the slightly bigger adventure

the slightly bigger adventure, a photo by rOcKeTdOgUk on Flickr.

another train adventure today, Sundays aren't the best day to travel by rail as there are less trains and a 20 minute wait at a station on Worcester before the train carried on. Still i was entertained by two drunk guys trying to work out how the automatic door to the train toilet worked, i even got offered some cider, poured from a 3 litre bottle, it was offered to me in a wine glass though, that's the class of Worcestershire locals.
Once the train got moving again it wasn't long until i reached my destination of Great Malvern. When in Malvern it's rude not to ride to the highest point on the hills and this is Worcestershire beacon at 1385ft above sea level. There was an added challenge to this ride as again i was on the singlespeed. so, most of the climb was out of the saddle, zig zagging across the path to try and make it a bit easier. what compounded the toughness of the climb was the ferocious wind that was blowing left to right. I didn't linger long at the toposcope as i nearly got blown off the podium!. It didn't take as long to descend and once back tom the road i headed for Upton on severn. Once off the hills and into the Severn valley its very apparent that the terrain is very flat, this would be a bonus normally on a bike with gears as you would pop it into a high one and make progress very quickly. A singlespeed however hates flat roads and i think i spent 3/4 of the journey spinning my tits off trying to maintain a decent average speed, It even got to the point that i was hoping the road would change direction so i could pedal into the wind for some resistance. As expected all the small towns and villages were basically shut, another result of it being a sunday so i was glad i took my own sandwiches to keep myself fueled. Despite weather forecasts and tweets from friends around the country saying how wet the weather was i encountered no rain at all until i was about 500m from home, can't complain about that. i was out just over 5 hours with a couple of stops included but i think on a geared road bike it'd be at least 2 hours quicker
ride 76
50 miles
total 1554
june 269
commute 609