After the big hills I joined up with John Irwin, and then Phil W and his niece Nicola. Suddenly I was in group and my mood and legs improved greatly. Thanks guys for the lift.
Riding it for the first time and mentoring my niece Nicola round her first audax.
She loved the understated start , no horn or loud music , riders just started rolling off. We had a good run to Chipping Campden on the fairly gentle terrain. She liked spotting PBP gilets after I pointed them out. I'd told her not to worry about what other people were doing pace wise. She was pleased to see that people who passed us, we passed them later on and so on leap frogging each other. It helped her relax and not worry we were going too slow (we weren't) but at just the right pace yo get round.
At the Bantam baked potato and hot chocolate were enjoyed. I offered the LEL2017 gilet for a few to try on for size whilst waiting for my food.
I noticed she was beginning to fade in the hills on the second leg. Not helped by a rider saying "It's like this all the way to Cirencester". After telling him that was "too much information" we stopped at the top of the hill and the emergency wine gums were broken out. About 30 mins later she got a puncture which I fixed then left her to pump up before we put the wheel back in the fork. I then towed her along and caught Neil and John. I sat on the front of the group whilst the old reprobates chatted up my niece and helped the miles pass without thought. We stopped in Cirencester for a photo by the cathedral. Coming out of Cirencester I pulled away with Nicola in tow.
Malmesbury we saw bikes outside the coffee house in the cinema / art gallery complex. Toasties, Paninis and ice cream milkshakes were enjoyed. Darkness fell on the next leg and I got out the proper front light I'd brought for Nicola's bike. I had my large red saddlebag on my bike as Nicola hasn't ridden an audax before and I was carrying all her spare clothes in case she got cold, wet or both. Nicola was drafting me on the final leg still being tired. Subsequently her light caught my saddlebag in its throw and a large shadow fell across me. But all was well.
We caught and rode with one rider for a while, but he was going slower than the average speed I wanted to maintain to get Nicola back not too fast and not too slow. So we pulled ahead and didn't see him again.
Nicola hadn't done a 100 mile ride yet and was keen I let her know when we reached a 100 miles. I wouldn't let her look at Strava running on her phone in case it wasn't as far as she thought and she got dispirited. I guessed at roughly the right point and she saw we were at 99 miles. We took a selfie when we got to a dark lane at 103 miles. She loved the riding in the dark on those quiet lanes.With about 9 miles left she had begun to fade again. So we broke out the M&M emergency rations to see her to the end on the final tow.
We caught a rider as we entered Oxford. He was glad as his GPS had run out of power. So we rode as a group of three. Nicola lives near Oxford and works there and as soon as she knew how far the Park and Ride was, she was off in a final sprint of youth and exuberance. I and our fellow rider were following in her mudguardless wake with our air brake saddlebags on the back.
We then went to the services for a KFC (which certainly wasn't fast food) and final receipt plus chat with other riders in the other eating area.
I'd like to thank every rider we met who spoke and encouraged her along helping the miles to pass without too much thought, I'd also like to thank those she spoke to at the cafe stops or whilst we were fixing the puncture. She was one of the mudguardless ones and had the badger stripe of honour. But no one made a rude comment about it. I'd like to thank Judith for speaking to her at the finish and providing such a great trike for her to look at. She has finished her first audax greatly encouraged and remarked how friendly it all was but shame more women weren't riding.
She now understands the importance of a good saddle, good lights, and mudguards plus a decent saddlebag to carry your spare kit. She also understands that it's ok to say if you're fading a little and need to slow down, no one will mind. Plus that punctures aren't the end of the world and don't take that long to fix if you don't rush the process.
She's so keen she's already posted off her brevet card and receipts before I reminded her today. So I think you'll be seeing her on a few more as it moves to Spring. I'm wondering if I can persuade her to ride an Essex 300 end of April with me, which will be a bit flatter and easier.
