ was Andrew’s rear tire which was slowing going down and had to be pumped up several times. I was going to make some sort of joke about Andrew getting flaccid and having to be blown up but it seemed a bit obvious and, based on a discussion with Janice at the Club Do, a bit insensitive….

The plan seemed to be developing to up the Club profile by put a Dynamo’s rider on every bit of road across south west Wales. Sweaty left us at Red Roses, Kim and Celia went south at the top of Pendine Hill along the Coast Road and Mark turned back up Brandy Hill just before St Clears. Kim and Celia came across the Aces on the coast road, well Jon and Carlton who had lost the Smiths and Roberts. They were not to be seen back down the road so we can only await a post on their forum for the recriminations!

It is at this point I need to get the excuses in before describing the next bit of the route up into the hills. I could not blame the bike this week, only my legs which started to burn at the slightest incline. I can only put this down to a 10mile run the day before followed by the movement by wheelbarrow (not going to go off on one again this week) of several tonnes of cow shit.

Luckily, with Huw’s chain parting company on a regular basis, my losses to start with were minimised. It must be said that Richard was incredibly strong on his tourer and just mashed his way up the hills out of the saddle. All the more impressive given the ‘Mattesque’ size of his saddle bag.

When we go to the furthest reach of the route Andrew needed a comfort break and the rest of us took the opportunity for a few refreshments. As we all started tucking into a feast of carbohydrates laced with E Numbers, Richard produced a home made flapjack from his cavernous saddle bag imploring us to have taste. Roger (yes the moment you have been waiting for) commented ‘I can see why you married your wife’ to which Richard replied ‘I made it myself’ at which point Roger was off his bike and on one knee with a proposal of marriage.

The conclusion was that Richard should put the recipe on the Forum (another specialist section!) if nothing else to stop Roger making a fool of himself again.

As we turned for home it was into the teeth of a strong wind and my legs were giving up. I got quite badly dropped on the flat and decided that the Gel Sachet was the only way to go when the group stopped to let me catch up. This either helped a bit, or everyone slowed down, and at Llangynin Huw and I headed back to Whitland; Huw because he didn’t fancy struggling up Pendine Hill with no compact and a 25 tooth cog and me because it was the quickest way home. The remaining three headed for the coast.

Huw escorted me back to Whitland and then I was on my own to grind along for the last few miles to Narberth. This was painfully slow and reaching the top of the hill at the Crem considered checking in for a bit of a warm lie down…

I covered 55miles by the time I got home at an average speed of 13.2mph. I hope next weekend this will have done me some good!