Day 3 - Rock n Roll

Ride Stats: 119.2 miles, 4,370 feet of climbing, total time 10 hrs 2 mins, riding time 7 hrs 47 mins

The weather report from MF at base camp (Michael Fish - Robin's alias for today) was nigh on perfect. An overcast and cool start with a south-westerly wind and warm sunshine in the afternoon. Bring it on!
That was rather a bold statement as we we're both feeling tired from the cumulative effect of 2 days riding - Ian's legs in particular took a while to get fired up.
Negotiating Bristol City centre in the rush hour was not a good start to the day: hills, lots of traffic lights and miserable faces on the people going to work. We had something to look forward to though as friends of Vince's mum and dad from the Bristol Rock and Roll club were due to meet us north of Bristol.

Before that we passed the time discussing, yes you've guessed it, the delicate state inside our cycling shorts. Ian had asked Jeff if he could try some of his Chamois cream as Ian's "menthol" laced version was proving distinctly painful. It worked perfectly as Ian relayed to Jeff as we passed by some ladies at a pedestrian crossing saying, "your cream on my a--- feels lovely this morning!" I only hope the aforementioned ladies did not report it to anyone.

We rolled into Gloucestershire to be greeted by the very welcoming sight of the Rock n Rollers, Cherry, Geoff, Pauline, Tony and Dudley.  It was lovely to meet them and their infectious enthusiasm gave us a timely lift for the rest of the day. Thank you all for taking the time to come and cheer us on.

 

Jeff also took the opportunity to get the Glympse tracker going as it was impossible to do at our accommodation due to a lack of signal.

Geoff and Dudley were going to ride a few miles with us which was great until after we said our goodbyes and Geoff whizzed past us on his old mountain bike to show us how it should be done.

The road to Gloucester was relatively flat so we made good progress and we were both impressed with the dedicated cycle lane which kept the lorries at a safe distance.

We had arranged to meet Julie and Joy for lunch at a village named Dymock and they sent the usual text with their coordinates "we are by Maypole Farm just through Dymock". Our route involved a right turn at Dymock but after travelling some miles there was no sign of them. A tip for any budding Support Crewers out there - make sure the meeting point is on the actual route of the cyclists. Enough said.

The afternoon then became very lumpy and both of us found the short sharp hills a bit of a slog but the "granny gears" came to the rescue and we gradually moved onto flatter ground as we neared the A49 near Ledbury. A short refuelling stop gave a real boost and we covered the last 26 miles into Shrewsbury at something approaching 20 miles an hour - not bad after 100 miles.

Tonight we have enjoyed a lovely meal at Julie's second cousin Joyce and her husband Roger's house. It was a lovely evening and we were sorry to go but we had the blog to write and much needed sleep to get. We must also thank Joyce for some expert medical advice to apply ice packs when we got back to alleviate our soreness - it has worked wonders!

Shrewsbury looks like a lovely place to visit and we've all made a pledge to come back and see it properly some time.

Reply to:

Reply to J Davis

Reply to J Davis

Send