Taunton Loop with Jason

It is just 35 days now until my Prudential charity ride and so was out for another training session with Jason, my RideLondon buddie. Today, it was back to Taunton, Jason's cycling ground, and he'd planned out a terrific circuit taking in a couple a good hills and some wonderful scenery. I had originally thought we were in for a relatively flat ride having viewed the profile and seen 1200 units of climb. On my system I use feet, so thought I was in for a gentle ride, but Jason uses metres!

This weekend also marks the start of the Tour de France and while we were out on our ride, the pros were departing Leeds on Stage 1 of their 3 week tour, for a 190.5 km race to Harrogate. We had 100 training ride planned but I was at least wearing my 2013 TdF commemorative Sky jersey and routing for a third victory. I would have loved for Cav to have secured the yellow jersey in Harrogate; such bad fortune to have crashed out with just 100m to go, but unexpectedly Froome crossed the line in 6th, so the jersey seemed to work for him!

Routing for a third Sky victory

Also in the news today is the call for the government to use more of our road tax to fix our potholed roads. Listening to the radio this morning en route to Taunton, I was amazed at how the presenter was so dismissive of the AA representative saying that riding on e.g. French roads was one of the joys of a European holiday .. he'd obviously only ever flown. And then when catching up on the TdF later in the evening, I saw one of the cyclists letting air out of his tyres to further dampen the impact of the uneven road surface. To top it all, my new Mavic wheels of just 6 weeks, have been pummelled out of alignment by, yes you've guessed it, our appalling roads! Now to find a bike workshop that I can a) trust to do the work and b) who can do it in quick time so I'm not kept off the road ... I need a second bike!

Back to today's ride. Having been uncomfortable battling with traffic on dual carriageways on my last Taunton outing, Jason had taken heed and picked out some very typical AVP styled lanes which really made for a highly enjoyable ride today. The weather did not look too promising at first as I drove through heavy rain crossing the Blackdown Hills but having to repeat the 45 minute journey, because I'd forgotten my cycling shoes, allowed for the rain to clear and sun to shine .. as they say, 'every cloud has a silver lining'.

We started out heading north and up our first climb from Monkton's junction to Pines Cafe. Jason has the KOM for this segment, but I think he told me too late for me to have a go at taking it from him .. next time, but then again, with my memory, he know's I'll forget!

Coffee stop at Pines Cafe

Although only 10 miles into the ride, the Cafe was too much of an attraction for me to pass by and we had what I hoped was to be our first coffee and cake stop.

From Pines Cafe we turned south climbing and then rapidly descending Cothlestone Hill into Bishop's Lydeard, Milverton and past Wellington, with a slight off road detour to visit his monument. It was here that we started our second and final big climb before the long and undulating descent through the Somerset Levels, which earlier this year had been under water. The evidence of such extensive and devastating flooding was still very clear, as every house through one village was gutted and undergoing renovation and large water pumps and river drainage excavations visible.

It was at this 40 mile point that I hit the wall .. or bonked as cyclists say. It was past lunch time, I'd eaten little and breakfast was a distant memory. I felt good to go on but my muscles had exhausted their fuel, they were going nowhere fast. After Jason shared his spare banana and a stop for a cereal bar at the next garage I was back to near normal. A good lesson was learned there .. keep eating! I now see why Froome needed that gel in the last few km on the TdF last year, even though it cost them a fine and time penalties. We finally returned to Taunton along a rather overgrown but picturesque canal towpath completing a very enjoyable and scenic ride.



During the ride, I took the opportunity to test out my new Gopro camera. This clip is a small one covering a short climb and long descent of Cothlestone Hill. Look out for the wide vehicle and a bit of a wobble on one of the corners. http://youtu.be/s_V6TCbq2jc