Mike's turn to lead us out on a ride yesterday. Only five of us out and two of them I hadn't met before. One guy is doing the ride and the other came with him for support.
We set off later than anticipated but I can already tell the difference in my fitness and the borrowed bike. Last time we did this route was two weeks ago and by the time we got to Menston (about two miles, if that) I could already feel my leg muscles aching and going through Burley-in-Wharfedale I was wondering what I was doing there. This time I didn't have that feeling of dread.
We crossed the river at Ilkley and carried on until we started up a shortish sharp hill. I was slow but not so far behind everyone else although that could have something to do with them being slower than the group who were out two weeks ago as well. We saw a mole crossing the little country road!
We arrived at The Cavendish Pavilion and I was feeling pretty good. I had a good cup of coffee and a nice piece of flapjack kindly paid for by one of the other riders, Peter.
On the return journey I could hear a slight grating noise coming from my bike wheel. Peter said my wheel was slightly out of line and cycled forwrd to report to Mike. We all stopped and Mike examined it and found that one of the spokes had pinged. He wound it round the interior of the other spokes and thinking I might have bother with it asked me to ride his bike. Now Mike is only a small chap, built like a jockey I would say, but is a very strong rider. I climbed on his bike and could barely touch the floor. A few hundred yards up the road we had a sharp right onto the bridge to cross the river but I nearly didn't stop so quickly swapped back to my bike.
The last bit of the ride is a long drag up a steady hill probably about two miles. However for a significant amount of it I was right behind Mike although stopping at the roundabout slowed me down considerably.
We got back and I didn't feel like I was about to collapse in a heap.
I took the bike straight up to the bike shop to get the spoke sorted out. Left it there until Tuesday. Incidentally the chap who owns the bike shop is going on the ride to Hamm this year as well.
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