Saturday 29 October - Colours of Clumber

On Audax duty again today for a 114km route through Clumber Park and around north Nottinghamshire.

I arrived at the start late as I really could not be bothered to get out of bed after a late night last night and the fact I feel exhausted at the moment.  As I was approaching the start point my Beeston CC mates were rolling out, I though it wouldn't take me long to catch them, how wrong was I.  I was batting along at a fair rate due to a descent from the start town of Bolsover and a friendly tailwind, problem was so were my club mates.  As I caught sight of groups of riders ahead I was constantly disappointed to see they weren't  Beeston riders.  The ride through the Clumber estate was lovely, the trees just beginning to shed there autumnal coloured leaves, hence the name of the ride.

Once through Clumber I was starting to feel the effects of the hard pace I was setting myself, but with a cafe at 55k to recharge the legs I pressed on hoping I'd soon be with the boys.  Not until that cafe did I catch them, rolling in 2 minutes after them, both parties impressed with one and others pace we shared drinks and cake.

I was debating whether to press on as we left the cafe as I wanted to get home as soon as possible, but a nice group of about 8 riders formed inclusive of the Beeston posse so I stuck with it.  I was glad of it as well as shortly after we got going again that tailwind was now against us as we headed back to Bolsover.  One of our riders was feeling the earlier pace a little so the Beeston boys took the decision to hold back and make sure we all got in together, we were still on a good pace so it was no worries.  We looped around north Nottinghamshire and back for another ride through the Clumber estate and back up into Bolsover against that headwind.

All in all it was a brilliant ride and one I would recommend to an Audax beginner as a taster of what Audax offers, it's a mainly flat route on easy going roads in lovely countryside, thoroughly enjoyed it!




Distance = 115 km
Time = 4 hrs 40 mins
Ave Speed = 24.9 kph
Ascent = 915 m  (m/km =8.0)

2011
Road Bike = 3752.9 km
Single Speed = 102.2 km
Fixed = 26 km
Indoor = 143.2 km
Total = 4024.3 km