Managed to grind out the hill without too much difficulty and enjoyed a speedy (42mph) descent with fantastic views of 2 of the 3 Yorkshire "3 Peaks" ahead of us. Once we got off the hills we faced the first really strong headwinds of the day which slowed down progress considerably.
Made it into Kendal leisure centre for the lunch stop in the car park and were just about to leave when the heavens opened. Retreated indoors to don full wet weather gear before setting off for Keswick - made a detour in Stavely to visit the Wheelbase cycle store to eye up some more waterproofs but only left with some spare cleats for my shoes.
Unfortunately no spectacular views of the Lakes as the hills were completely covered in cloud but had an interesting experience cycling upstream on a number of occasions into the torrent of water rushing down the road. Also played a number of games of "avoid the car trying to drive through a huge puddle to soak a cyclist" but lost out a few times
Took the quiet route to the west of Thirlmere hoping for some shelter from the rain in the trees but still got a dousing. Comedy moment of the day on the last hill when with legs pumping hard and standing out of his saddle Gareth got his waterproof trousers caught on his seat and ended up with them around his knees "a la Stan Laurel"
Finally managed to get into Keswick and have just about dried off - another 70 miles and 3900ft of ascen - Happy (but wet) days !
No comments:
Post a Comment