Bathing or Cycling? A Morning Ride With The Near Naked Man!

It's been a week since my last cheeky cycle .. when I took a morning off work for a winter solstice ride. The weather then was a little moist, so when I got a call from the Near Naked Man for another ride today, and not a drop of rain in sight, I could hardly refuse.

We headed out early, following a route in reverse that our old friend and cycling fiend, Clive did back in June. This included a bit of a detour up a farm track parallel to the Axminster cycle path, thinking Clive had discovered a new track and hill to climb, only to realise at the top that it was probably the result of a misplaced click on the map .. Clive obviously not having to follow the route on his Garmin as I was!

Just before Chard we hit a flooded road. This was when it occurred to me that we should have looked out a route previously ridden in winter rather than June! With the Near Naked Man dressed for bathing as well as cycling, he took one for the team and proceeded across the lake while I watched should he disappear down a pot hole!

Near Naked Man takes one for the team!

Having already included an unscheduled mile or so, we decided to miss out the original Charmouth and Lyme loop, favouring a blast through Marshwood and the homeward descent via Rousdon. Still a 60km ride and over 3k ft of climb, so not at all shabby for a Winter, post Christmas feasting ride!