Aching legs and a welter of sweat and snot.
That was me after yesterday evenings training bash. Bash was the word, as in me getting bashed. Just but 4 of us. Me myself and 3 hard men from the local pro outfit, MK Cycles. Resplendent in their matching MK racing kit and almost matching Bianchi bikes they made my heart turn cold. So we went, onto the A6 and started, not too bad so far, hitting 30mph on the flat, up the first drag and its hurting. Through Adlington, round and onto the circuit. going along on the only flat bit past the reservoir, feeling a bit wobbly and bike is sluggish although I didn't stint my turns on the front. Coming up to the left hander onto the Rivington road I find the cause of the sluggishness. Yes, yet another bloody puncture.
So pulled in and start the oh-so familiar routine, not helped by sweat running into my eyes and stinging like hell. Out comes the wheel. Quick look for objects embedded, nothing to see. Out come pump and spare tubes and tyre levers. Off comes the tyre and inner tube. Felt round inside of tube, nothing. Another hard look at the tyre and there it is, a glass splinter so out it comes. In with the new tube (glad I bought 3 more last weekend) And back on with the tyre, carefull you don't nip the inner tube you twit. Start pumping, with this little pump its a major long operation. Feels OK so back in with the wheel, was going to stuff old tyre, other spare, pump and stuff in my back pocket, but, a. Looks a bit messy.
Not much room with mobile phone and other stuff. So wrapped it back up and wedged it back into bottle cage. Rode up and down waiting for the flying three. Seemed to take a while to appear, what if they went off somewhere else ? Oh joy, I can return and have a nice leisurely ride back to the hotel without having to endure any further pain, but no, like an approaching nemesis they come. Latched on and began the process of to the front pushing hard, then latching on to the wheel of the guy passing, to the front.
Well, I'm not the only one suffering, up the hill afetr Rivington and the tattoed Londoner struggles, and the sticky-out-eared guy, with the stylish guy really pushing it. I hold on but the tattoed guy drops off, but gets on round the corner now its the horrible slog along to the twisty drop, at almost 40 mph very scary. Sticky misses a couple of turns, so does tatoos. Back on the hill stylish goes, sticky holds him, tatoo and I drop off, but get back on after the turn. Down fast and twisty, joy ! Someone parked slows us on the scary corner where my left knee almost scraped the tarmac last time around. A very brief respite, as soon as we are on the main road sticky comes past me at an unmatchable rate, stylish and tatoo jump on, I decide enogh is enough, as does sticky ! So stylish and tatoo hurle off, then more joy, its the last lap and stickys jump was an atempt to get away. Slowness again, down into an easily spinnable gear. Decide to go back towards Bolton a little, but then they head off up Chorley Old Road which goes up a long hill on the edge of Winter Hill. Oh well, not so bad in 39x19. Back to hotel along Chorley New Road, and along the horrible road past the M61 island. Ugh, what a nasty bit of road. My legs ache, and I feel whacked, probably a bit of dehydration even though I drank about half a bottle of PSP22, nowhere near enough to judge from the sweat and feel of my togs, I've lost maybe 1 litre, more if snot gets included. After showering I got in the bath and soaked for 10 minutes. That and some yoga/stretching restored normality and today I feel OK, did 45 press-ups no bother. Legs feel OK, going to check my pulse to see how much I really recovered. I'll do that later to give my enourmous breakfast (4 sausages & much toast) to digest.
But, was'nt it so nice to be wet with sweat instead of rain !