30 JAN

Training wheels

I wish I’d had them yesterday!

Brad and I went for a ride out in the Chilterns again. We left early ‘cos we had to be back at work for 5pm. When we got there, everything was still covered with a sprinkling of snow. The ground was frozen solid too!

The first 90 minutes went really well. I even managed a couple of tough climbs without dismounting. There were a few hairy downhills where we were bouncing all over the place ‘cos of the frozen mud.

We stopped for lunch and a quick pint at a pub in a village call The City(!!) when we discovered that I had punctured my front wheel. Now I haven’t fixed a punture in about 20 years, so 45 minutes later, we finally sorted it out!

We set off again on a very muddy section. Out of the mud, onto a main road for 100m and then back into the bush for a very fast section of singletrack. About 3/4 of the way down, it happened again! It felt as if I was riding over a section of corrugated iron. I looked down at the front wheel and… FLAT AGAIN!!

I pushed the rest of the way down the hill, dismantled the front wheel and fixed the puncture. By this time it was starting to get really cold and in his extreme eagerness to pump up the inner tube, my brother-in-law managed to snap off the valve!!!

As there was no spare inner tube to be had, lucky me had to walk the last 5km back to the car.

We eventually got back to London around 6pm after taking 20 minutes trying to wash the gloop off our bikes.

I’ll definitely be avoiding this ride in the winter!! I did get some nice photos though.