Saturday 22nd June
A jaunt around the Isle of Wight with full kit.
A dawn start saw us on the 6:05 Wightlink from Lymington.
 |
| Don't attempt anything without coffee |
A climb from freshwater treated us to spectacular views of Tenneson down and the chalk cliffs.
Continuing on the military road and up the dreaded climb at Blackgang Chine, we were feeling confident about our progress and fitness. I was confident that Tracy does not like hills.
 |
| View from the top |
We were making excellent progress and aside from a loose chain and frayed tempers, we arrived at Brading before 10am. We took a detour to the Roman villa to expand our culture knowledge (not just coffee and 🍰 honest)
Onwards to the crab and lobster at Bembridge for lunch.
Apparently by this point we were pretty confident about our riding endurance. Over confident as it turned out. A long lunch and in my case a couple of beers didn't do much for our speed. The brutal headwind that we had seemingly all the way back to Yarmouth and the endless succession of hills led to a long afternoon. Tracy had her first experience of "bonking" - a complete loss of energy left her sat on the roadside unable to continue for 20 mins, whilst she attempted to eat her weight in peanuts and fig rolls.
We limped back into Yarmouth, managing to catch the ferry with 5 minutes to spare.
 |
| Like I said, don't attempt anything without coffee |
A slow meander back to Hythe and a well earned snooze in the conservatory. A few lessons learned about fuelling correctly, taking more regular, but shorter breaks and the fact that Tracy hates hills means that we feel more prepared for our upcoming trip. Apart from the hills.
Distance: 93 miles
Climbing: 5875ft
Ride time: 8h 43 min
Tracy whinge factor 4/10
No comments:
Post a Comment