25.5 miles of misery today.
The day started well, bright sunshine, and the 18 miles to start the ride was hassle free. First hiccup, I open the van door, and no battery!
I wasn't going to bother after this, but decided that the day was too nice not to.
The ride started well, with frozen ground and bright sunshine, then the ground thawed almost instantly to form a 25mm horrid mess on the top, that picked up every stone going, and clogged the bike solid. I should be getting used to that by now.
Some very odd steep climbs today.
The view from the top of Mount Cayburn, looking towards where I am heading off to.
The view looking back towards Mount Cayburn, and where I had come from. The ride started in the valley behind at Ringmer.
Just starting to pick up mud.
And this is kind of where things came to a head for me today. I had spent over half an hour trying to ride, push and carry the bike to get to this point due to the wheels being locked solid, only to crest the hill and see this in front of me. NO!!!
I had to decide whether to turn back or go on, and I opted to go on, as the surface looked reasonably dry. The field is much bigger than it looks, and within just a few feet, the bike was locked solid again with crud. It must have taken me a further half an hour to cross it. When I got to the other side, things became very disheartening, as the field beyond, was just sticky mess, which had me dragging the bike just to move it forward. I very nearly turned back, as the ploughed field was the easier option.
On the plus side, I did find a broken bronze artefact in the ploughed field, and a small iron dish of some sort.
Next up was a WTF moment when what looked like a dry track turned out to be pure mess. To add to this misery, there was a suddenly a massive pshhh noise, followed by a long hissing sound. I stopped the bike, looked at the rear wheel and the crud that was on it, and just thought NO!!! Flint is a real nightmare to wet tyres, and sure enough a big hole! I have just switched to tubeless set up, and I was already starting to think that this is going to become a big disaster. Trying to remove the tyre from this muddy wheel, and install a tube was not going to be easy. Now this is where the Stans tubeless set up has won me over. I turned the wheel to find the hole, put me finger over it, and the air began to stop coming out. With that, I turned the wheel further with the hole now at the bottom, my thumb still on it. I held it for about a minute, removed my thumb, and the hole was sealed. Quick use of the mountain Morph pump, and I was away again. I can't recommend going tubeless enough.
This was how the bike looked at the time of the puncture!
Time for a coffee and sausage roll stop at my favourite rest stop in Alfriston.
End of the ride. I decided to drop from the hills onto a byway. Note yet another change in mud colour.
And now it's time to down a few Fullers Honey Dew and sit in front of the fire.
