Esplanade escapades

Despite it being my wedding anniversary on Sunday I left the Bognor house at 9:20after handing over the compulsory aniversary card card. The ground still had a frost.

I was on an old steel Benotto which I bought secondhand in Bermuda twelve years ago. I was quite nervous about the roads which were in an icystate but it was sunny (and windy).

It was nice in the sun out by Arundel and the sun was on the majority of the road (don't you hate it when the road is shiny and you are not sure if it is ice or water). The only problem was the biting headwind but I consoled myself with the fact that it would be a tailwind on the wayback.

I went over the top of Bury Hill and gingerly down the North face as the sun wasn't on the road that side then I went along the A29 to the round about the Bury side of Pulborough where I turned around and headed back.

I was just thinking about stopping for a gel and a drink of electrolyte when "POP", my front tyre punctured spectacularly. Fortunately I was just drifting along so I stopped safely. There was a footpath and I had a spare inner tube and my hands were warm enough so I fixed the tyre(despite the 20 year old pump not working properly) and set off again.

With the tail wind I got up Bury Hill OK and rode down the A29 intoBognor. 33 miles acomplished.

I met my wife and son and a Bognor friend and his kids on the sea front where they were riding. We rode to a park then the kids struggled back against the wind.

On the way back we stopped and I couldn't get my cleats to release from the pedals (Speedplay) and did a slow motion fall on the Bognor esplanade in front of loads of people walking in the sunshine. Lots of concerned people came over to see if I was OK. I had to take my shoes off to get off the bike as lying down I didn't seem able to get off the bike.

I cleaned and oiled the cleats when I got home. They were full of mud from the park.

Last night I compared the ride details from the Garmin against the same ride a fortnight ago and was pleased to see I was a couple of minutes faster (not significant over two hours), but I think that was probably the conditions as two weeks ago the wind was a headwind on the return leg and was stronger.