Met up with the usuals, discussed what groups to take with Ian - we both felt an 18s group was about right, so were the first to show when this was called. "Strangely" we were followed by 18 other volunteers. Surely they didn't all want to hide behind us (everybody else's dream team for into a headwind)? We split to two groups, Ian took the first 10 or 11 with him, and Alex and I the rest.
On the run out, I was shocked to see "The Shadow" next to me for the second week in a row - Either I'm riding above myself, or he's taking it easy for a few weeks. Things got a little ragged through Reigate, but a few "words of encouragement" got it back to shipshape. Several muddy sections added to the fun - it was like mountainbiking on slick tyres at one point.
I wasn't the only one struggling - Alex confirmed that the Colnago is worth a couple of miles an hour at one point. I found myself on the front through the woods and up the climb to Rusper - I paid for this with a lung-jettisoning coughing fit on the descent to the lanes extension. We'd called "no sprint" earlier due to the state of the roads and size of group (we'd swept up a few puncture repairers on the way) and I was glad we stuck to this resolution when we came round the last bend before the finish line to see a couple of horses coming our way. Even AJC coming past the group didn't provoke a reaction.
Got to the Cafe with an average of bang on 18mph
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The ride home was also pretty disciplined, though I lost touch on the way up to the church and again up the Merstham drag. Cruised home to finish with my usual metric century club run and an average speed for the day of just over 18mph. Not bad for a "weakday".
