feck, that was a wet one....
Maybe I'm slightly unbalanced but the
rain today was fantastic fun......
probably the toughest fixed gear ride I've ever
done..... Sadly though (or not...) I'm not talking about the Dartmoor Classic.
Shamefully I didn't go. Friends and family talked me out of it and then when the
Met Office put a big red splodge on the map with a severe weather warning for
Dartmoor.... it was the final clincher for me. I didn't half beat myself up over
it last night though, so this morning I kind of worked it out of my system
anyway with a 90mile fixed-gear ride over some 3000m worth of hills. In the
rain. There's a big difference in riding in pouring rain and gales on Dartmoor
and doing it locally. I can actually get on and enjoy the wet when I know I can
fall straight into a hot shower followed by a collapse onto a sofa at home right
afterwards... and on the fixie I don't have any big maintenance overhead waiting
for me at the end of the ride. A quick squirt of GT85 to ward off the dreaded
'orange chain syndrome' and then leave it to drip dry in the garage! I also
don't have to drive a 200mile round trip for the privilege. Besides, the folks
are home after 3 months of doodling around in South America so it was a great
excuse to head over that way, say hello, raid the coffee jar and demolish a loaf
of fresh bread for a mid-morning
snack!
Maybe I'm slightly unbalanced but
the rain today was fantastic fun, I was almost (almost) disappointed when the
sky lifted a little towards lunchtime. The way I see it riding in heavy rain is
no different to any other watersport.... you simply dress appropriately (i.e you
wouldn't go surfing in a dinner jacket or swimming in a kimono... well, not in
winter anyway), go and have some fun and then when it's over have a shower and
stick some dry kit on. I did get laughed at a bit though when I stopped in to
say hello to the girls down at the beach cafe at Godrevy, but they didn't mind
me dripping on the floor, the counter, the chairs.... I also bumped into one of
the nurses who looked after me when I was having all that UV treatment a couple
of months ago, having a day out with a friend. Quite nice that, she said she
always thought I was a bit funny... now she knows for sure. Her friend was quite
nice too... ahem. My riding/training routine has been a bit disrupted recently
with travel, going back to work, and eczema trouble... I'd kind of missed my
security blanket of regular long Sundays so it was nice to spend today going
back to basics on my fixie.
As for
Dartmoor - well it got so bad the annual Ten Tors expedition was scrubbed just
halfway through, they couldn't afford another fatality after that poor girl died
during training in similar conditions. Maybe staying home was the right
decision..... but I still wish I'd gone I think.
Posted: Sun - May 13, 2007 at 06:03 PM