This was the fourth time I had ridden The Sale and I can report it was once again full value for money.
We had the novelty of black ice on the first section, when I saw a couple of riders slowing and someone called out "ice" I instinctively braked and of course went straight down, at least my elbow took the impact this time so after a fall in December when my hip and shoulder took the punishment I now have a very even spread of bruises on the right hand side of my body.
After the first section all was well and the challenge was to keep up a decent pace because as a full value rider I have been scraping in at the Hop Pole with nine and seven minutes to spare, I won't mention the 40 minutes after the cut off when I went off route and had to retrace.
After the debate about the merits of descending Sudely Hill in the dark and wet, when I had supported Mark's route, I began to worry that if the frost arrived early in the evening it might freeze the wet surface and another tumble on black ice on my way down the hill would not only be unwelcome but might result in me sliding all the way down a very long hill at high speed. Your imagination does strange things on an Audax and it was a blessed relief to discover that the road surface was its normal wet self and a slow and steady descent was fine.
I arrived at the Hop Pole with 30 minutes to spare so that was a good result for me.
Thanks to Mark for being his normal unflappable self and for his good humour and knowledge of all things Audax and cycling.