A big thanks to Deano for an excellent day.......and night.
I deferred my comments till I had calmed down a bit as things did not go right for me on the day and I had stopped swearing a bit but everything that went wrong was of my own doing or out of my control. Last year, I was apprehensive about the ride whether it would be easy or hard, and found it hard.
This year, I was apprehensive again based on my level of fitness low due to a chest infection that I would struggle more on the bits that where hard last year, especially that hill just after Brough, (Stairway to Hell), but despite it being head wind up it, it was easier than last year. It was the bits that I had forgot about that was hard.
My first problem was, I had forgot to change Garmin mounts on my bike, so my Dakota 20 had to be taped to my bars. But I only had enough tape to do it once and with a possible battery change about 12 hours into the ride, I may have to change batteries. So a visit to a hardware shop in Ilkley was needed. Then rather than backtracking to get back reroute, the Garmin kept crashing. So I asked a woman how to get back onto the road the other side of the river. I do not think she knows the difference between a bike and walking boots, but she gave me directions to a footbridge down a steep climb carrying the bike followed by a hike across a field. And as I walked I saw other riders sail past on the road in the distance, luckily, no one saw me to wave and wonder what I was doing.
Back enroute, at a roundabout to the West of Ilkley, I could have joined the route there. It was also the point where I saw a near miss with a cyclist and a car. A girl, not on the event had just overtook me, she was turning right, indicating right, correct position on the road and I'm just a few yards behind going right to. A car came hurtling past and as the girl started turning, the car turned to the left knocking her arm forward and nearly bringing her down. The car then took the first exit off the roundabout. The inside lane was empty, why had the car not used it to turn left instead of overtaking us. Speaking to the girl, she was a bit shook up with what had happened.
At Litton, puncture, my seventh in seven weeks. Walked a couple of hundred yards so I could eat and fix puncture at same time. Brilliant control. Think I ate to much for that climb shortly after it.
Ribbleshead, heard a loud cracking, thought it was a girls jacket tapping on cars as she walked past them, jacket flapping in the wind. But when I got away from all the hustle in that area, it was my bike making a loud cracking noise, bottom bracket going, only fitted it on Wednesday. Hell, had to coax the bike back to the finish with no undue pressure on the cranks.
Chaos on the new road at Scotch corner, been meaning to disable "remain on road" for years so with a lot of guesswork got onto where I wanted to be whilst the Garmin tracked down the A1 and other roads.
Rained climbing out of Brough, perfect, kept me cool, but then froze on the descent due to the windchill.
On Monday, stripped the bottom bracket down and rebuilt it. Bike still cracking. Checked the rear hub and cassette for tighteness, still cracking. Rechecked it again, discovered the rim had cracked in a few places and also suspected the hub was not right. Change of wheel, everything sorted.
When I was driving home, Bristle put Gromitt into his place and told him that he is not replacing him on rides. Incidenttaly, our lass loves Gromitt, so Bristle said, "he's yours then" so it was a happy ending.
Will I be back next year? Well I cannot recall saying never again and cannot think of anything better to do.
And to round the things off, a very big thanks to Mike and family and all the helpers without such a "premier" event could not take place.