Team Time Trial

Feeling very knackered and stiff from last night but even so I'm back on my bike again, otherwise I won't make my promised 100-mile target for the week.

I have a friendly tussle with my some time combatant. It's amicable though and we do a very professional looking team time trial, each taking time at the front, sheltering the other from the wind, which really does work. When I'm in his slipstream I can actually freewheel and be towed along unlike when I'm in front when it's a case of head down and battle the wind.

Just as he turns off, I notice that he's riding a 'Focus'. I must ask him about it next time I see him. So far so good, no punctures today, yet.

I get the usual 'are you alive?' text from L and I'm a bit slow replying. She says she was just about to call 999.

It seems even windier on the way home but thankfully it's with me most of the way. I get home and not only has L cooked up her legendary bean dish, she's been and got me some oil for my bike.

I express my gratitude while at the same time commemorating Saint Dwynwen's Day which is today. It's a lesser-known fact that Saint Dwynwen is the Welsh patron saint of lovers. Folklore has it that Dwynwen fell in love with a young chap but then rejected his advances. Typical female. So he helps himself. In revenge an angel gives the chap a potion which turns him into ice. Dwynwen gets him released but then legs it to an island off the coast of Anglesey and becomes a hermit until she dies. Women eh?

We walk Doggo across to the pub in Beeston, where they are celebrating something else because tonight is Burns Night. So we should really be on the whiskey, but we're not and in any case they have a whole load of Scottish ales on the bar. This momentarily distracts me and while I have my eye off the ball, L and obviously some other punters finish off the Damson Porter. Luckily it is soon replaced by another brew called Devils Porter which is equally as good.