Having had a week off, I approached the Sunday 14th May ride with some trepidation. We set out early (myself, Matt and Jason) and managed a pretty well paced first 40km (Ashridge, Ringshall, Eton Bray, Great Billington, Slapton, Cheddington) and then carried on from Cheddington out to Mentmore and eventually Aylesbury. The next 20km was a lot tougher as we crossed the valley and up into the Chilterns to Wendover and then over the horror of a hill (14% gradient according to the signpost for cars) that eventually takes you to Cholesbury Common.
I was quite content to pace myself, and as a result lost Matt and Jason at this point! Given I had the map and was the only one who had cycled this route before I just hoped they had not got too lost - although both have iphones with maps etc. Having recovered from the hill climb and given the day was really beautiful and I wasn't under any time pressure I decided that rather than cycling back through Berkhamsted, I would follow my nose and see if I could extend the ride a bit. Unfortunately the road went further and further down hill (essentially back across the ridge I had expended so much effort getting up). While it was quick, fun, easy cycling; as I know to my cost after five months of this what goes down invariably has to go up again! I found myself in Chesham having to slog back up the Chesham Hill on the main A road which was not much fun, but it was only for a couple of km before being able to head cross country again throught the villages to Bovingdon and then all the way down the hill to Hemel station.
All in all 84.44km and I felt pretty good at the end. It took 5.5h with breaks (so just over 15km/h which will be fine for the night) and I was probably averaging more like 18km/h in the saddle. So not too shabby.
Less than a month to go...
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