First Audax (Part Three)

The final 20 miles of the Rutland And Beyond Audax were beset with problems.

Steve had toothache, quite badly. He'd also wasted a lot of time and energy due to the loose crank arm. At one point he was just shuffling along with his legs spinning round, trying to stay awake, looking like he wasn't long for this earth.

An experienced cyclist, he knew that most pain and difficulty can be ridden through. He did request that we leave him to it (we all had a "route card" with good directions), but there was no way I was leaving him behind, and there was no way Ted was leaving me behind, etc, so we all took it very gently and eventually cruised home together about 5 minutes before "cut off point", which is when the "crew" pack up and go home.

After a brew, and some sandwiches and cake, we loaded the bikes and stuff into Steve's van and headed back along those oh so boring motorways to Gloucestershire, only breaking down about 25 miles from Steve's place. Somehow we managed to limp off the motorway, down the sliproad and into a pub carpark, where we had a pint, negotiated leaving Steve's van there for the night and waited for his partner to come and rescue us.

When we eventually got back to Steve's house it was 11.30pm. We'd been out since 5.30am. a 16 hour day. Phew.