Mini-report:-
I met up with Tomsk at Witham station and we got on the 0721 to Bury St Edmunds. Tomsk had brought his race bike which worried me slightly. It even had gears.
A fairly uneventful journey apart from the jobsworth National Express East Anglia guards at Ipswich (we were already on the train - i.e. we weren't changing trains or anything) one of whom insisted we move our bikes to another carriage, the other of which insisted that he could only let two more bikes onto said carriage (there were other bikes waiting to get on, but thankfully they gave way to us since we'd already been on).
On arrival at BSE, we trundled down to that start area, arriving around 0845 and found a cafe for a quick bacon roll and coffee. I also spotted a traditional sweetshop opposite and nipped in for a ~quarter of midget gems (which were properly good, with *real* black ones!).
We moved down to the start area, watched some signing on and the various guest riders assembling for the pre-ride parade and the race start.
Tomsk met a number of folks who knew him from Audaxes (including Ed Nevard, who even I knew having done his Witham Westerly a couple of times).
Once the Tour riders were underway and the chase vehicles had cleared the way, we followed their route out of BSE, following the helpful route arrows through town.
We peeled off the A143 onto our shortcut route to Lavenham and put the hammer down a bit. Suffolk does roll a bit, and I got a great workout trying to stay on the Tomskinator's wheel, despite the perfect weather (sunny, not too warm, with a light tailwind).
We joined the ToB route north of Lavenham, and followed it through Lavenham (where we were cheered through be some really good crowds) and on to the KoM climb at Milden. I asked Tomsk at the bottom if we should have a little KoM race and he was agreeable, I set off felling strong and tried to pull away. I made a small gap, but Tomsk soon reeled me in and came through, and although I tried to stay with him, I realised I'd gone too hard too soon and had no legs for it. He was miles ahead by the KoM finish. We ate midget gems to celebrate. We arived around 20-25 mins ahead of the race, and picked a good spot at the start of the finish section.
We had a grand view of the race coming through, bang on the race manual "fast" schedule time of 11:45, then, once again, chased them on their route for a short while on through Groton and Boxford (resisting the temptation to nip to Edwardstone for a pint), before citting down through Stoke by Nayland and on to Boxted Straight Road (after a minor navigational detour) and across the A12 towards Colchester.
Having, as we thought, at least an hour before we needed to be at the finish, we popped into the Dog and Pheasant on Nayland road for a swift half and a toilet break. it took a while to get served though (I was just behind a big group of lads playing pool who couldn't decide what they all wanted to drink). while we were drinking up, i double checked the race manual and we realised that the 14:00 finish ont e fast schedule which i'd been assuming was wrong and it was actually estimated at 13:40. We decided we'd better get move on, and started up at pace again.
As it was, we were well within time -- I'd reckon even by the time we got to the 25 metre vantage point through the crowds we still had at least 25 minutes spare.
I can, however, confirm that, in addition to the evidence we already found to prove that Tomsk does actually eat solid food, I have now heard him
breathing. (Even over my own gasping and wheezing up all the hills, I distinctly heard him breathing slightly heavily on at least two occasions). Either he's not the android we'd been assuming he was, or he's improving his cover.
After the race, we met up with bloomers100, Auntie Helen and bobb and retired to a pub (at about the 250m form the finish mark) for a few drinks where Uncle James joined up with us. A bit of silliness with bloomers100's Honda slapons ensued.
Eventually we parted ways (I walked a bit of the way with bloomers100 and bobb, then parted company then joined up again with them when road closures modified our routes outbound). A couple of merry locals took a fancy to my legs, and we said our second set of goodbyes.
I rode back to Tiptree on the reverse or the race route, then jinked right onto the NCN route through Gt Braxted. I arrived back home just after 5pm, just in time for tea with the Acorns.
My mileage for the day was 52.63 at an average of 15.3mph (it was well over 16.5 maybe even 17 by the time we got to Colchester, but the walking through the crowds killed it).
A lovely day out in the September sun.
Postscriptum
Invariably as seems to happen when I go anywhere, there was an absolutely shockingly bad overtake within less than a mile of home. A caravan-pulling pickup-type vehicle (chavtank? chavpanzer?) came through too close on the approach to a mini-roundabout. his caravan came even closer and scared the pants off me. He then got stuck in the traffic queue so I easily caught him and had a word.
"Your caravan nearly hit me there - you shouldn't be overtaking that close"
"Err.. sorry. There were cars coming the other way though - I couldn't give more room"
"then you shouldn't have been overtaking at all - it was f*cking pointless anyway - we would't be having this conversation if staying behind me would have delayed you"
"i said sorry!"
He went on to say that I was upsetting his son (in the front passenger seat). I pointed out that it wasn't as upsetting as it woudl have been for my children if I'd been mashed under his caravan.
To be fair, he did seem truly apologetic, and I left it by just asking that he be more considerate in future.
