AVP Easter Saturday Sidmouth Honiton Circuit

Following last week's 100 mile ride to Portland, while I may be feeing quietly confident about the Etape Loch Ness in 3 weeks, I know I can not be complacent and still need to put in the training miles. I was, therefore, out this morning riding with fellow AVPers, Kelly, Chris, Clive and Kevin on one of my favourite 40 mile circuits. This is the one which takes in Sidmouth seafront, the old A30 to Honiton, coffee & cake at the Boston Tea Party, the long climb up to Stockland and the idilic cycle back to the Broom Wagon via Kilmington.

Bikes on Sidmouth seafront

Normally, a ride with Clive would be a full on blast up hill and down dale leaving one spluttering for breath or spat out the back! But with Clive inspired to follow in my wheel tracks and do his own run out to Portland tomorrow, he was happy just to spin his legs and do a traditional JRB ride & coffee stop .. it was refreshing to see this more relaxed side of him, although if anyone showed signs of beating him to the top of a rise, he was still unable to resist taking it to a winning sprint!

3 Wise Men (?) at the Boston Tea Party Coffee Stop

After a couple of frustrating AVP rides, it was good to finally have a group ride where we all worked together ... and while feeling the effects of a slight chest cold, I was pleased with a sub 3.5 hour ride over 45 miles and 3k ft of climb .. we had fun too!

The Honiton Wheel Circuit

With just 11 days until my RideLondon event, I met up this evening with 7 other Pedallers for our 4th AVP 100 miler training ride. Tonight Buster led us on a 40 mile circuit, which had it been a wheel, Honiton would have been the hub. OK, so the wheel would have to have been the shape of Africa, but hopefully you get the point.

No video tonight as after feedback from earlier postings, I was trying a different camera angle and approach with the GoPro attached to my seat post. While I hope you enjoy the results, I will not be repeating the exercise any time soon as my jersey pockets had to carry the contents of my saddle bag and the camera bracket chafed my thighs - the things I do for my art!

Kelly at speed on my wheel

The training is nearing an end!
You can still sponsor me at justgiving.com/Jonathan-Read-Bone/ or by texting “JJRB64 £(amount) to 70070.

The Other Sunday Morning Ride

Well us Axe Valley Pedallers can't be said to be coordinated in our ride planning or may be we just have such numbers that we can enjoy the variety of rides. A couple of weeks back Curtis and Clive did a parallel Tuesday ride to that Buster was running and today, Andy, Kelly, my RideLondon buddy Jason and I rode out at 08:00 am at the same time as Rex, Curtis, Tim, Hovis and Nelly, our pelotons passing as we travelled in opposite directions .. I just wish I had my camera on as it would have been quite a shot.

When I started training for the 2013 AVP 100 miler, Andy picked out this great 40 mile route to Honiton through Sidmouth to Ottery returning via Stockland hill and it's become quite a favourite of mine since. Today, to mix things up a little, we cycled this route in reverse.

The highlight of this ride for me is always the cake stop at the Boston Tea Party, so this had to be included in the itinerary, as was my first ever cycle through the Sid ford, a bee in the helmet for both Andy and I, and a must for any ride concluding in Seaton during daylight .. a final coffee at the Broom Wagon! All of this has been captured, as you'd expect in stills and my latest video http://youtu.be/SIKunMB8XOw

The training is nearing an end! 

You can still sponsor me at justgiving.com/Jonathan-Read-Bone/ or by texting “JJRB64 £(amount) to 70070.

Do shaved legs make you faster?

The Tuesday Evening .. "Preparation aid for the AVP 100" .. Ride numbered at least 10 Pedallers last night, as Buster led us over a 40 mile circuit out towards Honiton, up and over the hills through Upottery, Yarcombe and back through Membury and Axminster.

Meeting up for the ride

Last week we had half this number, so it's great to see the word getting out. Having two AVP rides in a week, I am getting to meet new club members whom would normally go out on the Thursday mountain bike ride or who are just not able to make the earlier Thursday slot. This week, as well as Buster and myself, we were again joined by Kelly and Shaun from last week, Bobble, Nelly and Ed from the Thursday ride, and Jeff .. my new bike mechanic who straightened my wheels the other day and who last night showed me how to get a chain back on without getting my hands dirty! What a treat!

During our rides, I like to share the latest piece of biking trivia, much to other's amusement or disbelief. Last week it was how Froome has cycled under the Channel .. see the evidence in the video below.

This week, the subject was that body hair conundrum .. do shared legs make you faster? I shared how the guys at Specialized have taken to the wind tunnel to answer this question once and for all. They ran a test 10 time on the bike with hairy legs and 10 times with shaved legs over a 40 km distance. The aerodynamic boffins found a maximum time advantage of 82 seconds on one ride, with an average saving of 70 seconds, when riding without hairy legs. As the actual gains will depend on the amount of hair - measured by the 'Chewbacca scale' - this time advantage might not be universally applicable to all, but when 'marginal gains' are at stake, I ask "should I now reach for the razor?" .. I guess the next question would be "where am I on the Chewbacca scale?". I think we'll leave it there!

So back to the ride. As we crossed the A35 at Kilmington, on our return, the sun had already dropped below the horizon and it brought back memories of the spring and autumn rides that we do under an ever darkening sky. Although unlike on those occasions when I've gone out expecting darkness, I was riding last night without my 2000 lumin lights and so needed to keep up with Ed and Bobble on the home run in order to see my way back to Seaton.

We ended the ride at around 10:30 pm, no apres beer and chips and it was all quiet and powered down at home. It was a good ride, but I'm kind of looking forward to getting my 100 milers done and dusted. Just 24 days to go!

RideLondon Training - Honiton Circuit

84 days until the Prudential Ride London-Surrey 100, the hottest day of the year and my second training ride with my charity cycling buddy, Jason.

For our first ride, I travelled over to Jason's patch in Somerset for a Taunton Watchet Bridgewater loop.  Today, it was my turn to host Jason across the border in Devon. I selected the Honiton circuit I first completed back in September 2013 with Andy, when in training for my first 100 miler with the AVP. This seemed a very apt route considering the event we were training for today.

The Honiton circuit takes in Sidmouth and Ottery St Mary to Honiton returning via Stockland and Colyton. Getting out of the Axe Valley and Lyme Bay always requires a climb, and I had intended we take Stovar Long Lane but deep in conversation, I missed the turning and so had to take the far steeper Hollyhead Road; I know know why we stick to Stovar on our AVP rides - sorry Jason!

Selfie taken by Jason in Sidmouth .. before we hit the hills 

Dropping down Trow Hill into Sidford, I hit my fastest speed on 2 wheels, between 48-49 mph (Strava and Endomondo can't agree) .. could be a result of my new wheel and tyre combination. At the base of the hill, my plan had been to turn into Sidmouth via Fortescue Road, following the River Sid, but a Police car blocked the path that we'd have to take to make corner, doing the speed we were. Our minds were also, by then, focussing on whether we may even get pulled up for speeding, but we managed to slow sufficiently before hitting the 30 mph change in limit and the rapidly decelerating cars ahead of us!

At the front, we had the obligatory photo session and took on fuel in banana format .. me the whole fruit version, and Jason in gel form. I did try a gel later and it was not at all bad, considering.

Yours truly in my Team Diabetes UK kit @ Sidmouth

We took the climb out Sidmouth to the Bowd Inn and on into Ottery St Mary and Honiton, where having made such good time, we decided to reward ourselves with a coffee and cake stop - I think I was perhaps the more in favour of this, but then again, Jason was on my patch so was happy to oblige. I also knew the final climb which lay before us and carrot cake and caffeine was the best fuel for this!

Coffee and Cake Stop

The Northcote Hill / Old Chard Road hill climb was an absolute killer on my first outing last year, but  my training since has obviously paid dividends, as I took over 5 minutes off my first time on one of the Strava segments for this climb .. and earned PRs for the rest. Indeed, today I achieved PRs right across the ride :)

Jason at the top of the Old Chard Road hill climb 

We concluded our ride through Shute and Colyton, returning to Seaton along the Axmouth straight which has a fantastic new road surface laid on Thursday evening. I had hoped this new road surface would have been smooth enough to have given me a new PR on this segment, but I guess I'd used up all the carrot cake fuel by this time!

Another great training ride out with Jason, feeling like we're making good progress and Box Hill will be no issue if we carry on climbing the hills as we did today. 

Thanks for the support from all so far and for that to come ... here's my Diabetes UK sponsorship page if you've yet to visit ... http://www.justgiving.com/Jonathan-Read-Bone

First 'School Day' Morning Rides Of The Year

This was the week in which I found my cycling mojo and got myself back into a routine of pre breakfast morning rides.

The plan was to get out early on Monday, but in spite to the inviting blue sky, my motivation was lacking. Tuesday my excuse for not heading out was an early business call which, by the end of the day, I felt I had to make amends and nipped out for a quick gentle circuit .. just under 8 miles.



Wednesday, I had another early call but was not going to let this put me off. The great weather was holding and after the previous evening's enjoyable circuit I just had to get out. I felt sluggish but it was a start and I felt great to have completed my first 'school day' morning ride of the year!

Not a soul out at 06:30 am for my first morning ride

To complete the day, I even headed out late afternoon, after work for 10 mile spin .. as if I'd cycled to and from work. I was feeling much better on this ride .. getting KOM of my Seaton 3 Hills Climb, finally breaking my September 2013 record and achieving an average speed over the 10 miles of 15 mph .. feeling good!

Thursday, the day of our weekly AVP ride, with family arriving for the long Easter weekend, I had both chores to do in the morning and socialising in plan for the evening, so no cycling today! I made up for it. however, on Good Friday morning, with another 06:30 start and a good 20 plus mile ride out to Honiton golf club and back via Offwell. I even met up with a Sid Valley rider along the Axmouth estuary which gave me a boost .. I do prefer riding with company.

AVP Sunday Morning Ride

This morning 14 Pedallers rode out under clear blue sky in glorious warm weather on our monthly AVP Sunday ride.

Ketchup, our ride leader, did a great job chasing us up the hills on this pleasingly uneventful ride to the Colour Wheel where plentiful quantities of coffee, tea and cake were consumed!

It was not the fastest ride, but amazingly all our Strava users seem to have taken top 10 overall positions on the East Bound and Down segment!
http://www.strava.com/activities/121135725/segments/2701721308
and PRs on the Golf Club to A35 segment, so may be we were moving faster than we thought!
http://www.strava.com/activities/121135725/segments/2701721284

I took a bumper set of pictures, although the planned shot of the peloton winding its way up Northleigh Hill did not quite turn out as proposed as no one seemed to get the memo to stick together!

Day 362 - AVP Wednesday Ride

I was privileged for the first time today to be able to join the Wednesday Wibblers on a morning ride out to the Colour Wheel Nursery, Honiton.

12 riders headed out via Beer bathed in a very welcomed and warming sun, however, as we closed in on Honiton the sky clouded over and contrary to the weather forecast the sky started to threaten us with a shower or two. Fortunately the rain held off until we were safety inside, enjoying refreshments in the nursery's coffee shop and luckily cleared before we were going to have to buy another round of tea and coffee to prevent our extended stay from getting a little awkward. Those who had left kit on their bikes found it well rinsed, while the the clever use of shower caps for seat rain covers ensured the tandem riders would not get damp bottoms on their return journey - ingenious!

As we entered Northleigh Road on the descent into Colyton, we were hit with two flint inflicted punctures at the same point. This year's rains have covered the lanes will all sorts of dangers for our tyres! Being well prepared for such an eventuality, we were soon back rolling again but had by then lost contact with the front runners, so we hope all got back OK.

Our route back to Seaton took us via Colyton and a quick look though Soanes' stock of Ridgeback Cycles .. well you can never have too many bikes  After leaving Soanes' the heavens again opened and I was showered in hailstones for the final few miles back to Seaton, giving a very strange sensation as they bounced through the air holes in my helmet and onto my head - another first!

Day 336 - Joining the Kask club

In spite of the seemingly non cycling weather we've had recently, the 232 miles covered so far in 2014 have been far better than expected for this 'veteran' pedaller.

Today, I continued in this trend completing another 40 miler with my AVP pals, Andy, Ed, Rex and Richard. The plan was to do a repeat of the proven route Andy, Ed and I cycled two weeks ago. We met at 08:30 at the Seaton TIC and headed out up Castle Hill towards Beer and on to Sidmouth sea front for the obligatory photo shoot. With the seasonal high tide and strong winds, the storm gates were closed, and rightly so, as the waves were spectacularly crashing over the sea wall.

Richard, Andy, Jonathan & Ed

Take 5 on Sidmouth sea front

On this ride I was proud to be wearing a new light weight Kask helmet with, of course, the colours Union flag emblazoned across the top. It was a close run decision between this and an the Specialized S-works model, but the red, white and blue motif won my heart. A pose for a shot with Rex, also a Kask owner, was required .. 'Jonathan joins the Kask klub' !

Jonathan joins the Kask klub

From Sidmouth we climbed via Tipton St John through Ottery St Mary and on to our tea and cake stop in Honiton. From Honiton we took Northcote Hill to the junction with the Stockland straight where, I had visualised the closing 10 miles, a gentle down hill return to Seaton. Rex, however, suggested an alternative route, through Stockland, Kilmington and Musbury. No there were no more hills, he said, just a few lumpy bits. I see a need to define a hill v a lump .. as my legs were not prepared for the climbing which followed, particularly not after my all time best ride up Northcote, on which I had secured PRs for 5 of the 6 Strava segments for this climb!

Ride profile

Although exhausting, it is often good to be challenged. Richard and Rex noticeably drove up the pace, and while I wished I had the engine to keep up with the pace set, I have to constantly remind myself of what I was doing only a year ago, when I would never in my wildest dreams have considered it even possible to cycle 40 miles in a morning! I've just got to keep at it, drive through the pain and hopefully this training will see me right for the Dartmoor Classic sportif I have in June, a 100 mile ride which after today's experience, is seeming ever more daunting! 

In all, I achieved 15 Strava segment PRs and for the second time in as many weeks, broke my previous record for miles ridden in 1 hour (15.94 miles). It is amazing what one can do when pushed!

Day 322 - Morning Ride with Wilco and Woody

With the weather surprisingly clear, bright and frosty, my Sunday morning started with an 08:30 meet at the TIC for what was going to be the longest ride so far of the new year.

This was the first time my AVP buddies, Andy (Wilco) and Ed (Woody), and I had been out on a weekend ride since the end of November and it was good to be back on the road together. We decided on a route Wilco and I have done twice before, the first was a week before the AVP 100 in September (Day 187) and the last was my first ride using SPDs back in October (Day 223). This route takes us along the coast to Sidmouth, inland through Ottery Saint Mary to Honiton for coffee and cake, and returns via Stockland, Shute and Colyton. 40 miles of mixed terrain and 3,000 ft of climbing.

Our first stop was Sidmouth where the obligatory photos had to be taken.

From the seafront, we headed up hill out of Sidmouth and to our scheduled cafe stop at the Boston Tea Party in Honiton. 

Woody and Wilco on Sidmouth seafront 

My Specialized Roubaix 

Woody and Wilco @ our coffee and cake stop in Honiton

Honiton sits deep in the Otter valley and thus it is no surprise that any route out involves a climb. Northcote and Stockland Hills are two painful 11% ascents but are relatively quiet and so when needed the zigzagging climb approach can be used. While still not a good climber, I was pleased, on this occasion, not to have to rely on this method to get to the top - I like to think this is a measure of my gradual improvement in climbing fitness over these past few months.

The ride profile

This was a tough ride; at first I thought it was just because I was still recovering from the Christmas break, but on checking my Strava stats, I found that I'd 40 new Strava segment records and a new one hour distance PB (15.44 miles) which considering the hills, I felt was very impressive. No wonder I ached so in places I never knew I had!

Day 302 - Morning Ride with Chris

After a very stormy night and morning, I finally managed to get a good ride out this afternoon. Having canvassed the usual suspects of cycling buddies, Chris and I delayed setting out by what turned out to be an all important thirty minutes, as the weather took just this short time to turn from a scene in the Perfect Storm to one of a clear sunny winter's afternoon.

Despite strong headwinds and flooded roads we remained dry and enjoyed a much needed spin after a week of partying. The Crosstrail performed well, but the 1000 miles covered since its last service are beginning to show, as the gears slipped a number of times on the steeper climbs.

Once we'd climbed out of Colyton we made good time crossing the common such that I achieved a personal best for 10 miles of 35m:44s which is a 2m:03s improvement on my previous record for the Crosstrail which I achieved back in July. It is great that I can still improvement from time to time .. I've obviously not peaked yet! Today also marked the point in which I've now burned an amazing 100,000 kCals, that's equivalent to 187 burgers!

Day 223 - New Shoes and a Morning Hill Climb

Sunday 13th October, was the day of the Sid Valley CC. Peak Hill Climb, Sidmouth. I met up with Clive, Hovis and Andy at 8 am in Seaton, the plan being to cycle over to Sidmouth together and then Andy and I would head off on a circular route out to Honiton and back. I certainly had no intention of doing a time trial hill climb with my legs! That was not to say we would not be making any en route climbs, indeed, totally against my comprehension, Clive took us on some of the toughest climbs I've ridden on our way in and out of Branscombe over to Sidmouth - 'just warming up', he said!

Earlier in the week, I'd decided to invest in a pair of Specialized BG Pro Road Shoes and a set of Shimano R540 Light Action SPD SL Road Pedals, both in white to contrast with the colour-way of my Roubaix! This is my first journey into the world of clipless pedals and something not for the feint hearted. Although I rode out on a lunch time test Friday, this Sunday's ride was my first opportunity to really give them a good run out and what a great purchase they are turning out to be! Pedalling has never been so enjoyable. No slipping off when making a quick gear change and surprisingly comfortable. Only one incident of note, when crossing the A3052 at Bowd, I thought my left foot had made good contact but alas no and I ended up striking the crossbar, ouch!

From Sidmouth, Andy and I left Clive to do his competitive climb and headed on a more sedate ride out to Ottery St Mary and Honiton. This was a very pleasant cycle, but having completed this circuit before, I knew what lay ahead; to get out of Honiton, you have to climb. We took the quieter route up Northcote Hill, where at the summit Andy was there waiting to take the now obligatory paparazzi shot of me wobbling my way to the top. I don't mind .. just wish he'd got a close up of my new shoes!

Ascending Nothcote Hill

Once over this hill we frustratingly lose most of the hight gained meaning that although we have an enjoyable down hill roll, we then have another equally steep climb back up Stockland Hill. This however, marks the end of the serious climbing, leaving us with a very welcomed 10 mile gentle ride and a good natter back to Seaton.

 Ascending Stockland Hill 

This was another weather lucky week. I managed to get out on two really good rides and for the second week in a row, I found myself leading the club distance leaderboard .. mainly because of my Friday lunchtime excursion, else Andy would have pipped me!

Stats: 40.61 mi, 3hr 14m, Avg 12.5 mph, Max 33.0 mph, 2,340 kcal

Day 187 - Morning Ride with Andy

With just 8 days before the AVP 100 miler, I had a number of options this weekend to get in a few extra miles training before the big day. The AVP were planning a gentle 30 miler out from Ottery St Mary to Exmouth, the Sid Valley CC would have their Sunday am fast paced 40+ mile ride and my new good friend and Specialized sparing partner from AVP extended me the offer of joining him on a Saturday morning training circuit. In the end the decision was easy.

Andy and I met on Seaton Down Hill for the steep climb out of town. This is the hill I set my fitness by as I've only recently been able to make it to the top without stopping. Today, I could still feel Thursday's ride in my legs, so I did somewhat fear for how the rest of the morning would go.

First stop Sidmouth, Andy in AVP and me (unseen) in my SVCC colours

I was really pleased that we planned to head out via Sidmouth, as on the 20th September, I'm cycling over there to see the start of stage 6 of the Tour of Britain. I'm not sure, however, that I'll use the same route out, as we then made our way, 7 miles inland, to Ottery St Mary before then taking the old single carriage A30 into Honiton where, after 25 miles in the saddle, we stopped for a much needed coffee and cake!

Having taken on fuel, we had a double climb up Stockland Hill out of Honiton, over which I adopted the snaking mountain pass manoeuvre to level out the assent and maintain some level of forward momentum. I'm not sure whether it was this unconventional climbing motion or the technical hitch I'll comment on later, but something totally confused Strava, because for some reason it awarded me the King of the Mountain (KOM) for the Stockland Hill Climb, which unbelievably no one has climbed before! Oh well a KOM is a KOM and I think this is one which will never be taken from me, as I can't see that it is a route that actually exists!  Once at the top of the 'mountain', the remaining 15 miles were more or less down hill back through Shute and Colyton to Seaton.

JRB wins KOM for the Stockland Hill Climb

The technical hitch I commented earlier on, was on leaving Honiton, when my Garmin decided during our coffee stop that it should include itself, such that it powered down for a rest. This unexpected feature in its design was not, however, spotted until a further 3 or so miles had been covered. Luckily, Strava accounted for the missed miles in its final report, but this being unknown to us at the time and having only registered 39 miles on entering Seaton, we madly decided to do an additional circuit of Axmouth to bring the total above 40 miles! Unbelievably, although in reality I'd already completed some 41 miles, I then went on to achieve my best ever times on both the Seaton to Axmouth and Axmouth Gate to Boshill sprints! What a finish to a great morning's ride.

Stats: 44.4 mi, 2hr 56m, Avg 14.1 mph, Max 44.7 mph, 2,323 kcal

Day 178 - Presta Valves

Thursday, AVP night. The day started with another series of early morning business calls and the arrival of the carpet fitters whose cacophony of noises and smells, hammering and gluing, challenged my senses through to lunchtime. My afternoon, while quieter and less fragrant, was no less busy and I feared greatly that I would not make the evening ride. 6:15 pm, a quarter of an hour before bike check in time, I powered down the laptop, slipped into my Lycra and made my way to the bike shed. I've now worked out that I can do the short ride to our club meeting point in around 2 minutes, so was happy I would not miss the off.

Before heading off, I also wanted to ensure I had sufficient air in my tyres. Yesterday, I received delivery of a new set of tyre pumps. Something I had not realised when making my Roubaix purchase, was that it has a totally different tyre valves to those of my Crosstrial. The Roubaix uses the Presta valve, which being much thinner than the Crosstrail's Schrader valves, which are more like those found on a car tyre, did not fit my current set of bike pumps. The differences don't stop there. Inflating the tyre with the Presta valve is far from straight forward for the novice. Luckily a visit to YouTube and terrybyclicles.com got me sorted, you have to fully unscrew the valve stop first! So in the 15 minutes from powering off, not only did I have to slip into my kit, fill my water bottle and power on the Garmin, I also had the challenge of inflating the tyres .. which I'm pleased to report, worked a treat.

Arriving at the meeting point, the Roubaix attracted a great deal of attention. The pressure was now on to perform and this the Roubaix did. I had a much better ride out than the previous Sunday, may be because I was able to ride with the peloton and take part in a few of the sprints, while if you recall, while out with the SVCC, I lost the peloton very early on. I also think I'm getting more familiar with the gearing. We cycled out to Wilmington and Honiton and 21 mile circuit, although in my hast to leave the house, I did forget to power on the Garmin, so had covered a mile or so before I realised. Most unusually on an AVP ride, we lost 3 of our number and although two went back to seek them out, fearing a puncture or a crash, they were nowhere to be found. With the delay we cut short the intended circuit and using the power of the peloton, 3-4 of us made rapid progress down the last 9 miles of lanes and main roads, at times we were powering along at just short of 30 mph on the straights, something I would never have been able to do on the Crosstrail. I also achieved a new fastest speed of 41.2 mph and brought my 10 mile time down from 37 to 35 minutes.  I'm loving my Roubaix!

Stats: 21.38 mi, 1h:31m, Avg 14.0 mph, Max 41.2 mph, 1195 kcal

Day 174 - SVCC Morning Ride

Two weeks ago, I spoke of a couple of changes I needed to make in preparation for the Axe Valley Pedaller's 100 mile event in September. The first was to consider moving to a road bike, this I achieved last week, with the purchase of my amazing Specialized Roubaix Sport. The next was to work on getting in a few more miles to test I could get close to the distance, this I made a start on today by joining the Sid Valley Cycle Club (SVCC) on their morning 40 mile ride out to Dunkeswell. My previous best had been a long 25 mile evening ride with the AVP; long, in that we normally complete around 20 miles so as to get back to the pub before closing time!

So it was an early Sunday morning start for me with a short drive out to Sidmouth to meet at the football ground for 9:00 am. I was probably the only one who drove, as a steady procession of cyclists in their colourful lycra and road racing bikes entered the ground. We headed off pretty much bang on 9:00 am as we needed to meet up with others at Tipton Bridge at 9:15. In all, I would say we had at least 20 riders, however, once off Tipton Bridge, I only ever saw a few of our number as the peloton split a number of times to either take high speed or good climbing routes, something I have not been used to with the AVP who stay together from start to finish. As it was, I saw more sheep than cyclists on this ride as on one occasion, riding through Kentisbeare, we had to stop to let a flock pass us by!

The 29 mile ride out to Dunkeswell, the site of a small airfield first created for the US Navy in WW2, had only a few long but gentle climbing hills so I found breaking my 25 mile milestone a relatively easy  achievement. After enjoying a much needed coffee and large slice of carrot cake at the airfield's cafe, I joined the remaining 6 cyclists on the homeward journey, the remainder having long since moved on, their route to the airfield actually being 9 miles shorter. I was not bitter, it was miles I was interested in clocking up, I've had loads of practice climbing my local hills!

Talking of hills, I had thought that the 15 mile return ride would again be light on climbs, indeed the expectation was that as we headed towards the sea, the road would be predominately down hill, I had forgotten, however, about the painful climb out of Honiton to Sidford which after 35 miles in the saddle was a real test of my stamina! 

Overall, this was a great ride with 43 miles covered. I have a mountain bike ride planned for next weekend, but all being well, I can see me joining the SVCC on another morning ride very soon, if not that following weekend. Thankfully, my wife is being very supportive of me and my new found cycling interest as I can see that my time away, spent out on the road is starting to lengthen .. I am very grateful for this!

Stats: 43.47 mi, 3h:16m, Avg 13.2 mph, Max 40.0, 2,341 kcal

Day 83 - Axe Valley Pedallers

Two months ago, during Week 3 of my Tour, I talked of the possibility of joining the local cycling club, the Axe Valley Pedallers. Yesterday, while eating my fish & chips on the beach as is my usual weekly treat, I spotted in the local rag that the club had just returned from a trip to Brittany. That's interesting I thought. Leaving the beach, I walked as usual through the roundabout at the Esplanade and spotted the the sign on cycle sculpture, which has been there for some years now. The sign said "The Pedalabout .. in partnership with the Axe Valley Pedallers Cycle Club".

Lunch on the Beach

The Pedalabout

On arriving home, I connected to the club's website to see if I could learn more. To my surprise it seemed to be a very active club, meeting up every Tuesday and Thursday evening and Sunday mornings. Being a Thursday, I thought why not head out to the local pub where they were meeting to see if it were worth joining.

Before heading out, I rechecked the details on their website only to spot that it was more than a meet at the pub for a few drinks. The full details were as follows: "Thursday night is club night. We meet at the Kings Arms in Seaton for plenty of chat, chips, a beer or two, maybe a cake and perhaps even some cycling! Thursday nights are all about socialising and having fun. We depart at 6:30 pm when a road ride and a mountain bike ride will set off aiming to return to the pub for beer and chips around 8:30pm." What I had neglected to take in on first read was the "We depart at .." line! So, having committed to myself that I was going to check out the club, I kitted up and headed out on my steed thinking 'it will probably just be a short ride over to Colyton and then back for a pie and a pint'.

I first met up with two interesting chaps, one riding one of those recumbent bicycles. Then a crowd of cyclists with various machines arrived and by 6:45 we were complete and around 10-12 of us headed off towards Colyton. My earlier thoughts of 'it will probably just be a short ride over to Colyton and then back for a pie and a pint' were starting out on plan. From Colyton we headed out into the country lanes along routes I'd never been in the car, there are some very narrow lanes in Devon and we were riding them two abreast at a good speed. It is funny how one feels safer in numbers as I would not have been so happy had I been on my own. Up hill and down dale we cycled until four of the group crashed out on spilt diesel on a down hill bend. After this, only six of us continued. This was going to be quite some adventure!

Some 20 miles and two hours later, having been out to Honiton and back, we arrived at the Tower Services, the westerly turning in point for Seaton. Endomondo had been playing up, so to evidence the occasion I insisted on some team photos. Unfortunately, one of our six, Jolly, left us just before the Tower, so is not in these snaps below.

4 of the 6 finishers - I'm behind the camera

I think from that face, I'm pleased to have made it back!

So, after an already record breaking week, I've achieved another two PBs, an unexpected circuit record of 21.21 miles and a new 20 km best of 1h:18m:39s.! This week has certainly marked a step change in my Tour de Fitness and the Axe Valley Pedallers have a new member!

Stats: 21.21 mi, 2hrs 14m, Avg 9.4 mph, 1,488 kcal