OK, one trade show under my belt.  Giving and Living Trade Show, done.  It was a pretty good day, but a long one, and I’m hanging now.  Still, I shall endeavour to at the very least start this…but don’t be surprised if this happens…

Was it only yesterday?  Apparently it was…  Blimey.  Well, let’s boil it down to essentials then.  I’m not sure my powers of recall are up to much right now!

It was cold.  But oh so pretty.  The kind of day where cyclists wrap up in many layers underneath warm jackets in primary colours, which look particularly attractive in the winter sun under clear blue skies.  When toe warmers under overshoes and over winter socks does not seem like overkill.  Where anything you own with the name “winter” in the title comes out.  Winter hat, winter collar, winter socks, winter gloves…

There were 11 of us. Not quite a record – that stands at 13 – but an altogether unprecedented turnout for this time of year, especially with ice being a distinct possibility.  Martyn had brought along four of his friends from the Burnham end of the world – including Paul and Trevor, with the addition of Jeannie and Mark (apologies if the names are wrong!).  We had a newbie – Jon.  Then me, Grant, Stephen, and Chris.  The 11th came later, meeting us at Sweets, because he’d failed to read my oh so informative email and check the start time ;).  You know who you are…Steve!

As I believe I’ve mentioned before, Martyn isn’t slow, and he doesn’t have slow friends.  Some of them are <start whisper>tri-athletes<end whisper>!  To be fair, we don’t dislike them because they’re triathletes.  We dislike them because they’re better than us! 😉 *grin*.  Jon turned out to be just as fast, and it is not news that Chris, aka Figgy, is a whippet.  Which left me, Grant, and Stephen doing our best to keep up with varying degrees of success at different times.  Let’s just say it’s a good thing it wasn’t a hilly ride.  I can, mostly, keep up on the flat.  Until you get to consistently doing above 23mph or so, or hit anything even vaguely resembling a gradient.  Then I’ve had it…!  I’ll be the one falling off the back waving you all goodbye.

We took a long loop of a route, down the more major, more likely to be gritted roads, to get to Sweets.  It was hard work.  But, like a slinky, though we stretched out and pinged back together, the G continued to stand for Group.  And even though it was hard work, and it was cold, it was impossible not to enjoy being out there like that.  Me, my bike, sunshine, friends, and an elegant sufficiency of wheels to suck, provided I could get on the back of one ;).  The new bottom bracket does make the Cube feel smoother to ride, though the baggy chain means that changing gear is a slightly delayed affair, and its tendency to change gear as and when it likes adds a certain frisson to the act of riding.  But it was all working, and thanks to my choice of layers, I remained in touch with my extremities, down to and including my toes, up to and including my ears.  All good really :).

And here we are, at the important part, the coffee stop.  The photo opportunity, what with it being pretty much impossible to take photos on the move with winter gloves on, let alone get the camera out of a pocket in the first place!  So here we are…

A still life, with teapot and Trevor…

Steve, having finally joined us, with Trevor…

  

Chris eating, as ever…  Jon, the newbie, will he be back?…  And Grant, who was hoping the camera was pointed over his head…

And then all of us.  The motley crew…  Well, nearly all of us ;).

It was, since the wood burner wasn’t lit until we were getting ready to leave (typical!), a little nippy sitting out there in the new “conservatory”, so we didn’t hang around too long.  Long enough for buckets and spoons and coffee and cake and bacon rolls….but no longer ;).  It was, oddly enough, warmer standing outside in the sun, which is just as well as we overlapped with the arriving Leisure Group and hung around for a bit of a chat before being on our way.  It was very nice to see them, and I really need to organise a ride that gets both groups together soon.

Time to go, said Zebedee.  The fast posse went home directly, as did we.  Only their direction was West and fast, and ours was North and blessedly somewhat slower.  Just as well, since I’ve rarely been up Mudgeley slower :(.  I blame the cold.  Heading back into the wind only revealed how sheltered Sweets had been as ice-cream head cut in with a vengeance before the toils of slugging uphill raised my body temperature up enough to override it.  *brrrr….*.  After that we headed for home at a reasonable lick, though we did split up on the last Wedmore road section which was, if not a sprint, certainly faster than sometimes.  Again – hard work but fun :).

Cycling time: 2:08:05 hrs
Distance: 35.35 miles
Avs: 16.6 mph.
ODO: 15691.13 miles

Clearly what I need now that I’ve made it back on to the bike is to stop just being happy/relieved to be on it, and to get some miles and hills in.  Proper training in other words.  Well, my variety of such anyway.  Sportive season looms, and I don’t want to limp around them all, I want to be on form, I want to do my best, want want want, me me me *grin*.

And here we are, dear reader, back where we started, not unlike our routes.  Back to trade shows, and in this case, the London Bike Show, where I’ll be on Saturday.  Anyone want to meet up?  Buy me a coffee?  Or something a little stronger? 😉

Ah…I knew this was coming….*yawn*….Zonk….thud….. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz…………