OK that was a very interesting day.
Firstly we had to set off into a cold(ish) wet(not-ish) day. Oddly, we didn’t practice doing this on the preparation rides. Every time we had the opportunity we found something else that really seriously needed doing first.
It’s one thing carrying on cycling once it comes on to rain – you just do it – but it’s quite another to cower in the reception area of a hotel looking out at the dark bleak wet day and say “let’s go out and do it!”. Eurgh. We are really hoping that the Epic Trip won’t contain many of these days, as we work our way south and into summer, but we know it has to contain some of them.
Off we squelch. Ooze. Rain runs down the legs, snot runs down the face (obviously not my face, because I am a Lady Of Leisure and snot is not a word I am acquainted with), water drips off the fringe into the eyes.
It was also quite a long day – over 100km and over 1,000m of up. We’ve decided that this should be our maximum for now, until the Gods Of Cycling deliver the Legs Like Bags Of Walnuts, which have not yet turned up.
By the way, the weather gradually lightened during the day, and the whole wet thing wasn’t nearly as bad as we feared.