I had learnt from my previous outing and took with me 2 bottles, 3 x energy gels, 1 x kit kat and 1 x banana. I taped the banana and an energy gel to my tri bars and soon found out that with the banana that this was not such a good idea as the vibrations from the road quickly freed it from the tape and I had to be quick to rescue it from the impending doom of being crushed under my tyres. This was another good lesson which I am sure will stand me in good stead in life...when taping bananas to your tri bars use lots of tape!!
The ride started smoothly and we were feeling good and not suffering from the swim the day before. We were stopping every hour for food and energy gels and generally feeling good. We were doing a fair amount of climbing and at around 30 miles in I started to feel absolutely knackered. At this stage I went into survival mode and told Heath that we should stop off at the next pub for a longer break (well it was after 11!). I knew that about five miles up the road was a decent pub in Christmas Common where I could have a lemonade and rest for 15 minutes. We pulled in and Heath realised that the driveway of the pub had gravel (which does not agree with skinny road tyres) so slammed on the brakes and managed to just get unclipped. This all took me by surprise and as I was about a metre behind Heath also slammed on my brakes and pulled a front wheely (the kind you see those 10 year old kids do on bmx's with the back wheel in the air). Whilst I may have looked pretty cool doing this problem was that I was still clipped into my pedals and have historically had a lot of trouble getting unclipped which has resulted in me falling off my bike (whilst still being attached) in very public places. So there I was with the brakes on, back wheel a couple of foot in the air thinking that it was going to happen again when I amazingly managed to unclip my one foot, control the landing of the bike and not feel off. This would have been all worth the effort except the pub was not yet open. Instead of a refreshing lemonade with ice and and a slice we had to accept filling up our water bottles from the hose laying next door to the pub dog's water bowl. Classy.
After the refreshment break we rode onto Henley with heavy wind and rain in our faces which made for an unpleasant ride. Heath tucked in nice and close behind me and was happy to slipstream me along the Fairmile at which point he was also starting to feel knackered.
We cut up to Hambleden for the last climb of the day and stopped for lunch at the Royal Oak pub one mile from home. A big lunch was required and a steak burger with chips and pint seemed to fit the bill nicely. I was extremely disappointed to find out that the burgers did not come with lids!! The waiter did not really see the funny side when I asked when my lid would be coming.
After the final mile was done the watch registered 61 miles! Not a bad weekend's work.
Stats:
Distance: 61.24 miles
Moving Time: 4hrs 18 mins
Max Speed: 37mph
Avg Speed: 14mph
Elevation Gain: 4,209 feet
Max Gradient: 11.7%
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