Knackered!

I wanted to go for a ride last night but the forecast wasn't good, and it did indeed rain, so I spent some time fitting the rack and bar bag clamp to my bike - the latter was a pain in the bum but I got there in the end.

Today, I went on a new route which I'd worked out - 46 miles/72km - which went up North Hill at Paper Mill Lock (the biggest hill round here) three times. The profile of today's route still isn't a patch on any of the climbs I'll face in Spain. I did start getting worried about the steeper climbs, but then thought that there's no point in getting worked up about it. I'll have all day to get to the top, and the downhills should be fun.

This photo shows North Hill from a distance. You'll see it isn't that big, but it's the steepest round here, climing up for more than two miles with a steep gradient in places.

The ride was quite hard work, I think because I haven't got my food and drink right yet. I didn't bonk but I don't think I was far off. I didn't have a big enough breakfast, so was always playing catch up, and I didn't drink enough liquid. I've been out and bought some cereal which I'm going to eat a good 45 minutes before I go out tomorrow, with a couple of bananas, which should hopefully do the trick, and I'll also take two water bottles with me.

The scenery was great though, as the route wound through some lovely countryside on very quiet lanes, and love finding quaint villages like this one:

There's a tea room at Paper Mill Lock which is superb. I stopped for a cup of tea and a sandwich, but on the counter they also had about ten homemade cakes, all of which looked fantastic. I managed to resist, but tomorrow I'm going to go back and will try the carrot cake. I'll take some photos of the cakes when I'm there, and post one on here!