The Trouble with Cold, Wet Days ....
Oct 2004
And
so it came to pass that it was October. For the last couple of
years, this has meant that Marina Bloom and Ralph Dadswell would be seen
coaxing a tandem tricycle along a piece of road that most sensible
people would normally avoid travelling along.
This year was no exception, and the chosen route for 2004 was the Bath
Road. Classically, the London to Bath and back would only really
be untaken in the high summer, when the early start wouldn't mean
needing lights, and there was a fair chance of reasonable weather.
However, in real life, other priorities meant that we could only think
about doing the ride from mid-September onwards. And a further set
of circumstances saw us reach our "last possible" weekend. The
weather forecast wasn't fabulous, but what wind there was wouldn't be
adverse for the last few hours, and so Saturday 16th was our selected
day.
As
we drove to the start it was raining, but mercifully it was dry as we
did last minute preparations. So at 5am we set off on our 211 mile
odyssey, brightly lit, splashing through the puddles. We had
a very modest target of 11h 30m set by the Road Records Association, but
for scheduling purposes I had guessed that we would actually clock
around 10h 10m. It turned out that I was a bit optimistic,
although some of our losses were caused by mechanical problems, rather
than lack of fitness.
We
had chosen to start and finish near Slough, with Hyde Park Corner being
our first turn point. We had lost a minute to schedule as we
approached the London turn, but were making fair progress through the
various obstacles. And then we hit the pothole, causing a rear
wheel puncture. We rode on, with Marina looking around (in the
darkness) for our following car. After a bit, she shouted at me to
stop, and the car pulled in as well. I guess we lost a couple of
minutes, but a replacement wheel was soon fitted and we were only three
minutes down as we were witnessed at "The Corner".
We
emerged from the darkness unscathed, but found ourselves about eight
minutes down at the 50 mile point in Maidenhead. Not great, and
I'd obviously been drinking too much cold water, so we stopped after a
few more miles for me to deal with the excessive pressure. When we
reached Reading, we were nine minutes down, but held that deficit
through the town and along to Newbury. Despite a slow climb out of
the town, we managed to hold the nine minute loss through to Hungerford.
And
then the terrain gets tougher. There are London residents who wonder
why anyone grizzles about how hard the "flat and smooth" Bath Road is.
My message to them is that they ought to drive to the Savernake Forest
and then ride the 65 miles to Bath and back. We struggled up the
wet roads to the summit just before Marlborough, with the back wheels
slipping under us. And then you take about 2 minutes to throw away
all that effort with a 40 mph descent into the town.
Alarmingly, we then saw the signs diverting traffic away from the town
centre. Oh dear, let's hope it's nothing serious! As it
happens, the main street was filled with a fun fair. We picked our
way through, eleven minutes down.
It's difficult to be certain exactly when it had happened, but it had
definitely stopped raining by this time. I say this with some
confidence, because I remember the rain suddenly hitting us as we
approached Beckhampton, and the long descent past Cherhill to Calne was
performed in abysmal conditions. We had lost another minute at
Calne, as we moved onto a section that I think of as my
bete noire.
It's bad enough in good weather, but we were slipping around as we crept
along towards Chippenham. Despite the schedule being incredibly
generous, we still lost another minute.
With 12 miles until the Bath turn, I needed another stop. And so
we pulled over for me to lose another litre. Mike Bloom started rambling
on about incontinence or something .... but we were soon on our way
again, towards a brief chance to take in the magnificent view from the
top of Box Hill. And then we plunged down yet another giant
incline which would need to be conquered on our return. Am I being
too dramatic?
Approaching Bath, there was a lengthy queue of traffic for us to weave
our way past. Once done, conditions were tolerable (almost
enjoyable) as we nipped along the sunny spa-town streets to receive
acclamation from a giant crowd near the Head Post Office (thanks Paul &
Reg). Back to the traffic jam, our car had just reached the front
of it as we returned, so they were soon on our tail again as we
positively sped along with a mere 80 miles to go. We had been 15
minutes down at Bath, but hard times were ahead.
There's no getting away from it ... it was sunny, and there seemed to be
a bit of wind-assistance. However, such things are but trivia
compared with a couple of miles of climbing out of Box. We could
see a rider ahead of us, but we never caught him up, despite the
likelihood that he was just out for a weekend amble.
Approaching Chippenham we had to stop briefly to untangle the chain
following a careless gear change. It's always good to get oil all
over your hands, because it adds a certain tang to any food you
subsequently consume ....
The
hills, the hills. We gracelessly slithered our way up the
inclines, followed each time by brief freezing precipitous descents.
More time lost by Calne, and then the slog of Labour in Vain Hill.
After a couple of false endings, we really did reach the top, and then
had the pleasures of the lumpy section past Silbury Hill to Marlborough.
The fair was still there, and a few dozen people stared at us as we
passed. Probably thought we were part of one of the novelty acts.
Twenty minutes down, and just one big hill to go before we could rejoice
at being less than 50 miles from the finish. Joy, oh joy.
Surprisingly, we held a 23 minute deficit through Hungerford, Newbury
and to the outskirts of Reading. We were probably almost upbeat
about swiftly polishing off the last 20 miles and finishing with
beaming countenances.
Suddenly, with little warning, it was raining again. Heavily,
making visibility poor. Put those smiles on hold please, let's
have the serious faces again. Gridlock in the town centre caused
yet more low speed manoeuvres. All the traffic seemed to be going to
the Oracle Car Park, and so once we were past there, we were on empty
roads for a mile or so, which seemed quite bizarre. Bizarre or
not, however, we'd lost another 5 minutes to schedule.
This was getting serious, and I was getting very uncomfortable again.
But we only had 14 miles to go, so we tried to wind up the pace as we
pressed on through the murk. In the last mile a motorist
brilliantly blocked the carriageway as he waited for a gap in the
oncoming traffic, which caused us to stop. Obviously, we saluted
him when he eventually moved off, allowing us to grind our way along the
closing stages. I was a picture of agony as we finally crossed the line
nearly 30 minutes behind schedule, but crucially over 50 minutes ahead
of the lowest Record Standard set by the RRA.
All
things considered, we should probably be fairly happy with the end
result, it's just a pity that I'd guessed we would be quite a bit
faster. But once over the line, I had more pressing concerns than
such idle reflections of what might have been. As soon as we had
retraced to the finish point I was off the machine and making a dash.
When I finally had some privacy it took 2 minutes 8 seconds for me to
return to normality. That's the trouble with cold, wet days ....
RD
Oct 2004