I suppose that soon enough we will get steady rain at our assembly point in downtown Bury St Edmunds, bet let's pretend that it will continue for ever. Maybe photos of bikes reflected in rain soaked paving will be just as attractive (I'm speaking from the purely aesthetic viewpoint hear).
Justin, ever the man with the plan, suggested Easton Farm Park. In case we doubted his seriousness, he had maps (or, at any rate, parts of maps) in his back pocket.
Whoosh, and we were off. Damn and *??'@**!! weeeeeeeeeeeee! my left foot came out at over 120rpm, leaving my right foot with the job of keeping up on its own while I applied the (fortunately excellent) brakes on my New Best Friend 'Pearson'. For new readers, 'Pearson' is a fixed wheel machine. No freewheel. Embarrassing. Some would say "serve him right" and others will say "why doesn't he shut up about his bloody bike for once".
We weave our way via Thurston, Pakenham, Stowlangtoft and Eastwards on lanes that were narrow and undulating. The low and powerful sun flickered through the bordering trees and hedgerows, making for a video-game (I imagine) effect of chasing cyclists along a dark tunnel while something shone a strobe light into your eyes. At over 25 mph. Invigorating might be the word. After a momentary wrong-slot at Easton village we found the Farm Park and,
with the silver-tongued Justin doing the negotiating, we were allowed to spend our forty quid or so without stumping-up for the whole Farm Park Experience (with or without the Norovirus option).
We did have to WALK for 2 or 3 hundred yards, but we submitted to this indignity with good grace. The presence of an overweight Labrador is often a feature of outside seating at pubs and cafés; loitering with intense, pathetic eyes. Here it was a portly Muscovy Drake, which was a change - but it has to be said that he lacked the full moist-eyed appeal of a skilfully scrounging mut.
Having just checked 'Sir Francis' after he was papped by Paul Callow and SJH, I may have done him a injustice. What do you think? Post a comment at the foot of the page. You may need a Google or Yahoo password & sh*t but it doesn't cost money (intrusion of privacy is probably minimal, too) just, as the cold-callers say "a moment of your time".I took advantage of the break to adjust the tension on my spd pedals - there had been too much psychological tension on the ride out, trying to keep my left foot clipped in.
When we arrived, I should have pointed out, there were gasps as riders read "19.6mph" or thereabouts on their computers. The short walk (see above) to and from the café reduced this to a more reasonable 18.2-ish. On the return journey (slight headwind - even slighter when tucked in the bunch) we built our average back to a speed not unadjacent to 20mph. And my total was 76 miles. Tricia may well have reached mid 90s with her hack in from Barnham - which makes for a pretty energetic weekend, since she did a Cyclo Cross on Saturday!
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