You really wanna race?

March 21st, Haslingfield 200km

The numbers on each ride continue to steadily pick up as spring arrives, yesterday was (after a long cold and miserable winter) a lovely spring day, starting off with shirt, thermal jumper and Gore-Tex jacket and ending up in just shirt sleeves, just lovely.

Tried in miserable vain to hang onto the fast group but knew as they kept cranking the speed up and up that my time there would be short lived, finally giving up the ghost after around 20km - and that was pretty much the last time I saw a single soul on the road until the very end. Always strange how around 50 people can do the same ride on the same roads starting at the same time but over the course of 9 hours you only see a small handful of them.

This was a pretty bumpy course, leaving south of Cambridge and heading 90km due east with a nice tailwind. Alas then coming back 100km due west into an unwelcome headwind, cycling on your own makes it even harder as no group to shelter in and share the work.

The last 20km were flat and (with a tailwind) fast, speed up over 35km / hr, cruising along - but as I was minding my own business this trio of other riders cruises up behind me, they had been using me for miles to pace themselves up. I'm entirely relaxed about this and pick the pace up a little to match their speed and form a group of four, intentionally sitting on the front to do the work, that's the polite sociable thing to do. Alas one of the group had other ideas and picks the speed up further, going past me and heading out on his own. Red rag to bull etc etc, I was having none of that and duly dispatched him out the back, not even bothering to look back to see whether he was still hanging in there. All very childish but rather satisfying.

Ride: 205km in 8 hrs 20, average 24.5km / hr.

Through the 1000 mile mark for the year. Next up a 300km ride.