Ride Across Britain Day 4 The Group Formed

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When I started the RAB I set myself three challenges: finish, don’t get off and push and try to complete the whole ride at an average speed of 15 mph, a perfectly reasonable average as I had been higher than this on all of my training rides. However, due to the terrain experienced in the first three days my overall average for the ride was only 13.2mph and I had to admit to myself that there was no way I was going to make up enough speed over the remaining six days to get that average up. Day 4 was also the flattest day, so I set off early just after 7:00 determined to make it a recovery day before we returned to climbing on the following days. This was also the first really cold day. I had got the weather forecast via Meg the night before and it was much as the other days had been, but this turned out to be wrong. Setting out in warm weather gear when the temperature dropped to only 3.5°C in the first few miles turned out to be a mistake. I was not the only one that suffered and the medics were treating riders for hypothermia at the first stop.

Shortly before the first stop I joined Mark, Scott, Pete and Martin in a group. We were all similar paced riders on the flat and climbs and it made the riding a lot more enjoyable. After the second stop in Middlewich the local Mayor came out to see us all through the town waving and cheering us on from the roadside it was another of those moments of overwhelming public support we got throughout the ride. The day was flat, and in some ways that made it enjoyable as not having to slog away at climbs allowed the body to recover. The day also ended well at Haydock with a visit from friends. I am sure that I wasn’t great company but it was good to see Andy and Becky and it rounded off a good day. Total mileage 106.9, 3,750 feet of climbing, 7:07:53 riding time.

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Comments

[ChelseaJohnson]

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