Oy vey!

And other stolen ethnic exclamations!

Better late than never right? I have excuses for the lateness of my post but more of that, well, later.

So i'm back in Brizzle, well you know that right, and Thursday morning i was still suffering the after effects of Tuesdays journey down from GOC, it wasn't the walking or the actual travelling, no it was the damned uncomfortable seat i was sat in/on for five hours. Any thoughts of a longish ride went out the window so i settled on my standby of a ride down to Bath with a bit of road collecting thrown in. It was a fair day, maybe the 14c was a bit cooler than i like, but i met up with Aunty Bev for tea and bacon before we both returned along the Bike Path - 62km all in but at least my back felt a bit better than when i set out.

I had intended to get down to some writing on Friday but best laid plans and all that. It ended up a day of catching up on stuff and doing some overdue chores. Laundry - tick, cutting the grass that was last done in April - tick, sort out and add @ 50 books to my library catalogue (the only way i have any chance of keeping tabs on what books, maps, guides i actually have) - tick, walk around the park - tick, cook tea - tick. I'm sure there was more, the day just evaporated!

Saturday should've been a 'long' bike day, the forecast was dry if a bit grey so given Sunday was supposed to be warmer and sunnier my plans changed. Instead of riding i fitted a new drive chain to my mount of the moment, a bit later than ideal but hopefully i can get away with using the cassette for a third chain cycle. The walk ended up being 5km, not huge but at least it felt like i'd been on a walk afterwards. I was cajoled into a social outing in the evening so that accounted for the rest of the day.

It was during said social occasion that Aunty Bev suggested a car assist bike ride for Sunday, a trip up to Cheltenham to see steam trains and other stuff. We departed Brizz @ 9.30 to make the hour or so journey up the M5, i had a route planned for me, the chauffeur had her own itinerary half organised. By 11am i was on my way from the race course terminus of the Gloucester & Warwick Railway and straight into the climb of Cleeve Hill.

I'll spare you the minutae of the uneventful ride following the lower slopes of the Cotswolds north western flank except to say i passed through Winchcombe and Broadway before climbing Dover's Hill to reach my lunch stop destination of Chipping Campden. I had brought along a couple of filled breadcakes, sardines if you must know, which i consumed sat on a bench close by the historic market hall. I wasn't even half way but i'd made good time on the mostly level ride up, the afternoon promised to be a little more 'exciting'!

All things are relative, it started with a long climb out of the small town, taking me up onto the main Cotswold Massif where i would stay for most of the return. That doesn't mean it was flat, i dropped into Snowshill then climbed and dropped through the Guitings before starting a longer climb through Brockhampton which eventually put me onto Cleeve Common, the highest point in Gloucestershire at 330m. The views from the top are expansive from the Severn Bridge in the south to Malvern in the north, I know i reached much higher during my time in GOC but it was still quite impressive.

As was the descent down to Cheltenham. A drop of 250m over 5km doesn't seem too bad but on the steepest, 20% section i lost my brakes, well not totally but enough that i had to stop and reset them before i deemed it was safe to continue. .I was soon back at the car, 75km ridden, 1077m climbed, dry and happy. The new chain had the odd skip but its rideable if not ideal, a new cassette isn't exactly in my current budget, October promises to be another very lean month, there may be a lot of beans and soup on the menu!

It was gone five when we got back, hence the late posting of both this and the new Gaby chapter, Fifteen, which concludes the Potsdam race.

I had hoped to tell you that i'd been writing but i haven't yet, tomorrow looks like the day so fingers crossed.

That's all for now, i'll be back on Wednesday with more gibberish to disseminate, but for now,
Tschuss,
Madeline Anafrid