Overall, it was a hot, tiring day, but good fun.
At St Pancras, the guard was being firm in sticking to the rules and only allowing me and Dave to be on the train as we had the only 2 bike reservations. This meant Steve and his 4 companions had to transfer to a Leicester train and joined us en-route.
At Loughborough we met up with John who'd got an even earlier Leicester train and found a cafe for a second breakfast, before heading back to the station to await the others. We rolled off at 10.10 and met up with the speed merchants, who'd raced up from Leicester, just after 11, making 15 of us. The miles past by. Hopefully someone else will post some photos, as it's lovely rolling countryside.
Things went a little wrong as somehow we managed to lose Stu (who'd dropped a chain), Martin & Dave just before the lunch stop, so I left everyone to order the food and drink, to round up the lost sheep. The pub stop in Braybrooke was very good, and the landlord had reserved a block of tables for us all, mainly in the shade. By the time we were ready to go, it was past 2.30 pm, so poor Kats, who was joining us at the 51 mile point, had a long wait. We pushed on probably a bit too fast after lunch to try and catch up, so I'm sorry to Pippa and Jane, who, along with Jurek, decided to get the train back from Wellingborough. It was now very hot, and I was guzzling down the drink (my own mixture of isotonic drink, with a bit of orange juice and water). The wind was generally fairly light and was mainly from the side. However, as soon as we stopped, the sweat just dripped off you, so that was another reason to keep going.
More miles and more hills passed by until we stopped to get more drinks in Olney just before 5 pm. Just as we were setting off, Martin got a puncture, and so whilst he was fixing that, we got to admire the TdF promotions in an off licence (10% off Belgium beer on Saturday and Sunday, 10% off French wine from Monday). Clive was waiting to join us in North Crawley (so much more genteel compared to Crawley in Sussex), and then just by the Millbrook testing ground (scene of the Top Gear lorry testing sequence), my rear tyre started getting soft, although this was due to an older patch failing in the heat. Today's top tip is that CO
2 inflators when just used are nice and cold and perfect for wiping across your brow.
Kats (having fresher legs) was racing up hills along with Steve's speed merchants, so I let them have their fun. We stopped at 6.40 pm at the Tesco's in Flitwick to get more food and drink, which is where Steve and his companions left us meaning just 8 remained. I was back on home turf now, and as the sun started to set, it finally got a bit cooler, although it took about 2 hours to do 20 miles due to the hills. John peeled off on the back roads past Luton Airport, as we got to the final 25 miles.
Once inside the M25, we came across the gleaming lights of Barnet, and after another food and drink stop, then it was basically following the road south to St Pancras and avoiding the cars. At some point, I can't remember where, we got a 2 buttock salute from the front passenger of a car, although generally outside of London, car drivers weren't a problem. Martin had to remonstrate with one driver who just pulled in and stopped in front of him to let off his passenger, neither of whom could see they were in the wrong, with the passenger saying it's a road, not cycle race track.
Anyway, eventually we got to St Pancras just before 9.50, where I left everyone.
Thanks to everyone for coming along and I hope you're not too sunburnt.
And I promise the 1st August ride WILL be a pootle.