Completed Exmoor Spring for the first time today. Glorious route, glorious weather big thank you to all involved. Manned controls a rare luxury of late. All very friendly and a good advert for Audax. I was a bit wary of the climbing ( Porlock Hill for starters) but the scenery , weather and amazing lack of traffic made it all ( fairly ) painless. Except for my mate Dave who came a cropper on the rough track option at the top of Porlock. I forgot he was clipped in when I suggested we took it.
No such problems for me. Since a nasty fall in Oct I have taken a break from riding clipless after six years. The MTB spiked pedals and five ten sticky boots are doing a good job. Not the same, but I can't say I notice a big difference in efficiency.
Final thought; just before the start of the climb to Wheddon Cross there was a small deer at the side of the road. Very dead and sad and rather brutal in the way it was just lying there.
I was watching a mountaineering film last night and I remember reading a book by Reinhold Messner where he said
' No climber can see so much as a spoon falling from a table without following it down and seeing in it his own fate'
Do other cyclists have a grim fellow feeling as they pass various roadkill?
' Hello brother rabbit/ hedgehog / pheasant. As another vulnerable road user I sympathise and salute you.'
