That was a fantastic audax - just my type of route. Beautiful Welsh Border lanes with lots of off-road sections to make things interesting.
Piccies and stuff here:
https://www.strava.com/activities/7330751706Wales delivered rain. But not to be outdone, England dropped MUCH more in the evening. The highlight of the drenching was a transit van honking and giving me a thumbs up! Must be an audaxer!
Some of the off-road bits were more like a tough-mudder obstacle course. In fact there was a real sting in the tail with the last 9km taking one hour. Why? Well, consider exhibit A. We had pushed our bikes through shin deep mud and struck out across a field. But this was no ordinary field - it had mud made of superglue. Within three wheel revolutions everything stopped turning. Off I pop and push. One revolution and I'm stuck. Hmm. Let's push harder? Huff-Puff-Heave-groan. Look behind me - and there is a 20 yard deep tramline - caused by pushing my locked wheels. Step back and survey the bike. I can't see where the mud stops and my wheels or mudguards begin! Pick up the bike and walk! My two colleagues had faired slightly better - they had no mudguards, but still ground to a halt as their stays and forks finally succumbed to claggy-mud-cake too.
But it didn't matter - this is exactly what I love. Spending a couple of hours slivering on mud, learning how to let the bike move and be smooooth. Not always successfully I would hasten to add.
So in summary - a fine day out with good company, bikes with wide tyres and the bonhomie of a shared endeavour warming our wet, shivering bodies in Wetherspoons as we recalled the more comical aspects of the ride.
PS. Mark is evil
Those last 9km were mean (but great fun really...)