Having gone straight down to granny gear I just ground my way up the most beautiful road, everytime I turned a corner the others disappeared round the next one but the view was stuning through the trees.
I got to the checkpoint on the Toll road where the vehicles have to pay - luckily bikes don't count! Where I met up with Robin & Pippa again - I said "that wasn't so bad, is it downhill now?" the answer was "we are only half way up!" Me and my big mouth - so off we went up againto the AA Box which looked like Dr Who's Tardis but the wrong colour! We then had to negoiate our way down a dirt track with lots of deep muddy puddles and rocks (John Rowland would have loved 
it!) not good for road tyres! Then onto Simonsbath for a well deserved chocolate Brownie & Coffee! After leaving the cafe Pippa just slipped into the conversation that we were going up hill again for 3 miles! So straight down to granny gear again and I ground my way up to Exmoor where at the top we were joined by Dave the Chip shop man - who was far too slim to have a chip shop!! But he was very friendly and carried an umbrella in his pannier - I had visions of him flying away on his bike like Mary Poppins over the moor! According to the route sheet when we got to Kinsford Gate our efforts of climbing would be rewarded with a following wind and magnificent views - luckily we hadn't had beans for lunch and the view were amazing as we could see snow being dumped from the clouds a good few miles away - it was pretty awesome! Have I mentioned the cattle grids yet - we had to go over at least 5 on the way round and boy am I glad I don't wear dentures or there could have been trouble! We arrived at Dulverton for lunch where we sat outside the pub to eat our sandwiches during a blizzard - well okay a snow settling - it was quite surreal under an umbrella! The only problem with stopping is the starting - my teeth were chattering for a good couple of miles while my body warmed up. The next control was a question to answer where we met up with some more cyclists - a very nice young lad who cheerily said all you have to worry about now is Weddon Cross - which meant nothing to me - but I certainly worried about it all the way till we got there, to be fair it was slightly steep but nothing compared to what we had already done, so we stopped for some jelly babies and moved on! The snow hit us in Dunster and boy did it sting as you cycled along - so it was head down all the way back to the rugby club, luckily only a couple of miles and we made it back - 63.88 miles - 5 hrs 9 mins and average speed 12.38 mph - not bad with those hills!
it!) not good for road tyres! Then onto Simonsbath for a well deserved chocolate Brownie & Coffee! After leaving the cafe Pippa just slipped into the conversation that we were going up hill again for 3 miles! So straight down to granny gear again and I ground my way up to Exmoor where at the top we were joined by Dave the Chip shop man - who was far too slim to have a chip shop!! But he was very friendly and carried an umbrella in his pannier - I had visions of him flying away on his bike like Mary Poppins over the moor! According to the route sheet when we got to Kinsford Gate our efforts of climbing would be rewarded with a following wind and magnificent views - luckily we hadn't had beans for lunch and the view were amazing as we could see snow being dumped from the clouds a good few miles away - it was pretty awesome! Have I mentioned the cattle grids yet - we had to go over at least 5 on the way round and boy am I glad I don't wear dentures or there could have been trouble! We arrived at Dulverton for lunch where we sat outside the pub to eat our sandwiches during a blizzard - well okay a snow settling - it was quite surreal under an umbrella! The only problem with stopping is the starting - my teeth were chattering for a good couple of miles while my body warmed up. The next control was a question to answer where we met up with some more cyclists - a very nice young lad who cheerily said all you have to worry about now is Weddon Cross - which meant nothing to me - but I certainly worried about it all the way till we got there, to be fair it was slightly steep but nothing compared to what we had already done, so we stopped for some jelly babies and moved on! The snow hit us in Dunster and boy did it sting as you cycled along - so it was head down all the way back to the rugby club, luckily only a couple of miles and we made it back - 63.88 miles - 5 hrs 9 mins and average speed 12.38 mph - not bad with those hills!
I even had snow on my saddle bag at the end of the ride!!
Roll on the summer!
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