Today’s ride : 53 miles 900ft more climbing

I’m feeling it in the legs this morning. Today’s ride might be the hardest of the lot, I think. The climbing yesterday was bloody hard work for me – I just go into the smallest gear and tootle along at about 4mph. At one point a guy jogged past us chatting, right up to the top of the hill, and when we finally got to the top he was hundreds of yards in front.

This is the route. If you look at the elevation graph you’ll see there’s about 13.5 miles of easy stuff at the start, then a period of climbing and downhills for 10 miles that looks bloody hard. Then all a bit gentler after that. The final downhill for the last mile or so will be heaven for my battered legs.

Old friend Jim is taking us to a pub in his car when we finally arrive – haven’t seen him for at least 10 years, so that should be nice!