Four intrepid souls managed the 7am start this morning, including a new face Louise Ryde. We were also joined by Neil Robinson and Katie Webster.
We headed out and set a steady pace towards through Harworth and out to Serlby. The first 5 miles were sub 18mins (16.8mph average) so pretty steady but then as we headed to Mattersey we started rolling through and taking turns on the front. It was all beautifully coordinated - Andy Singleton would be proud to see his work coming to fruition! The next 5 miles were much quicker (sub 16 mins) at an average of over 19mph.
We all stayed together through Sutton and onto Babworth - they hadn't dropped me yet! Louise Ryde is a strong rider and so was quite at home with the 7am speedsters. She has a lovely high cadence and neat riding style, and was happy to take turns on the front.
As we came past the solar panel farm and over the A1, I was still hanging on but starting to feel the pace. At this point, Katie Webster must have known that because she kindly got a puncture on the road up to the Clumber Park entrance. We all worked like a Mercedes F1 pit crew to get the puncture repaired as quickly as possible beacuse Louise Ryde wanted to ride out with the Blue ride so we needed to be back by 9. A 10-15 minute delay made it pretty tight.....
Having rested though, we were all able to work together for the blast back to Tickhill, although to be fair Neil Robinson was a star pulling on the front for long periods at a strong pace.
We went through every set of lights in Worksop without stopping for a red - I can't remember the last time I did that! The Good Lord clearly wanted us back by 9...!!!
The last 5 miles were done at over 21.5 miles per hour - boom. Overall time was 1hr47 - not as quick as some of the speedsters do - but my fastest time of the year! Well chuffed!