Finally. I will not go on about the weather too much this time. It was fine sunny, frosty start with a slight northerly breeze, that is the last mention of the weather until the end. We had a diverse group this week. The car park was full of Blues fans starting their trip to Cardiff, what a wasted journey. Anyway, I was nearly late, having driven up from Milton Keynes. Uni re-union and lots of alcohol was consumed. I had tried to be sensible and stop drinking at midnight, I felt OK at the start.
For some reason, I missed why, we stayed as one group. Given the range of abilities, Bradley down to me, it was a strange choice. We rode down to Alcester at a steady pace and then started through and off down to Evesham on the by-pass. Lots of fun to start working that hard that early. Nick Hands went out the back early, despite the steady pace, he was still recovering from a bad cold. I was the next to go, but a puncture was what stopped me. We then started again down to Evesham. Nick Hands turned back as he was not feeling up to it. We grouped up and rode through Evesham and into the lanes. The pace was steady and there was a natural break.
We wended our way through Childswickham, Willersley and Waston Subedge. Then we split into groups for some 4-up training. I was in the last group with the TSS and Brian Cartland (we need a nickname people). Discretion got the better of valour and I sat in. Brian nearly went once, but did well to come back on. The TSS were in full effect. I was OK sitting in, but knew that I would blow if tried to do any work. This went all the way through from Honeybourne to Bidford where we re-goruped. It was a good hard session.
After the re-group it stayed as one group back to Alcester through Broom, Wixford and Arrow. Then for some reason we went a further route back. Not one I had used before. Through Alcester to Great Alne and then back up to Morton Bagot and Ullenhall . We split again with the faster lads off ahead. My legs went after Great Alne and yet again was relying on some physical assistance from club mates (cheers Psycho, Pikachu, Nick S for the pushes). There was some ice still on the lanes that made things interesting.
At Ullenhall I was left to my own devices. The hill passed relatively quickly, but the run in was hell. I was completely starving and out of energy. This is when that northerly breeze made things a lot harder. A stop at a garage on the 435 for a chocolate bar gave me the energy to get home. Completely dead for the rest of the day. Still recovering now and from emails I have had this week I am not the only one.