I should be paid to stay away from Exmoor.  Unless there’s a drought, and a risk of wildfire, in which case I could be paid to cycle around there for a couple of days.  Or, like the Exmoor Beast preview ride, just to be in the general vicinity with a bike that I could be riding…

Today I made my way to Minehead to meet up with Gaz and be shown the wonders of Exmoor.  It was raining here when I left, rained most of the way there, and then dried up when I arrived….just long enough for us to get ready indoors and then head out again.  At which point yes, you guessed it, the rain started again.  Well if you’re being picky, at that point it was probably technically drizzle, but it was rain soon enough, and on and off, for the whole ride.  Good thing I had a lot of assorted layers with me right?  Including my new Etape Cymru jersey, which I did promise to show you.

Well, Wales has mountains, Exmoor has the Porlock Toll Road…it seemed appropriate.  I’ve never done it before, and I was quite excited about it, in an inexplicably odd fashion.  Dad kindly pointed out that he went up it on a fully laden touring steel touring bike back in the day (presumably to escape the rising waters as the Ark neared completion ;)) and that if he could do it, then I should be ok.  I’m not sure that was helping!  Still, here we are, at the bottom, getting ready.  Gilet off (me), glasses dried for the first of many times (Gaz), camera over-used as ever (me!).

I liked the toll road.  A lot!  How mad is that?  But I really did.  It’s long, not very steep, has the occasional hairpin bend, goes on for scenic miles, with gorgeous views of moor and sea…  Lovely :).  I’m already looking forward to going back and doing it again and seeing how fast I can go up it!  Sad I know *grin*.  Today it was wet, all new, and sociable – no Strava segments for us ;).  Since I had the time, here’s a brief photo diary of the climb for you…

They say the weather up on’t moors is changeable, and they’re not joking, as you can see.  Every time it cleared, you could see the next “shower” heading our way.  My gilet went back on at the top of Porlock and stayed on – wet in the wind = cold!

See that thing behind Gary?  That’s another “shower”.  Or the same one, just following us around!

I really loved the riding.  There were a couple of kicker hills, some swoopy bits, some nasty descending because of the wet, a real mix.  But that’s not the point.  What is is that it was all new to me, and even in that weather, the views were lovely.  New to me, without being a sportive.  It felt like a mini cycling holiday.  We did some of the Exmoor Beast route, albeit in reverse, so it was good practice too!

Today was nice weather for…

I didn’t realise how cold and wet I was until I got back to Gaz’s house, after a long fast straight flying stretch to round things off which is how all rides should end.  I changed into dry clothes, and realised I could probably wring out my cycling kit!  Nice…;)  Even with that, it was an oddly enjoyable morning – and many thanks to my tour guide for sorting the route.  He’s a lucky man, with all that on his doorstep :).

Cycling time: 2:09:29 hrs
Distance: 24.64  miles
Avs: 11.4 mph.
ODO: 362.10 miles

 So, who’s coming to do the Exmoor Beast with us in October then?  As many people as possible, a posse, a peloton..please? 🙂