Well, things are looking up, I don’t want to tempt fate, but I’ve got through a whole week without getting rained on, it’s certainly not summer, but things are definitely looking up. I’ve had a pretty good weekend too, which always helps on the morale front.
So, what have I been up to this weekend then? Well for a start, I’ve done a bit of giving back to the community. Which is always rewarding. Last week I had a spare hour, so I took the strimmer up to the allotment and “strimmed” the paths and a couple of vacant, overgrown, plots. It’s an easy enough job if you’ve got the right tools, but pretty much impossible if you haven’t, plus it’s one of those instant gratification type jobs. With very little effort you can make a massive difference, which is just the sort of job to cheer you up. The lady that organises things on the allotment has been trying to get a working party together to help move a load of rubbish that someone had left on their plot when they moved on too. Watching the Watsapp chat, there were plenty of volunteers when she first asked for some help a few weeks ago. However, as with most things, come the planned day (Saturday), everyone suddenly had other plans or diversions. Knowing that I couldn’t help on Saturday due to my other commitments, I wandered up on Friday afternoon and with the help of another willing volunteer we cleared the whole lot into a skip in under an hour. Another instant gratification job and nothing too strenuous either, just a bit of humping and dumping, and a free workout to boot. Hopefully they will find someone to take over the cleared plot as it used to be a lovely plot, but a change of owner saw it quickly go to ruin (as many do), which I always think is a crying shame. Keeping up with the community spirited approach, I spent Saturday marshalling on the Chawton challenge, an LDWA challenge event with 20- and 30-mile route options and the normal brilliant LDWA organisation. My duties weren’t overly strenuous, just marshalling a couple of busy road crossings ensuring that everyone got across the road safely. Nothing hard about that, but it did get me out in the sunshine for most of the day, although it was a bit chilly early on, and I did get to say hello to lots of runners and walkers that I wouldn’t normally see. Marshalling duties completed, I trekked down to Lymington on Saturday afternoon ready for the weekends main event, the New Forest Excursion Audax. With a couple of hours to spare before bedtime I had an enjoyable evening wandering around the pretty little town and harbour area, before enjoying a pint sat in the evening sun. If anyone tells you that there’s no money floating around, then a short walk around Lymington harbour will probably convince you otherwise, with sailing boats, cruisers and speedboats of every shape and size bobbing happily at their moorings whilst their owners partake of the clubhouse.
Sunday dawned bright and sunny with a blustery East wind that had sprung up overnight doing its best to keep the temperature down, although lathering the sunblock on for the first time this year seemed prudent as I got ready.
Compared to last year there didn’t seem to be as many riders at the start, although I’ve seen worse turn outs. I guess that lots of people who would normally ride would have been off getting their 600km Paris – Brest – Paris qualifiers in, with this weekend being the first opportunity to do so. So maybe that was to be expected. It always seems to be a bit disappointing, not only for the riders but the organisers too, if numbers are down, and at the end of the day if we don’t support these events then they will just die out. Poor turnout or not, at 08:00 we were on our way, heading North out of Lymington bound for the far side of the New Forest at Cranborne. That Easterly wind wasn’t doing us any favours as we made our way North, with it being hard going on the more exposed areas. I use the term exposed areas loosely too, as from what I can tell not much of the New Forest is actually forested, the majority being windswept, open moorland, which left much of today’s route exposed to the full strength of the wind. A situation not helped by the fact that we would be heading pretty much North / South all day and with the wind coming from the east, it always seemed to be hampering progress! The wind’s all part of the game though and it only took a couple of hours to cover the 30 odd miles up to the familiar Audax stopping point at Cranborne garden centre.
From Cranborne it’s a course reversal to head back in the opposite direction aiming for the sea at Lepe. Back we go then, that Easterly wind still not helping but maybe more on your side than directly in front now.
Goldfinches flit from the hedgerows as I make my way down the narrow lanes out of Cranborne, the River Avon glints in the sunshine, the surrounding floodplain green and verdant with spring growth, as we cross it at Ibsley. Buttercups reaching for the sun protrude above the tops of the long grass and Cow parsley, the blooms white against the surrounding green stand tall on the verges. New forest ponies, many with foals in tow, graze peacefully at the roadside, disturbed only by the visitors who abandon their cars in the middle of the road to take photos. Semi wild cattle seek shelter from the sun amongst the forest trees, their owners exercising their rights as commoners to graze this land as their forefathers have done across the years. Approaching the coast, having crossed the forest for the second time, the smell of the sea fills my nostrils and soon after The Solent with the Isle of Wight in the background, springs into view. The beach is filled with day trippers making best use of the warm, sunny, day and the water itself is filled with boats of all description. Sailor’s sail, fishermen fish and jet skiers scream around making a nuisance of themselves, but in the spring sunshine all is right with the world.
A quick stop for some lunch in the salubrious surrounds of a Tesco car park and then onwards for the second crossing of the forest, and back into that wind again.
A few miles into the afternoon session my Right knee started playing up again (that’s the one that gave me issues at Brevet Cymru a couple of weeks back) and as the afternoon went on it was getting worse. I tried moving my position on the saddle to see if that made any difference, then I stopped and moved my cleats a bit to see if moving my feet made a difference, both to no avail. A couple more stops saw me move the cleats a couple more times, until I ended up back where I started from, none of which made any difference. There has to be a reason why this has suddenly started causing issues though, so my next thoughts turned to saddle height. The only problem being I didn’t have the right tools with me to move the saddle. Pondering the issue as I rode along, it dawned on me that putting a bit more tension on the leather of my saddle would probably raise my position by a few millimetres and whilst I didn’t have the tools with me to do that either I could get the same result by pulling the sides in, and all that needed was a bit of strong string. In fact, the farmers favourite, bailing twine, would be ideal and there’s always loads of that laying around in the countryside isn’t there. Not any more there isn’t! Bailing twine used to be everywhere. It held gates closed, it fixed barbed wire fences, it secured notices, it held farmers trousers up, and it even held hay bales together, but it would appear that that’s no longer the case. Or at least now that I wanted a bit, I couldn’t find any! Scouring the roadside as I peddled along, I finally spotted a bit of wire laying on the verge. Rolling to a stop I back tracked and doing my best tramp impression recovered my treasure. It was a bit stiff, but with a bit of fiddling I managed to pull the bit of wire through the holes in my saddle and tighten it up, effectively pulling the top of my saddle upwards and giving me a bit more height. And you know what, I’d probably only moved things up by a couple of millimetres, but the difference was instantly noticeable. I’m not saying it was an instant wonder cure, the damage had already been done, but what was looking like a ride stopping problem suddenly became manageable.
With my legs actually doing what they are supposed to do instead of screaming in protest at every pedal turn, the rest of the afternoon passed without drama. In fact, by 17:30 I was back at the start having crossed the forest and made my way back to the coast for the second time today.
As usual a hot brew, warm welcome and enough cake to feed an army awaited my return at the finish control and whilst the ride organiser checked and stamped my Brevet card, I duly returned the favour by testing a couple of bits of cake and a rather delicious bowl of Chilli and pasta and can assure you that they all passed muster, in fact the ginger cake was almost good enough to tempt me back for another go at what is a delightful ride, through some lovely countryside, again next year.
After my minor success in fixing my knee issues I’ve had a better look at the saddle situation and I’m hopeful that a slight change of height may prevent any more knee problems. I haven’t got anything on next weekend (bank holiday), apart from a million odd jobs that need doing and I really need to sort the allotment out, but hopefully that will give me the chance to get out from home on the bike a few times and I’ll take the tools with me and have a play with saddle height and see what happens.
Watch this space and once I work out what’s going on I’ll report back.
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Paul PerrattOld enough to know better, young enough to still feel invincible, stupid enough to keep on trying the same thing again and again. Cyclist, Gardener, Runner, Hiker, Cook, Woodworker, Engineer, Jack of all trades and master of none, Anti social old git and all round miserable bugger. Archives
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