AVP Evening Ride with Quiff & The Near Naked Man

Thursday night is cycling night in Seaton ... well there are other things going on in and around, such as the Red Arrows flying over Lyme Regis, but for me even the draw of an air display could not keep me away from from my training.

After Tuesday's epic ride, I was looking forward to a more gentle spin ahead of a longer weekend ride. Arriving in at the Kings Head rallying point, I could see in addition to the usual suspects that Quiff had joined us. Quiff runs a quick paced Sunday ride which I had the privilege of joining on a couple of occasions last year, before I accepted after being dropped on a ride back in November, that I needed more training to do them justice. This was the ride which actually started the more regular social Sunday rides which Andy and I still try to get out on.

We have, more recently, been known on Thursday nights to split into two groups, for a brisk and gentle paced ride. Ordinarily, I would not have entertained following Quiff out on the brisk ride but with Andy away with the Arrows, and an unexplained desire to test myself, following all this training  I've been doing for the RideLondon, I thought, why not:
- double the distance,
- double the pain .. and hopefully
- double the gain!

Out with the speedy group!

The speedy group, in the end, actually only consisted of Quiff, myself and the Near Naked Man (Glenn, the proprietor of the Broom Wagon coffee shop and member of the MCAC), the remaining 8 or 9 riders chose the gentle paced route. If I ever thought someone knew something I didn't, this was one of those times.

We headed out briskly towards Colyton where some how I earned a Strava segment KOM and a flurry of PRs climbing Watchcombe Hill to Offwell .. this ride was really pushing me to my limit. In all we covered 41 miles to Uppotery, across the A303 to Churchinford and back through Membury and Axminster. I think it was out of Membury that we started a chain gang, rapidly rotating positions on the road to maximise our speed. I remember the last time I tried this I could not keep up, on this occasion I stayed on the wheel as we maintained a 20 mph plus average over the undulating couple of miles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUPVj1sIJ-M

As expected this was a quick ride, but I survived. I also achieved a 20 km PB. Feeling good for London! If you've not yet sponsored me, surely I'm earning it now :) www.justgiving.com/Jonathan-Read-Bone/ or Text JJRB64 £x to 70070