Le Gibbon Express 400km 11/04/25
A (relatively) easy 400km from Cardiff to Buckingham and back with 2500m of climbing.
A late start (11pm) which I like. It means a good sleep and plenty of time to eat, get ready and have the all-important pre-audax poo.
My shit was together for this one. I had a range of expected finish times and ended up finishing at 19.31pm, for an overall time of 20:33 @ 19.99kmh. That was just half an hour later than my most optimistic time. Average riding speed was 24.3kmh. Time stopped was perhaps a bit longer than ideal, 3:37, but there were reasons for that.
Got to the Severn Bridge (I hate riding the damn thing) and bumped into A Chap. I was happy listening to Andy Serkis reading Fellowship of the Ring, but The Chap was riding at my pace, so it was a choice of burning him off (and going kaboom) or giving him a ten minute head start and freezing my tits off. I decided to be a sensible grown-up and paused Mr Serkis. The Chap turned out to be friendly, but not overly chatty or annoying. He was a strong rider and had done some long distance rides before, but never one this long and never an audax. He was also preparing for LEL. So we started to work together and it was a great decision. We made a good team and we both took turns pulling the other through bad spells. One downside of having a friendly stranger on your wheel is that it makes having a really good fart a bit more challenging, but I think I managed without being too ghastly.
My initial plan was to ride at a lowish HR (120-130bpm) as per the previous rides to and from Dad’s. As before, my heart was wildly excitable at the start and by Buckingham was averaging 133bpm. Afterwards it settled down and was positively Eeyore-ish. Average for the second half of the ride was 117bpm and I saw lows of 99bpm, despite riding faster. According to the various sages I’ve consulted, this is normal. So in future I’ll just use the HRM for actual training rides (1hr with full beans, 2hrs at decaff) and not bother with it for the really big rides.
The Chap had a bike packing tail pack. I hate the damn things. They all have one huge flaw, in that the Thing you want is always at the bottom (assuming you can even find it). I’ve lost multi-tools before and spent ages rummaging, and that was with just a tiny 1 litre pack. I’d estimate we lost about 30 minutes stopped while it was tipped out and repacked, which is completely standard for this type of pack and something I’ve seen countless times at controls on various audaxes. I didn’t mind, we were working well and making good time, but on LEL that’s a lot of potential time to throw away as well as being a potential point of friction if you’re riding in a group. I guess they must work for the Trans-Continental crowd, but presumably they’re more disciplined and know exactly what they have and how to find it. Yes, they’re more aero, but it’s hard to work out how much time you’re actually saving when your worldly possessions are in a heap on the floor.
Didn’t eat quite enough. Macdonalds apple pies (I started with three) are perfect ride food. Must make a point of stocking up mid-ride if the opportunity arises. Did the biscuit trick on a couple of occasions and scarfed half a packet of HobNobs in short order. Not much use mid-day though. Banananananas need to make a comeback – I’ve underestimated them. As usual, it got more difficult later in the ride. The Torq energy bars I was testing were…ok. Chewy and too sweet, without ever feeling like a nice treat. Emergencies only I think. Co-op have started doing a 750ml iced tea with no feckin’ sweeteners – that made my day and is something else to keep an eye out for in future. Carried a tin of rice pudding with me, but didn’t fancy it. Silly really, I could probably have forced it down and would have felt better for it.
Tech: managed virtually the whole ride on just one powerbank for the nav and barely touched the dynamo. Nav phone did have a brief collapse due to overheating, so I might have to investigate that. Achilles had a new chain and cassette. They worked fine, although his gear changes are a bit woolly. Might just be me being hamfisted though. Still worrying about the saddle. I think the bolt on the Independence is going to go eventually, so I need a backup, either the new Gyes, or repairing the Pearl.
Finished feeling, not fresh, but not trashed either. That was probably my main objective for the day, so I was very happy.
The Chap turned out to be called Richard and he was very, very happy to finish his longest ride ever and his first audax. We were way faster than he expected, but from what I saw, he’s a good rider and will only get better. He just needs different luggage! In turn I was very grateful for his company and support, it made the ride much nicer. I doubt he or anyone else will read this, but good luck on LEL Richard and I hope our paths cross again.
Dustman Dave’s Diddy Doddle 50km.
Straight from Cardiff to Taunton for a recovery ride with the Cats. Had a great sleep in the Holiday Inn Express. Didn’t fancy a proper meal, but had some sushi on the drive down and a big tub of yoghurt. I like yoghurt post-ride. It’s pleasant to eat when your mouth feels like a festival toilet. Woke up feeling fairly fresh, although my legs took a while to get going. After a while they were just fine, which meant my plan of not hammering the 400km had worked, although riding at Cat pace definitely helped. Wasn’t encouraged by the reports of early rain, but this was a rare outing with the Cats, so I couldn’t bail.
Awesome display from the Cats. Gill, Em and Fran have hardly ridden so to pull out a 50km (actually nearer 73km, because DD’s rides always seem to be heroically over-distance) was a great achievement. They were full of compliments about my ride the previous day, but I’ve been working hard towards that, so it’s all relative. I truly love this lot. 😻
Weight: much solid, very sturdy. Post-shenanigans weight was 85.6kg (woo!) but it’s always a bit all over the place after a big ride. Still going in the right direction, but there’s a lot of me that is definitely surplus to requirements. Losing another 10kg would make a huge difference, anything more is probably fantasy, but my god I’d be fast. 😁
Well Chuffed Cycling 
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