48.5 miles today, just shy of 900 ft of ascent
Retraced last weeks exploratory ride into
Rutland etc, but had to be somewhere else this afternoon. Legs are tired despite a shorter ride than the last two weeks.
5 Red Kite (almost exactly the same place i saw some last week....within 100 mtrs), 2 Green Woodpeckers...and a black coloured bird (starling size) with a large white patch just flashed into a hedge. Cant imagine what it was.
No full english breakfast today at my normal stop, they've shut down
. Onward to a tea room in an obscure village, had a massive slice of home made double choc cake, coffee and some kettles crisps. Had an interesting chat with the girl in there who's from switzerland
. She used to do triathlons and was well taken with the Bianchi. I did wonder afterwards..how the hell does a girl from Switzerland end up in a very rural village in the middle of nowhere.
Damp but mild this morning, turned a bit colder after lunch. Bikes bloody filthy now
.
). Then turn for, what ended up being, the return leg, hit the top chainring in about 300m & stayed there until I went over the shrapnel from a tractor which came out of a field 7 punctures in the front, 4 in the rear. With my spare tubes used up I made the short sprint home.
