That was a bit harder than I expected
I got cramp and my stomach didn't seem to work. The stomach trouble meant that I had empty legs, so ended up walking some hills I could have probably ridden up. I never felt in pain though, except for when the cramp kicked in on the climbs.
Cramp was mostly solved by Hummers magic bag of crisps which got me to Exmouth, then 2 litres of tomato juice. It never entirely went away though.
The stomach was made better by 3 hours on a bench 3 miles before Cheddar.
I decided to pack before I slept near Cheddar. Before that I was going very slowly and even slight hills were a struggle, so when I saw the bench, I thought I'd stay there, then get a breakfast in Cheddar before thinking about how I would get home. I was still a bit reluctant to pack though. I had a leisurely 3 hours sleep and my stomach seemed a lot beter. I felt hungry which was a good sign. I id a few sums and realised that reaching Malmesbury before the control closed was possible if I could get moving.
I managed to ride up Cheddar Gorge OK and reckoned that I could make Malmesbury before the control shut, which I did. I was very surprised to see the others still there. I thought they'd be long gone.
I didn't know whether to finish the ride or not from Malmesbury. I knew that I could, it's just that I was worried that the train wouldn't get me home afterwards. I had less miles to do to get home than I did to finish.
But I reckoned that I would be OK with the trains if I finished before 2000 and the ride home was a bit tedious. The ride to the finish was much more interesting and I wasn't keen on the idea of packing, so I carried on.
I caught the gang again at Nunney Catch services and we left sort of together but I ended up leaving them. I would have prefered to finish with the gang but had to be unsociable because of the trains.
I eventualy finished at 1915ish watching the sun start to set as I rode into Poole and was on the train eating my BP Meal Deal at 1932.
If I'd known which platform to go to for my connection at Clapham Junction, I wouldn't have missed my connection by a minute. The next train for my connection was the very last one, so that was a very close thing!
I eventualy arrived home after midnight.
Sorry I couldn't be a bit more sociable on the ride and ended up on my own or quite a lot of it.
Well done Hummers on your Wessex SR and also to Matt H.
I had missgivings about this ride. It was expensive with the train fare and accommodation adding up to over £120. I've ridden the calendar event 6 times and stopped because it started to become tiresome. But now I'm very glad that I rode it. I forgot what the Wessex experience was. These are very special rides and well worth doing. I'd go as far as to say that this was my favourite ride of the year so far.
I might even do it again next year.