I was right to be a bit worried about the amount of flatness.
Slightly delayed at the start and no sooner had I caught the back than an overtake or 2 slowed me up and I couldn't get back on, so spent the morning plugging into the wind alone and the views were a tad dull, plenty of cabbages in the fields but I'm used to seeing more diversity and dodging lost carrots.
Was pretty happy when the undulations started and the scarcity of signs on County marches meant it took a while to realize I was in Essex which seemed very different from the media portrayals.
Was getting a bit too warm for my liking when speed was down and I had a couple of unscheduled stops for more water.
Tailwind was appreciated once back on the flat and was in Boston just after midnight arriving with another couple of riders.
Was lulled into a false sense of comfort in a Heat trap on the water railway and once I got going again just after 4 realized there were plenty of better bivvy spots.
Took a long stop at Lincoln McDonald's where dave caught up, but a daft lack of sleep induced error near the top of the climb out of Lincoln saw my front wheel in the gutter and dave disappearing into the distance.
Legs really didn't like the idea of constant spinning and my cranks and bottom bracket were making a racket, I started hating it...
Reasonable shoves over the isle of axholm, is this actually and island or is it like the black isle?
Was held up on the way to glews garage by an oversized load until I realized it wasn't using the cycle path and then it was just dealing with the crossings.
Saw a few other riders leaving McDonald's as I sat eating my subway which cheered me up a bit as it was feeli g like everyone else was finished and off home.
Bit of a grovel and earache back over the isle the wind now mostly against me and I was delighted to find the hills again. Took a couple of bus stop rests before a long stop at the petrol ststion in Gainsborough.
Dave caught up (he'd stopped longer at glews) and we rode back together.
Fun descent into Lincoln
aided by a non audax rider just in front as we took the roundabout, Im sure I would have caught him if he hadn't turned off. The traffic lights near the bottom spoilt the fun briefly too but there was enough hill to carry a decent speed over the bridge.
Just the climb and long descent to Sleaford left with occasional spots of rain falling I thought we might get the promised soaking but we got back dry.
Off to trawl ebay for a good looking set of 10spd hollotec cranks... Or I might swap the hope bb for standard SRAM one. Hm...
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