The famous ACME peloton took on the Santa Special yesterday.
Jiber, the Hustler, Nurse Ratched and I formed one group along with Bus Shelter Bertie and a club mate of mine on his first 200.
From the off I was struggling to keep up a bit as I discovered that riding fixed in the winter with worn summer tyres doesn't work that well. My back wheel was shimmying violently beneath me as I went down Cox's hill so it was slow work going downhill from then on. My ride became characterised by losing touch with the group going down and then trying to catch up again on the flat or going up.
Meanwhile Tomsk was driving the Tomsk train with his own group. He set off a few minutes behind us and we did not see him overtake us between Arrivee and the second control at Diss. I thought we had kept up a reasonable pace and we only stopped for the obligatory photo at the Camel Oasis. Imagine our surprise then to find Tomsk and his merry band taking their ease on the sofas in the café looking like they had just walked round the corner. Tomsk had an unlikely tale about bouncing the first control and setting a high pace. We left Tomsk & Co tucking into seconds and headed off to Sudbury. Again, no overtaking and who should walk into McDonalds with us, yup, Tomsk.
As is traditional, we formed a larger peloton for the last couple of legs and put Tomsk at the front. At least that's what it looked like from a mile or two behind. I was slightly late leaving Sudbury as I was getting my bottle filled and then promptly forgot it anyway
I did catch up with a few of the group a couple of miles down the road where a driver had decided that the best way of overtaking a group of cyclists was with liberal use of the horn and loud revs. When this didn't work he simply got out of his car and started shouting. Deniece was giving him as good as she was getting but Jiber and I decided to stop and just make sure.
After an hour or so without water, I was glad to catch up with the peloton when they were stopped at some lights. My wingman duly obliged with a drink and then they all shot off down a hill leaving me to pick my way down on my ever-worsening back tyre. Fortunately we had Cox's hill to go back up again so we were able to reform for the final sprint to Arrivee. It's important to keep something back for this and annoy any members of the group that were hoping for a steady last few miles