Day 13 – Spoke to soon

Well I’ve had better days, but I’ve also had worse days. Started with a bad nights sleep, couldn’t get into a deep sleep and kept tossing and turning all throughout the night. I forced my tired self up though when the alarm went off and then set off on schedule. Today’s journey was going to be around the 70 mile mark, so my first longish ride in a few days. I was using the google route that I had printed out as there was a stretch of about 65 miles all on the same road. The weather wasn’t the best and has been cloudy all day. As im typing this the heavens have just opened and its raining chats et chiens! Good thing I got here about an hour ago and managed to miss it otherwise that really would have topped things off.

About 7 miles into my journey I could hear a funny noise coming from the bike, now it was different to the squeaks I get when my cycling shorts rub on the saddle and it wasn’t a brake pad rubbing on the wheel. I couldn’t figure out what it was. Anyway I was about to approach an ascent when ping! A spoke broke and started rattling about on the hub. Great! Not having any spare spokes with me, I had to give Tony yet another call, should have him set up on friends and family by now, would be a whole lot cheaper! He said I needed to get it to a shop and get the spoke fixed and make the wheel true again (spinning without a wobble). As I was 7 miles away from where I had set off and there was a Decathlon shop there I didn’t know whether to head back or try and carry on. It would have been very risky to head back the 7 miles as I don’t even know if the shop is open on a Sunday, I know not many places are as everywhere I have rode through today has been like a ghost town! So with Tony’s advice I secured it with a velcro tie wrap so that it wouldn’t rattle and then took it easy for the next 63 miles. I got here in good time even with taking it easy, there were some slow up hill parts but I tried to coast down as many downhill parts as I could. I have googled my nearest Decathlon shop and will be outside it first thing tomorrow when it opens! I will probe pack all my gear up with me and take it as the shop is on the way to my next destination. No point riding the 5 miles there and back, that’s just pointless. So I’m hoping they can fix the spoke and re true the wheel. Fingers crossed for my guys as I have a tough few days ahead.

Today’s journey was 70.04 miles, riding time of 5:16:16, max speed 28.3 mph, avg speed 13.29 mph, 3906 calories, 3 litres so far.