Hardest day of cycling ever.
Today it rained. All day. Not weak southern rain, but proper Yorkshire rain. Rain that just did not stop. The only upside was it wasn’t that cold. Even so, I decided to chop off a few corners of my route to minimise my time in outside. It did rain all day I was out. Actually I lie it stopped when I was just short of the top of Great Asby Scar but it was just toying with me. 30 feet later as I crested the ridge it started raining again, with the added fun of having it blow directly into my face.
Only upside of the whole day was I was able to pack my tent up before it started pissing it down.
First ride directly to Appleby in Westmorland, cut 5 miles off the route. An hour and a half in the rain has got into my gloves. I can squeeze my fists to get streams of water out.
Two and half hours, the sleeves on my jacket are soaking. I can feel it inside. Still keeping me warm so press on. Turn directly down off the Scar to Tebay rather than follow the route. Cuts off a few more miles. I hide in a bus shelter from the rain for 15 minutes to eat lunch. Start going again when I start to feel cold.
Three hours 45. Sudden right turn at the bottom of a hill catches me by surprise. Brakes fail in the wet and I end up riding the bank/wall to stay on the road. Don’t lose a bag (just). Scream twat at a sheep that wouldn’t move out of the road, or indeed move at all.
Four hours. The water has gotten into my shoes. I can feel it sloshing around in my right shoe. I squish it every time I pedal. Push on.
I’m sure it’s very beautiful around here, but I cant see anything. The M6 is somewhere to my right, but I only know this because of the noise. There’s lots of little ups and downs on these lanes, and they’re not shallow either.
Finally make it to Dent. The rain stops. Arse! It started as soon as I got to unload the bike. And didn’t stop until the middle of the night.
Then run round like a headless chicken for 30 minutes as I’ve misplaced my Garmin and can’t find it anywhere. I’d put it in a pocket of my bar bag I use for the strap. Typical.
This happened to be the one other night I had a B&B still booked. So I was able to try and dry stuff out overnight. I decide to try and wash my clothes and hang them all out over the radiator. Woke up in the morning and everything is still damp. The heating wasnt on. Damn it! At least my shoes had dried by the fireplace downstairs.
