Ride
Date - Saturday 20th June 2009
Road Bike Run
Weather - Overcast, very slight precipitation at times. Temp
about 16 degrees C
Riders - Julian Page, Greg Hatton, Steve Thompson & Colin
West
Saturday morning's ride presented the last real opportuniy
for the representatives of "gowcc" to get some decent
road miles under their belts.
With that in mind the following route was completed.
It started with a gentle ride, so far as gradients is concerned,
the A386(N) into Tavistock. A tough monotonous climb out towards
North Brentor was followed by a quick descent into Chillaton.
Further arduous climbs followed, the rises to Lewdown, out
of Bridestowe and on the moorland road (A386(S)) adjacent to
Willsworthy were punctuated with numerous hair-raising descents
into Bridestowe, Mary Tavy & Peter Tavy respectively. We
had by this time taken our mid run break where an assortment
of caffiene and glucose enriched sustenances aswell as copious
amounts of fluid were taken on board. On the whole, I'm not
sure that this refill had too much effect although there was
an an immediate response of flatulence. Anyhow Colin, Steve
and Julian gave a certain amount of distance between themselves
and this nameless rider.
The climbs out of Peter Tavy, up Batteridge Hill to Moorshop on the B3357(E)
and later climbs up Pork Hill and to Rundlestone above Princetown really sapped
the fuel from the legs (although Greg seemed to get stronger). With the end in
sight, we pressed the booster button and sped back to base camp on the B3212
passing what looked like 30-40 riders from YOGI riding in the opposite direction.
Ready for Sunday's Dartmoor Classic? I think so......a little bit of fettling
will be completed to a number of bikes. We completed this tour of 45 miles in
just over 3 hours. Simple maths puts that at 15 mph. We're probably on course
for the silver medal. You'll have to go easy on us on Tuesday night's ride though.
