Lovely ride, thanks Chris and the team for making this happens.
It was my second 600 after the BCM in May and it did feel harder! Possibly something to do with that relentless heat. I'm glad I was able to ride in good company for the better part of it.
After a very nice but uneventful run up to Bridlington, I rode from there to Castleford with Ian (nice yellow Roberts). We were doing good work of the head winds, but as the club run mentioned before passed by, it was too good an occasion to skip - even though the riders at the back were behaving quite erratically. Short stop in Malton, just for water and a ice cream consumed too quickly (felt a bit heavy for the next kms
). As many others we were planning to stop for proper food at Thirsk, instead we stopped at Sowerby at the
Land & Sea fish'n chips. Massive and excellent portions of chips, with lots of salt please, and a slush drink, all consumed on a bench in a quiet park. Perfect, thoroughly recommend.
Then off we go again and soon enough we turn South, which greatly alleviate the head winds, at last! The ride to Castleford is nice and quiet, and easier, almost too much in a way as km don't go by as fast as I'd like them to do. Eventually, we reach the service station for another break. I opt for milk and crisp in a bewildering array of flavours. And of course one of the many ice creams consumed over that weekend. It's important to keep a varied diet!
We teamed up with DrMekon for the last leg back to HQ. He was having a good rhythm for someone thinking about packing! Then, puncture on the rear 33 km from HQ. Turns out the non-traversing scratch on the sidewall of the tyre (that had been there for the last 1000 km) made the casing unravel slightly on the inside, which in turn punctured the tube. Ah well. Tyre boot, new tube and off we go. A bigger group forms as we catch Adam, his dad and a few other. Then 18 km from HQ, second puncture on the rear. Arrgh! And this time as I was lagging at the back of the group, I find myself on my own (the last rider turned back to see what was happening, but as he was running tubeless he was unable to provide assistance). So I walk a bit to someone's drive and say a few various french expletives as I start taking the wheel apart for a closer inspection. As it turns out, the ParkTool tyre boot, who's only a tad smaller than a credit card (so, huge), has a thin layer of transparent plastic stuck on top of the boot proper. As the boot was too big, it curved along with the tyre, and this thin layer formed a few "ripples", which then damaged the tube.
Of course I only had on spare tube so it's now time to faff around with patches and glue. Always fun, even more so at 11pm on the side of a busy road. At least the temperature is mild. I also take off the offending layer off the boot and tear the boot in half. After half an hour or so of tinkering, I'm back on the road... gingerly as the rear is somewhat floaty! After 1km I realize that I left the patch kit on the road side... U-turn and here we go again. I count down the km until HQ, where I finally arrive around 00:20, where DrMekon is about to set off again into the night. Thanks Chris and the team for the amazing support there
A bit of food and lots of water as I consider my options. The patch on the 2nd tube seemed to be holding alright. So I decided to repair the original one, borrow another spare from Chris and set off relatively early for the 2nd leg in order to give myself some headroom for more trouble.
As expected the second bout of sleep went much better than the first one! I wake up around 4:45 and I'm out of the door by 5:30. Nice start of the day, with sun and fresh temperatures. Nice riding with Jack until the service control in Fulwood (or was it Preston). I then let him and Robert go away as I was starting to tire a bit. I found company again shortly before the closed road before Blackpool and I rode with Adam and his dad until Glasson Dock. There we meet up with Jack, Adam go on his mission, and I let his dad and Jack go as I lay down in the fantastic grass next to the café for twenty minutes. After that it's only a 100 or so km to get back to HQ, but the heat and the hills made it hard work! Anyway, liberal application of water and low gears saw me through it and I was finally back at 18:30 for more TLC, some beers and sleep. Phew!
(thanks Jack for the photo at the secret information control
)