Really enjoyed today's ride despite the freaky weather - we had a very nice group that stuck together through thin and thinner
Don't have much to add to the excellent reportage already posted, but can contribute a couple of pictures I took at the height of the blizzard. Here's Conor arriving on the scene of the impromptu snowball fight. Note in particular the tracks of the out-of-control car behind
:
[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2154/2357935441_05b25684d2.jpg[/img]
The ghostly figures emerging out of the gloom are Alan, Ant, Rob and (far right) Steve B.
[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2399/2357935635_bca540ebf3.jpg[/img]
Not the best-quality photos in the world, but you get the idea - and for a while it really did look like that.
From this point on it was a case of trying to stay upright until the A22 - a task further complicated by the snow billowing directly into our faces. Eyewear was useless - the snow built up on it - but without it the effect was similar to riding behind someone firing gravel at you from a blunderbuss.
Once on the A22, I found that the accumulated clag on my cleats meant I couldn't get into my pedals - finally achieved this at Purley. Here we (Ant, Steve B and I) realised we'd lost Conor - sorry to hear about your puncture - and pressed on homewards.
A fun day out and some decent mileage as a bonus at this stage in the week.
Thanks to Alan for suggesting and leading - bon viatge. See you all soon.