"Each step forward has a sacred meaning of its own"   Sri Chinmoy

2 Tunnels 100k DIY audax - 1 October 2022 - Filton - Corsham - Filton

One of the handy things about keeping this blog for myself is that I'm aware of how much or how little I'm doing of each sport. Looking through 2022, so much of which was devoted to open water swimming as I trained for the (ultimately cancelled) Dart 10k, I realised my cycling had been sadly neglected. Before having covid in late January I'd had 2 decent, hilly rides but after the illness knocked the stuffing out of me for a while I didn't really get back in the saddle. The slow build up of walking and then running and then finally racing, together with the weekly 5k lake swims, was more than enough to burn all the calories I had to spare. With the swimming season over for me, I had space to get back out on the roads, but little time in which to tackle organised events. A DIY seemed the obvious solution, especially as I was no longer chasing AAA points and had some Virtual Brevets in the bank from 2021.

BikeHike Route Planner is easy to load and by just tinkering with the app, I soon found I could plan a circular route out into Wiltshire returning on the Two Tunnels cycleway. That would give me a chance to explore beyond my usual boundary for morning training rides (the A46) and have easy navigation and no serious climbs towards the end of the ride. It clocked in at around 102k and with plenty of hills, but all of those loaded in the first two thirds of the course.

Although the forecast was for intermittent rain when I registered the ride, things changed in the day or two before and I was promised dry conditions, maybe some sunshine. When the morning of October 1st dawned it was under clear, dark skies that I fumbled with the lock on the bikeshed and set off on my usual morning training route up past Parkway and through Winterbourne. The sunrise was technically 7:10 but the hills made that impossible and I saw a glorious daybreak with the sun rising over the ridge at The Golden Heart as I rode the first proper hill of the day from Damsons Bridge. It rose for me again on the lanes around Ram Hill and a third and final time of the serious ascent of Coxgrove Hill on the edge of Pucklechurch. Those early climbs were enough to reassure me that Blue Bike had been a wise purchase. This was my first long session on the new machine, a Cannondale Synapse Tiagra Disk endurance road bike. When she arrived I was disappointed in how heavy she felt, but with the fat tyres and Microsuspension (which I don't really understand but you can feel it) she was undeniably smooth-riding and had already proven her worth on commutes over the cobbles of Princes Street and the broken roads of Bristol. On these first climbs I didn't notice the weight, the smooth ride and easy riding position seemed to compensate for the extra kilo or two and the ascents were soon conquered without too much hassle. Out through Pucklechurch and taking the lanes towards Hinton, I came to the last of the big ascents before I crossed the mental barrier of the A46 - that long climb past The Bull was another success, and brought me into open country where I could feel my mind expanding with the landscape. The ride was going well in brilliant sunshine and all was right with the world.

Next came the plunge into the Marshfield Valley and the mechanical disk brakes, a much maligned component, did pretty well. I was slowing and stopping confidently despite the wet and mucky roads and there was no more brake noise than with rim brakes. I was following NCR 17, a succession of narrow and hilly lanes through silent fields in a corner of the Cotswolds cut off from the rest by the M4. I was slightly alarmed when I followed the route from a junction on to a road called Summer Lane, which appeared to be no more than a gravel track rather than a road as we know it, but again Blue Bike proved equal to it with her 30C tyres making slow and steady progress on what was really a farm track. This would have been hard going on any of my other bikes.

The Summer Lane experience only lasted a few minutes then I was back on the lanes and soon on to the Fosse Way. This ancient route probably predates the Romans, but they did their usual straightening thing, though with a surprising number of twists and turns where the hills and valleys of the cotswolds got in the way of Roman military precision. Those steep plunges and climbs were another test of the bike's handling, gearing and braking and all went pretty well. It wasn't long before I was back on twisty country lanes through Yatton Keynell, where I had planned to stop and fuel up, but I decided to head straight through and have a proper feed at Corsham This was a flatter section of the ride, following the Wiltshire Cyle Way, and the hedgerows were alive with birds, squirrels out in force too and often darting over the road in front of me. From the fields around me came the coughing of pheasants and one startled bird took off just as I passed, making me need to duck to avoid his ungainly flapping up into the trees.

I soon covered the extra few miles to the small town of Corsham that offered a choice of three cafes in a pedestrianised street just off the route. There was no sign of any customers at two of them, so I walked a little further to the Deli and found the food and the coffee were superb. Funny how it's often that way when you've just got off your bike. There were a few early risers there, a dog walker or two, and although Corsham hadn't really woken up there was an art display getting together at the gallery across the street and shops were one by one starting to open. I enjoyed the quiet, didn't get stuck in checking my phone and was soon back on the road fuelled by a hot chickpea roll and some delicious coffee. I also stashed a massive fruit flapjack for later.

A mile or two after the Corsham stop I had trouble with my phone holder and as I tried to tighten it, the side of it snapped off in my hand. Oh well, you get what you pay for. I managed to rig the phone up on the handlebars using the drawcord from my jacket's stuff sack and carried on following my route on Bike GPX. I had to stop several times and faff with the holder, but I got it secure eventually and the only issue I had then was that the phone was down to 30% battery and it was impossible to get the charging cable to stay in. Oh well, I could find my way from Midford easily enough so all I had to do was navigate the route to that point which shouldn't eat up that remaining 30% of charge. Issues like that can trash your mood when you're tired, but as it had happened early-ish in the ride (under 50k in) and I was pumped on food and coffee, I wasn't bothered - spirits remained high as I explored the Wiltshire Cycleway. Soon I was passing the incredible Great Chalfield Manor (a hive of activity as there was a massive film crew there setting up to shoot something).

It was soon after this that I found an lovely corner of Wilthshire I hadn't seen before, the valley and gardens of Iford. Passing in front of the manor at Chalfield had been like seeing through a window into mediaeval times, then here again as I descended a steep lane (another test for the disk brakes) there was that same back-in-time feeling as I rolled over the bridge alongside Iford Manor, stopping briefly to get a pic of the statue on the bridge (some kind of Britannia with a union-flag shield).

The climb up from that enhanting spot was another tough grind, then it was undulating lanes through Midford and a long, fast descent to the pub that marked the junction with the Two Tunnels greenway. Once up on to the cycleway it was easy going, over the viaduct and into the section known as Linear Park that passes through Bath. Views over the regency city were a stark contrast with the big skies and hidden valleys of the earlier part of the ride. When I hit the city centre and had to dismount to cross a narrow footbridge to join the Bristol and Bath Cycle Path, I was tempted to call in at Costa and get another hit of coffee (and surreptitiously eat my remaining fuel, the flapjack from Corsham) but it would have meant a slight detour so I just headed towards Bristol on the Sustrans path. Another rider passed me and that woke me up to the fact I had slowed a lot and really did need a few more calories to get back up to speed, so I decided to stop at Bitton. I cruised there at around 17mph into the headwind and again decided (clearly I was tired) that locking up my bike was too much hassle so I might as well hang on for Warmley. There I got a Nutella Hot Chocolate and munched my way through the family-sized flapjack, without having to part company with the bike for even a second.

The remainder of the ride was the part I wasn't lookoing forward to - the ring road grind - but there were other riders out there smiling and saying hello and the weather was kind and there were no serious hills so all in all it was an easy end to the route. Glad to be back out there, to have covered 100k without hitting the wall and to be back in the Audax world after a break of several months. Glad also that Blue Bike had come through with flying colours - seems an Endurance Road Bike does what it says on the tin.

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