The lane from Downton was hard work and Salisbury couldn't come soon enough. The stop seemed to do me some good and I picked up for the last bit back to Romsey. The inclusion of Dean Hill after ~240km (280 for me) was a bit mean I thought. Barry (on fixed) was reduced to zig-zagging his way up it but made it OK). Glad to reach the top but the descent past bright yellow fields of oil seed rape made up for it.
Yes, those rolling hills were getting quite hard work. I'm not a brilliant climber anyway, but I've paid for those granny rings, I lug them around with me, so I'm damn well going to use them
I'm also not too proud to get off and walk, which I did about half way up Dean Hill. It was tough going, and walking wasn't going to be much slower (and a lot easier on my legs).
As I type, we have had rain, thunder and lightning here this morning so I guess we were pretty lucky.
I was thinking that this morning too - as my wife and kids had gone to do the St George's day parade with cubs/scouts
