Withy Cottages might have been charming and comfortable but for some reason or other I did not sleep very well. Awaking in the early hours, I felt quite anxious about the day’s ride. I couldn’t really put my finger on the cause of my angst. Perhaps it was the thought of the rainy forecast for today; cycling in the rain is never pleasant and can be slippery and dangerous. Perhaps it was the thought of having to navigate the road to Avonmouth Docks just prior to crossing the Avon into Wales, a dangerous and unpleasant few miles.
The upshot was that I got up at 6.20am and wandered outside the cottage to discover that it had indeed rained overnight but had now stopped. I therefore lived in hopes that the rain had passed over and that would be the end of it for the day. A vain hope as it turned out, for after breakfast the rain came down again quite heavily, so we were forced to put on our wet weather clothing and make the most of it. These conditions made the first part of the morning quite miserable and the heavy rain continued for the best part of an hour but then gradually the rain stopped and the skies cleared and brightened. The rest of the day turned out to be a mix of sunny intervals and scattered showers but no more significant heavy rainfall.
I had remembered three significantly difficult ascents on LEJOG, one of which, Broadhembery, was out of the way, leaving two to go, one in Shropshire and the other in Scotland. I had totally forgotten that there was a fourth. This climb is quite a bitch and comes just outside Wells on the Old Bristol Road. As we turned onto it, I suddenly remembered what was coming and I switched on the trusty motor. This undoubtably assisted me but, as with Broadhembery, I still had to put in a considerable amount of effort myself to reach the top. So difficult was this climb that I decided to name it “Col de Bastard”. I suggested the name to the rest of the team when we reassembled at the top and they concurred, feeling that such a title did in fact catch what we were all feeling about the hill which was now, thank goodness, behind us. Well I can charge the battery on my bike in preparation for tomorrow’s major climb, I just hope my legs will also have recovered enough. Today “Col de Bastard”, tomorrow “Penta Hodre”, or as some call it, “The Wall”
For the first part of the fourth day the team was complete but this was, sadly, not to last. As we got to the outskirts of Bristol Scott was again taken out, this time with two punctures. We discovered this when he failed to catch us up on the outskirts of the city and Ollie went back to find him. He was out of innertubes. Ollie attempted in vain to fix the second puncture and so various phone calls ensued. Scott rang his parents, who live in Bristol, and they came and collected him. It was decided that Lizzie, Adam and I would push on to the Avonmouth Roundabout and wait for Ollie to catch us up there. We didn’t have very long to wait sitting on a grass verge by the side of the very busy main road before Ollie came haring along at great speed. We decided that due to the large number of lorries and other heavy goods vehicles thundering along to the docks at Avonmouth it would be sensible to try to stick together as much as possible. There was a bit of respite every now and then on this road with the occasional bike path but they were few and far between. However, with lungs full of diesel fumes and somewhat frayed nerves we eventually made it to second lunch at Avonmouth Services. After the stresses, both physical and psychological, of the day thus far, I was looking forward to a peaceful descent past Tintern Abbey and along the Wye valley to Monmouth once we had navigated the Avon Bridge. What could possibly go wrong? Well you will find out in the next blog!
Ezekiel's Wheels 