On the 23rd July there is, so I have learned this week, the
Rapha Women's 100. This event has been run since 2013, coincidentally when I returned to cycling, to inspire women around the world to come together to ride 100 km all on the same day. Why mention this? Well, this weekend, I with 3 cycle club friends, rode the 50 miles out to the Rapha Archive store in Shepton Mallet and back; a ride I had planned earlier this year to coincide with my wife's 'girls weekend' away. Such rides have become something of a tradition, but it has been 2 years since one of these reached the100 mile mark, the last one being my
Portland 100, which I rode with another 3 club mates, through Biblical weather to the Portland Bill lighthouse and back.
There was, however, no altruism in my Rapha 100, indeed when I came up with the idea, I had honestly not even realised that it was 100 miles. It was an idea hatched after visiting my favourite cycling apparel supplier and overhearing that cyclists arriving on 2 wheels may be given a cherished musette bag to carry home any purchases. Yes, we could have parked down the road and rolled in, but that just would not have been cricket!
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| Rapha 100 at Glastonbury |
So, it was with 3 fellow Pedallers, Nick, Mark and Glenn, our Near Naked Man (a male charity thing), that we formed up on Saturday morning to pedal east into Somerset. Our route out took us through the market town of Crewkerne with a very welcomed tailwind. It was here that we made our first coffee stop at the cycling friendly
Number 7 the Cafe we'd selected from the very useful Cycling Cafe Network, something which I'll share more on in the future.
Once on Somerset Levels, a very different landscape from our usual undulating Devon lanes, we enjoyed the rarity of being able to chaingang along pleasant straight and level roads. One challenging aspect of this type of cycling, however, is that one has to maintain a steady cadence over quite some distance without the respite of a down hill section; this places quite a different stress on your legs!
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| Pedalling Through the Rapha Store |
We arrived in Shepton Mallet in time for lunch, but not before Nick and I had opportunity to fill musette bags with Rapha goodies! Rapha had its usual array of bubbly assistants keen to talk cycling who welcomed us to stow our bikes securely at the back of the store; what a welcome! After a lengthy shop and lunch, we set out on the return leg. The benefit of a tail wind on the way out was to be our nemesis on the way back, as our tanks were emptied pedalling into a strong headwind for most of the miles back to Axminster. At 75 miles, we had one more welcomed coffee & cake stop, at the Art Tea Zen in Langport, a much welcomed oasis as with the hours moving on, other establishments had long since closed for the weekend.
The final 25 miles were quiet ones, we'd shut down all non-essential communication services to redirect vital energy to our legs! It was a fantastic day spent pedalling across some lovely countryside. The weather was perfect throughout and although 5 miles from home, rain started to fall, even this was greeted with joy, as I was able to pull from my musette bag the newly acquired Rapha rain jacket. As I rolled into to Seaton my Garmin's digital display flickered back 109 miles, my Rapha 100 completed!
