Well its our first ride out of the New Year. The weather is cold but blue skies and being the serious cyclists that we are, nothing is going to put us off.
Slightly late night last night so started a little later than planned. In fact I massively overslept and we set off about midday! Although at least I made it, only 3 of us out of a possible 6 made it. Rich has a slight hangover, but nothing a bit of fresh air won’t cure!
Anyway we decided on a route and headed out of Leicester. Slight navigation problems so took longer than expected! Mmm need to work on that!
Finally hit the open road…. this really is what its all about.
We hit a very steep hill and I have a small panic about whether or not I can get out of my cleats whilst cycling up hill very slowly…….. Yes I can, shortly followed by Helen who also leaps off. Rich helpfully takes a picture of us pushing our bikes. Might not of bothered blogging about that, but now there is photographic evidence.
20 miles later we arrive at Foxton Locks and have lunch.
We decide to head back to Leicester along the canal path and quickly discover its a bad idea. I fall off in the mud and Helen discovers a puncture. Puncture fixed and whilst Helen picks her bike up I discover I also have one. Cunningly I don’t have a spare inner tube so I have to hang over the canal to fix it instead. Oh well this is all good experience!
Unbelievably 5 metres and 5 punctures later, the experience is waning. It is cold and getting dark. We head back to the pub and phone Stav who kindly picks us up. Fitting 4 people and 3 bikes into a Peugeot 306 is another challenge.
Miles= 20
Punctures= 5
What we have learn’t= Our navigation needs some work, carry inner tubes, don’t ride down the canal and don’t allow Rich to take incriminating photo’s
