To those who didn't start on account on the forecast, you really missed out on a great ride.
I was slightly tight for time arriving at the start (being kept awake til 2am by noisy drunks in the Travelodge is not my idea of good preparation) and I was still not ready when the main bunch set off so I waited for Manotea to stop chatting with NikW and set off with him, about 8.05 or so.
It was very cold but... the ice from the Poor Student was largely absent. After a while my hands stopped hurting and I started undoing zips to keep cool. We caught up with a few others and despite the headwind we were doing OK. Until I missed a turn which separated me and Manotea from the group.
Later on I was riding with a couple on a tandem who were doing their first 200k. We almost had a crash when they decided "left SP fyfield" was the first of two turns that say that rather than the second and they turned left across my path. We touched bars slightly as we both screeched to a halt - no harm was done!
There was some ice at the side of the road on the approach to Hackpen Hill but that was deftly avoided by me but not by the bloke from York I was with or his dad but no-one came off. As the view opened out on the climb it was possible to see a lot more riders in the distance on the second section of the climb and I caught up with a couple near the top who it turned out were MarmiteGeoff and Fungus.
On the way down the other side, I caught John Spooner, and we had a bit of a high-speed chat on the way into and through Lambourn then I cracked on in my search for the Tutti Pole. It was an effort to get the waitress to take my food order before running away again, but we got her cornered and all got our orders in. I decided to have dessert as well so by the time I left I'd dropped back down the field, and left with Manotea and NikW who had started about 30 minutes late. The wait for food also allowed me to tighten up a very loose spoke in the rear wheel.
I lost the group when I stopped to commisserate with Cornelius about his broken frame so I ended up in chase mode. I got Peter Menicke and Manotea but failed to get NikW until the Wootton Basset control. So I just had a quick coffee and got some bananas from across the road, and left with Nik and Manotea again. Nik kept saying "it's downhill from here" just before arrived at the next hill.
The fast pace I'd been trying to set early on into the wind started to take its toll though and I was flagging as we worked our way north and eventually I was dropped as I stopped for banana consumption. By the time I got to Lechlade Nik and etc were gone, though there were the Tandem, a recumbent (not Tiger - I asked) and Marmitegeoff and Fungus passed through whilst I was sat on the bench eating fish & chips. The clock in the chippy was out so I got a Barclays receipt for proof purposes and off I went into the night.
Eventually i saw a couple of red lights in the dark and found MarmiteGeoff and Fungus again, and they caught me a couple of times due to battery changing for the GPS and also not being exactly sure where the info was. After that there was a bit of upping and downing then a final blast down to and along the A44, and I was there.
I controlled at a cash machine again, and went to see if anyone was at the Kings Head, but no sign of any bikes so I went back to the car park and MarmiteGeoff and Fungus arrived shortly after.
I think it was under 12h, but the record will show 12.05 due to the late start and the circling around Woodstock looking for a suitable control (the queue at the co-op was far too long and would have required leaving the bike out of site to join it).
All in all a great day out. The weather was cold, but not excessively so, the promised problems with ice were largely non-existant (it was a completely different ride to the Poor Student in terms of ice), I finished 1h faster than last weekend and 45 minutes faster than the PS, and the clear skies led to superb views. Thanks very much to NikW for keeping this event running.
