First Audax (Part Two)

So, day one was fairly uneventful apart from frozen toes and the loss of a front mech. I can't say I slept too well, knowing I had to be up and out by 5:30am - I remember waking with a jolt and the thought process went: "What time is it? Must be somewhere near 5 because it was already fairly near 5 when I went to bed...". It was 2:20am. You'd think after 80 miles of hillsome cycling my need for sleep would keep me there.

Steve very kindly brought me a mug of tea at 5am, and after some more tea and toast, we were off. He'd hoped to have a spare front mech among his bits and pieces, but he didn't, so I was left with minimal gearing. My motto is "If it ain't broke don't fix it" and I was now able to add to that "If it is broke but you can't fix it, just do without it."

I knew exactly where we were going in Leicester, as I'd once occupied a flat just round the corner, and we were there in good time to get a cup of tea and load up on biscuits, unlike my mate Ted, whose club, Leicester Forest CC, were doing the organising. I'd phoned him just as we got there to find he was just dragging himself out of bed. There was a quite staggering turnout for the event, and after registering we stood around in the cold morning air watching the main group of riders set off while we still awaited the arrival of Ted, who turned up nonchalantly about 15 minutes later.

Myself, Steve, Ted, and his friend Martin set off at a leisuely pace about 20 minutes after most of the others had gone. I found the cold air made regular breathing difficult at first, but soon found a rhythm. My feet were still aching from the cold, even more so than yesterday. I discovered when we made the first cafe stop after around 20 miles that my Sealskinz were not actually on my feet, they were in my pannier. I put them on and soon felt the benefit. It had been 5 hours since breakfast. That bacon sandwich was very welcome!

As we'd travelled east from Leicester out to Rutland, the snow on the fields had deepened and the temperature had dropped noticeably. Now we were heading south into Northamptonshire, and the level was maintained. Only one road had been changed on the route, the rest of the roads and lanes were well gritted and pleasantly traffic-free.

Along the middle section Steve's bike developed an annoying and time consuming habit of loosening his left crank arm bolt. No matter how much we tightened it, it would work loose again in a matter of minutes, until we realised there was quite a bit of oil present both on the axle itself and in the threads, so before tightening it, I packed the socket with snow, in the hope that it would repel the oil and supply a little friction to hold the bolt in place, which seemed to do the trick.

(TBC)