Bloody hell, that was hard work. One of the rear spokes in my back wheel snapped on the way home from the cinema on Friday night*, which meant my attendance was in jeopardy. However, my housemate kindly leant me his sit up 'n' beg 16+ kg city bike, complete with hub gear and brakes. So at 23h30 last night, when I'd rather had been in bed, I was fitting my SPDs to his bike and checking out train times to Alfreton because riding to the start no longer appealed.
This morning came around far too quickly, esp. as I had to be up by 06h30 to catch the 07h45 train to Alfreton, but at least I was able to do the ride and I'm really glad I did. From the start to Southwell was absoulely lovely. I've cycled a little bit in that area and the villages are beautiful. Getting back from Southwell was hard work because of the nasty headwind and it was also uphill a lot of the way, and I was starting to suffer on the silly bike.
In the end, an excellent day out and I ride I'll remember that was saved from a DNS by my housemate.
*That's the second spoke that's broken on my bike in a month. In Feb. one of the spokes in my front wheel broke. I'm not impressed.