The full monty RR:
Shacked up with jwo for the night in the Travelodge. The first problem was the Travelodge had run out of their breakfast boxes (jwo got one, but I got there too late). So I had nothing. Some people diss the Travelodge breakfasts, but it's better than nothing, which is what I had. Another problem was jwo persuaded me to attempt the Fred Whitton Challenge. Anyway, despite waking up at 4am in a lot of pain from stomach acid, and noisy neighbours in the middle of the night, I slept like a baby. Waking up was the usual struggle, though jwo very kindly made me a coffee, and we duly arrived at the start with about 5 minutes to spare, having negotiated some tricksy black ice on the mini roundabout at the services. This was a taste of things to come.
Off we went, me being a bit tardy to get going, but soon caught jwo at a well placed set of lights, and we rode out of Oxford in a bunch. But it didn't take long for him to escape again, and then we headed out into the icy wilds. I saw a guy in an acf top, which I mentioned. He recognised me, but I didn't him, and he said he'd met me at Pangbourne on the Anfractuous were he'd ridden out to meet us. I remembered that conversation but couldn't remember his name, though I remembered he was the "Middle Road guy". He let me think about it, but it wasn't til long after he'd turned back from the ice that it came to me.
Manotea also popped up and we ride together for a bit over huge sheets of ice, somehow staying upright. I really didn't mind the slow pace. smiley I stopped to try to buy supplies at Shrivenham but it was the worst shop ever (no fruit at all) so I made do with one of the cereal bars I had with me, and a can of Red Bull. Nik and a few others sped past and I thought I would probably be Lantern Rouge by now. Of course I always think that, but these days it's not so often true.
I spent the next section to Malmesbury trying to fight off the bonk, and only arrived just in time to see Manotea leaving already. I got some pasta from the Summer Cafe, and bumped into Nik and MattC and other familiar faces. Half hour stop it was, and then I was off again, last to leave, surely now I must be last. The promise of lumpy bits was finally fulfilled, and with my low energy levels continuing, I was worried about how long I'd be in the dark if it frozed over. Fortunately it was clouding over so I decided it would be ok. I had some bananas bought at Malmesbury so used those to keep myself only in mild levels of bonk. Stopping to eat one on one of the climbs, I heard an "are you allright?" behind. I wasn't last after all. He waited for his mate, so I pushed on again. I saw them a few times as I paused for more sustenance, and then got away after the temptation to head for Oxford passed.
I was passed by a very fast lady on a skinny racing bike. The view was only spoiled by the line of muck up the middle of her erse. smiley Then I turned off to head towards some country house and found myself on a long swoopy descent. I almost got reeled in again by the two blokes from earlier, but got away again, and finally arrived at the Chipping Campden control about 4.30, and was most pleased to find the cafe to be full of Manotea, Marmitegeoff, Pip, and others. And they didn't rush off either, so I got time to eat my carrot cake, have a coffe, and then have company for the ride back.
I'm afraid I slowed proceedings a bit by repeatedly stopping to sup squeezy gel in order to stave off yet more attacks of bonk. It was very nice to have people to whinge at as we got rained on and had to fight something that was doing a very strong impression of a headwind. At the info control at Shipton I was rather disappointed by the food available, bought some Nutrigrain bars, and tried to eat one, which I decided was made of cardboard. So it was back to the squeezy gel. Fortunately there was just enough of it left to get me back to Oxford.
I think that took about 12h40, which is one of my slower attempts at the distance.
Thanks Nik for organising, it was a great ride. And thanks to my companions on the final leg for not leaving me behind.
