Well, I enjoyed that - in parts ...!
Up to Chester was largely fine, with magnificent weather, and brief company from citoyen (terminated by puncture) and a more extended tow from/chat with LWaB (also terminated by puncture - grr). Had a fairly miserable night section, with the dozies beginning to kick in as I approached Chester and then really taking effect after I'd left, even having had a couple of hours sleep. Naps in a couple of barns contributed to me taking something over five hours to get to Upton Magna, but from there to Belbroughton and Honeybourne went better and I seemed to find a new set of legs after the Domestic Fowl Trust cafe.
Controls, organisation, all seemed to work very well from my not-quite-newbie perspective1 - there was food when I wanted it, beds when I needed them, even a refreshing shower part way through, not counting the many from the clouds. What's more, I'm a sucker for homemade cake, but I'm probably irrationally even more impressed by homemade sausage rolls ...
The route was grand, with some lovely views, pretty Cotswold villages and industrial icons, and surprisingly little traffic even on most of the unavoidable main roady bits. A bit of up and down, sure, but it's not that there were really *that* many hills - just that those around made their presence known in some reasonably intense doses.
Exchanges with blueskies and swiss hat were confined pretty much to hellos at the start before they vanished into the blue yonder, but chats with others passed the time, including fidgetbuzz - interrupted first by me dropping back to find a convenient barn, but then resumed at Chalgrove to discuss the unfortunate demise of *both* of his gear shifters. And I completely failed to recognise iddu despite the fact he's got a picture of me up there ^^^ (yeah, so I'm *completely* hidden under a blanket? So?), and did little more than grunt at Basil - apologies.
Yeah, I enjoyed it. Thanks as ever to Keef and the rest of the organising team, as well as to everyone who treated us (well, me anyway) so well at controls. Should we ask about plans for next or subsequent years - is a rejuvenated classic returning to the calendar? (Nah, too early.)
1: despite an extra-value effort on LEL, a miserable failure on the Mille Cymru and a more successful time on the Mile Failte, this is the first 600 I've entered.
(Oh, the parts I didn't enjoy - hindsight'll take care of them. I spent a substantial part of the Irish ride swearing that anything longer than a day out on the bike was misery and that I'd never do anything so silly again. Hmmph. Care to tell me why exactly I've got the AUK calendar open at the moment, wondering just how much I hate the Fens?)