Re: Tour of Pembrokeshire

[ValleyMan]

What can I say? Anyone looking out of the window today can’t have failed to notice it was pissing down with rain and blowing a gale. Whilst the rain is welcome (if our well dries up we will be in all sorts of trouble..) why today? It was hard to believe that yesterday I was cutting the grass getting a sunburnt nose.

Local knowledge, short arms and deep pockets saw most of the Dynamos congregating at the free parking bays at the Junior School. Boyish enthusiasm saw Mark, Dylan, Graham and myself leap out of the cars and get tooled up for the ride. Kim and Celia took a more mature approach and buggered off back home.

Any pretence of having a go at the full distance evaporated as the rain hammered down, a feeling shared by all, including the Dynamic Duo. A quick briefing, including a minute silence for those that lost their lives at Chevron, and we were off. The mini-mass start turned out to be a mass start due the reduced numbers (where were you Aces?) My overshoes filled up with water just paddling to the start pen.

As might be anticipated (see post above) Roger ‘it is not an ornament’ and Andrew tore off up St Brides Hill never to be see again. Mark offered to keep me company (read drag me round) but the general chatter subsided as the intensity of the rain increased. Probably the worst bit was the short drag along the main road from Roch before turning off to Broad Haven – wind in your face and torrential rain. We stopped at the feed station at Broad Haven completely drenched and started getting really cold very quickly. It was almost a relief to warm up on the hill out.

Arriving at Neyland Bridge was like hitting a wall. I crawled across it in bottom gear until I was passed by a small pack that I managed to hold onto until I met up with Mark again on the far side. Mark politely asked if I fancied doing the 82 when we reached Pembroke; I think it was a rhetorical question.

We decided to give the Pembroke feed station a miss and for once the wind was edging behind us so we made reasonable time back to Tenby then one final climb up to New Hedges and a fast decent to the finish with no brakes…

We finished in 4:32 at an average speed of 14.4mph, considerably slower than I did the Long Course the week before. I almost got warm with a bowl of Pasta before it was back on the bike back up to the car by which time my lovely certificate had turned to paper mache. Never was a hot shower so welcome.

Thanks to Mark for dragging me round and well done to all who ventured out when the sensible thing would have been to stay in bed.

PS Roger, perhaps in your quest to beat Andrew you could try getting a new bike, oh you already did that!