the two punctures ride

33/332 2/2/2013 the two punctures ride, a photo by rOcKeTdOgUk on Flickr.

Andy has invested in a road bike, I think partly because of the lack of off road riding where he lives but mainly because of his impeding journey into fatherhood and the fact that he'll need quick easy access to a ride that getting kitted up and finding off road won't allow. So i drove over to his house and we followed the route I had loosely planned in my head. It was a lovely sunny day but hardly warm and the temperature wasn't helped by a brisk gusting wind, mostly blowing straight at us. within 4 miles Andy had a rear flat, caused by an unavoidable pot hole, it did give him chance to try out his CO2 inflator which was a complete success. back up and running we reached Stratford upon Avon where i got my flat after dropping off a curb. tube once again changed we were off again. Good job the weather was dry it would've been grim sorting out the mechanicals otherwise, then came the hardest part of the ride, into a head wind and the climb of "hill of death" and the (much longer than i remembered) undulating exposed road to Bidford on Avon. It was very hard work with out of the saddle efforts just to keep up some momentum, I was very glad to see the turn off for the bridge over the river. Then it was the simple matter of finding the greenway, a converted to walking and cycling disused rail way line back into Stratford. As is usually the way with these things, even though we had changed direction and should've had the wind to our backs it wasn't the case and with the sun dropping it got increasingly more cold. The coffee and food by the river was welcome even though we probably lost more body heat sat there than we would have just carrying on, but we needed to refuel. We ned to work on out technique to save energy by going through and off, but as neither of us has any experience of this it'll take a few rides until we click and get it co-ordinated. it was a great ride though and a treat to ride in the dry and sunshine on the longest ride of the year so far. a little less wind though next time please weather gods!
ride 9
43 miles
total 191