Well that was good prep for The Lowlands 1200..... Five souls joined forces at Teethgrinder's flat at 6am before heading off into East Anglia for 600 km of wind. The route I would ride was
http://tiny.cc/kleua. The first 100 km were fast and we were done in less than 4 hours, but I knew this was a pace that wouldn't remain because it was clear we were in for a windy, showery day and as predicted when we entered The Fens we're at the mercy of the wind. The first hardship was the road beside the
Sixteen Foot Drain between Chatteris and Downham Market, which was sloooow. Just before Downham Market Helen was waiting for us with lots of yummy, warm, food. Boab, Rich and I arrived just as the rain began and so we could shelter beside Helen's car from the worst of the shower - nice. We headed off into Downham Market to get a receipt from The Factory Shop and despite all the fantastic fashion on sale I went for liquorice. How boring. We then retraced our steps along the main road to Nordelph and onwards to Wisbech and Spalding.
Across The Fen to Spalding was hard, but a good remainder, not that I needed one, that riding on that flat isn't necessarily easy.
Julesh found this section very hard; he'd signed up for a easy route for his first 600 and he was having to work for his money. Spalding came and to avoid going into the centre of town we visited the services at the junction of the A151 / A16. I was looking forward to a cuppa in MacDonalds, but only the drive-through was open, so we ended up shivering outside the co-op before heading off to get some food in Fleet Hargate. Passing through Holbeach there were road closed signs, but we could nip round as the cycle lane reminded open. However Mr. Nob
1 decided to turn into a car park as boab was passing and she got left hooked. I heard Julesh shout a warning to boab and all I saw was boab trying to turn with Mr. Nob and then they both vanished from my line of sight as they'd entered the car park. When I got to the incident boab was on the deck, but thank God it wasn't as bad as I'd expected, and feared. Mr. Nob tried to say all the right things, but didn't seem to have a clue that he was at fault. Christ, he'd already overtaken two cyclists, a third shouldn't have been a surprise and boab wasn't exactly invisible in her bright pink waterproof. After a checkover by the paramedics, talking to the police and being fed tea we were ready to move again. I was impressed by boab's mental strength to not even question whether she'd carry on or not - whether the voices in her head were having doubts I don't know.
Fleet Hargate was just up the road and by the time we'd eaten boab had had around two hours off the bike, which was probably very good. Onwards to Kings Lynn and once we were passed the town the beautiful north Norfolk coast began, first with a visit to Sandingham (Liz wasn't at home) and then to Tesco for a control. It was now 9pm and I knew it was going to be late by the time we got to Chris's place for the sleep stop. Oh well. Onwards into the dusk along the north Norfolk coast road, where we got views of a lovely sunset across The Wash and barn owls for company. I was physically feeling OK at this point, but wishing we were further up the road. As it got darker the wind intensity increased and I could see bands of rain blowing across the tops of the hedge. I was very grateful for the shelter on this section and rode along putting the world to right with boab.
It was midnight by the time we got to Cromer and the wind was howling. We found some public toilets, which were amazingly open, and a bus shelter to sit in for a few minutes.
We were now on the last leg before the sleep stop. We headed out of Cromer and I quickly realised we were heading out of town in the wrong direction and we made an about turn to find the correct route to Holt and
Necton Rivendell. boab and I set off at our own pace into the north Norfolk lanes. We had songs (boab:
"Oh Lord, won't you buy me a new pair of feet"), boredom (Adamski: "
I'm bored!! BORED! BOREDBOREDBOREDBOREDBOREDBORED") and I had cold feet but following the route suggested by Chris meant we eventually arrived at Rivendell around 03h15 to be welcomed with food, tea and a shower. I headed off to bed around 04h30 as daylight was appearing. I don't know when the others three arrived because I was already asleep, but being grown ups I was confident they could look after themselves.
8am. Alarm clock. Ouch. 3½ hours sleep. Ouch. Oooooo breakfast!
The other three had been to Swaffham the previous night and had obtained their pieces of paper, whereas boab and I had headed straight to Rivendell. A split was made and boab and I head off to the Pixie's house in Needham Market via Swaffham and added a little bit of extra distance as we missed the turn off for the B1077, but what's a few extra kilometers between friends? The wind was less, the sun was appearing, the roads were quiet and things were looking up. Hooray. We arrived at the Pixie's house around 13h00 and were plied with food. Nom nom nom.
Annie cycled with us to Bildeston and it was lovely to catch up with her again.
Julesh needed to visit the bike shop in Bildeston, but boab and I carried onwards separtely. I came upon a road accident scene, but by smiling at the police I managed to nip through the closed road, but I was the first cyclists to pass by according to the police so I didn't know where boab was and I couldn't get in touch with the other three because their phone batteries were dead. Hmm - I decided I'd just push onwards to the finish - they're grown ups and could look after themselves. After making that choice I sped up and made plans for asking a friend in Bedford if I could crash there for the night as I knew I'd be finished a few hours before the others, but just outside Long Melford I caught a glimpse of red and realised I'd caught up boab. She'd taken a different route to me and was unaware of any road accident. We rejoined forces and set off towards Saffron Wealden. The sun was now truely out and it felt like summer, opposed to the January day we'd had on Saturday. In Stoke by Clare boab stopped to sort out her feet which were hurting and I took the chance for a little nap on the village green. Lovely. I woke up about ¾ of a hour later to no sign of boab, but instead the other three guys had appeared. I most have slept well, but as I'd been in the shade I was cold and set off at a decent lick to warm up. The sleep had done it's trick and I was feeling great and the section to Saffron Wealden was quick.
I found boab waiting outside Tesco and as she didn't know the route back to Milton Keynes we decided to cycle together for the last section following the road map I had in my pocket. Just as we were leaving the others turned up. We took the wrong route out of Saffron Walden and added a few extra kilometers - but what's a few extra kilometers between friends? Instead we went through some stunning beautiful countryside, along roads with no traffic and the views to the north from Elmdon and Heydon were increible. And all in bright evening sunlight, it felt like another world compared with the rubbish of Saturday. boab stopped at a pub to use their toilet and annoyingly they were happy for her not to buy a drink, which meant we had no excuse to sit in the beer garden and enjoy the evening. Damn. After Royston there were more lovely villages, esp. Ashwell. We were nearly finished, I was bouncing along from the sugar of Haribo and happy. What I didn't yet know was that once we'd crossed the A1 it would all go horrible as we worked our way to Ampthill and Milton Keynes. Ampthill came and went and we were getting closure, but boab was getting tired. However, she found some magically elven in her pocket to power her to the finish.
There's a new road being built near Junction 13 of the M1 and we had to work our way through a building site to get onto the road we needed, which didn't amuse me because I now had had enough. We'd done the ride and getting through Milton Keynes was just a bit of hard work, but we were finished by 10pm. Hooray!!! We didn't know how far behind the others were, so as we were stationary we followed the audax advice of eating when you not doing anything.
The others arrived around 10h45 and everyone was then done. That was the first 600 km ride for boab and Julesh and done in hard conditions, so well done. I'd found the hilly 600 km ride I did in Wales in May a lot easier, but without being looked after by Helen, Chris & his family, and Annie it would have been even harder - thanks guys.
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1 Possibly not his real name
