The Severn Across 400

I had been looking forward to the halfway stop at Chepstow.  For the last 40km, I had been dreaming about pancakes.  Initially, just pancakes.  A bit later, pancakes with banana.  10km later, pancakes with banana, drizzled with runny honey.  Another 10km later, sun inspired, I was adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream ...  When I went into Aslan's cafe, I decided not to even look at the menu, and order what I had been craving.  This was going to be heaven, and keep me going for the next 100km and more!

Oh what a let down.  The idea of pancakes had already emerged on the Easter Arrow, when, at the Wetherspoon's in Sleaford, they had 'run out'.  How can you run out of pancakes?  At Aslan's, they didn't have the 'pancake machine'.

Once you master Delia's three minute boiled egg, pancakes must be the easiest to make, no? What you need is eggs, flour, milk, butter, a pan and 5 minutes.  You'll never run out again, with or without machine.

Still, Aslan's do wonderful breakfasts.

Pip and Mark on the 'Ultimate'

It was great to see Greenbank and Des on the road again.  Also to re-acquaint with SwissHat and JohnW.

There were many yacf names, many familiar faces and many Willesden riders taking part.  The event certainly is a good advert for the Willesden Cycling Club and Chris Beynon.  I learnt that the Willesden SR is only organised in PBP years.

These 400s are not easy.  I thought I'd be OK. After all, I had just done a 400, without too much trouble, the week before. I had reminded myself what it was about: the Dean 300 with a FNRttC added.  I knew it would be a bit hillier and there would be a headwind on the way back.  But oh my!  Those last 60km were tough on the mind.  I was pleased to have company on and off for the last 40km or so. The thought of a 600 in Wales, in a couple of week's time, is being pushed into the back of my mind.  In reality, I am scared.  PBP is something in the distant future, I don't need to think about that yet! Gulp!!

Wonderful though. I've said it before, the Cotswolds, Gloucester, the Forest of Dean, Marlborough, Wilthsire ... is lovely, lovely cycling country.  The sun was out.  It was a summery day with cow parsley in flower all along the road verges, hawthorn, rape seed fields you could smell from a distance away ....

Rape seed fields. What a waste!  Imagine if you were to put beehives all around and amongst the fields.  How much honey could you collect nationally?  I know rape seed honey is not the tastiest, but it is a sugar resource!  How many tonnes of nectar are untapped?  There may be a few hives around, but I didn't see any from the road.

The thoughts you have when cycling long distances in the dark, on your own, are thoughts you would never have otherwise.  For example, I was thinking how wonderful it would be for Kate and Wills to experience an audax.  Audaxers wouldn't encourage them to use the Boris Tandem for sure.  But we could set up a Royal Audax called 'The A to B 400' - Anglesey to Buckingham Palace.  Or 'The B to B 1200' - Buckingham Palace to Balmoral.  I bet Kate never thought of this drawback of being in the Royal Family.

Other thoughts:

• The Brevet Cymru 400 being ridden on the same day, attended by the Faccombe 4
• Climbing Yat Rock and Somerset Monument hill and enjoying it (I know!!)
• Cross wind on Severn Bridge.  Thought my cold had come back, only my left nostril was being blown and held shut all the way across (ha!)
• Thinking about the people new to 400s, I knew what they were going through, or were going to go through. Well done!
• Making pancakes as soon as I got home!

Highlight of the weekend? Only after looking back at photos, discovering this detail at the Blenheim Tea Rooms:

Other photos are on the slideshow till the next ride, or here: Clicky

The Severn Across 400

A second 400 in two weeks.  The Easter Arrow 400 'doesn't count'.  Would you believe that?  I mean, would you believe that I'm beginning to think like that.  When I first did audax rides, the points and award system meant nothing to me.  It was the excellent routes and company I was looking for.  But now, with having to qualify for PBP, it matters whether rides 'count' or not, and the Easter Arrow didn't.  Still, 4 points will be awarded and I have a small desire to reach 50 points this season,.  It occurred to me during LEL year, that, if I had registered all rides I would have got close to 50 points.  So in PBP year, I thought I should make that happen.  It might be a once in a lifetime achievement.  50 points mean 5000km in audaxes above 200km.  It is not massive compared with what 'mileeaters' do, but you wouldn't achieve 50 points without some planning and understanding from the people around you.

Looking forward to cycling through the wonderful countryside again.  I love the ride, it is a bigger loop of the Dean 300.  And with an excellent stop at the Turkish Aslan cafe in Chepstow, I'll treat it as two 200s.

Severn Across 400 route - going anticlockwise

A massive tailwind (24km/h) is forecast for Saturday.  Shame we'll have to turn around at Chepstow.  My strategy is to take it easy and enjoy it.  Still, if I could get to Membury Services by midnight, that would be even better.  Then I can have a couple of hours rest, before finishing the last 100km or so.  Finishing within 24 hours, again, would be great, but I'm not going for it.  You can follow me on twitter (swarm_catcher #audaxuk).

The Severn Across 400

During the first few miles, I noted how common it is to see a few riders stopping to make some adjustments. I've done it. You set off, all is well. After the first bump, something begins to rattle. Stop and have a look, because you don't want to put up with that rattle full stop, let alone for the next 399km.

But as I was approaching one of these riders I realised it wasn't a rider, but a car bonnet sticking out of a drive. What! Hallucinations, already? That is not possible, that was just a mistake, right? Only a few miles later, I saw a white horse, which wasn't a white horse. Then I did see a white horse, which was white horse. I saw loads of white horses on this ride. I saw more white horse, or horses that are predominantly white than any other horses. Then I saw a white pet rabbit by the road. I did! I'm hoping other riders might have seen it, to prove it was real. Just can't remember where that was, somewhere residential. I quite enjoyed that 'Alice in Wonderland moment' which wasn't an 'Alice in Wonderland moment'.

So I hope you can now understand my slightly obscure tweet "Promises to be quite a hallu-fest tonight". If I was already seeing things in the morning, what was the night section going to be like?

In fact, it was quite the opposite. Had no hallucinations whatsoever during the night. And as I had been dreading the night section, the best hour or so of the whole ride was during the night. Not only that, but that best hour was when it was raining!! Can you believe that?! After the Bryan Chapman and LEL 2009, the only thing we wish for, is a ride without rain. Then it rains, and I begin to enjoy myself. Do you think I've lost the plot?

I was tired. I was tired the whole way round. I finally gave in, and had a sleep on the bench by Somerset Monument: Clicky. And that was just wonderful! I had togged up (think it was about 8PM), so wasn't cooling down. The atmosphere was still that of a late sunny afternoon with lovely wildlife noises going on. Bliss! Occasionally, I could hear riders coming up from the steep hill.

Shortly after that I hooked up with Ray from Willesden Cycling Club and we rode together till the end. At Membury Services, all I wanted to do was sleep. I didn't care about anything else anymore. I asked Ray how long we would stop for. When he said "not too long", I begged him for a 10 minute kip. I hadn't caught on to Ray's sense of humour yet then, but he said "Lets push the boat out and have 20 minutes". We ended up staying for about an hour and formed a groupette with AJB and Rob. I felt refreshed, it started to rain, and my spirits lifted for the first time. Ray noticed it too, that we were all bit perkier for it, as if the rain cleaned the air. Rob had a puncture at some stage. The effect of my head torch on AJB's ankle bands was entertaining me while we waited.

Ray was excellent company. Putting me to shame with his knowledge of Belgian rides and events. We exchanged tragic stories of Monsere and Galvez (as one does!). It was interesting to hear about his involvement in British Cycling.

Other thoughts:

• It didn't warm up until about 10:30 on Saturday morning. Hands and feet got quite cold.
• But it didn't get as cold on the Sunday morning, thankfully.
• The balloon rising over Great Missenden.
• Excellent organisation by Chris Beynon.
• Rob and I thinking we knew each other and lunched together. He worked out that he knows me from my blog/images. I haven't worked out yet where I know him from other than that he reminds me of Bill Turnbull. Sorry Rob!
• Strangely enough, having no problems climbing Yat Rock which is 20%. How steep is Smalldean Lane?
• Recognising familiar territory around Goodrich from LEJOG 2005.
• Lovely Cotswolds countryside, especially around Lower Swell.
• Headwind Tewkesbury to Chepstow.
• Climbing up Berryhill and a guy asking 'Is this Berryhill?' This was just after two kids shouted at me: "We found a double dandelion!" Or have I really lost the plot?
• Couldn't be bothered to get the 'No mobile phones on the forecourt' effect in Chepstow Tesco.
• Having a kip in the hall afterwards.
• Many tweets of encouragement: thank you to all. It makes a difference.
• I might come back to this post and fill a few gaps. I will have plenty of time to think today as I'm off to the sleep clinic!

And finally, this morning, I was bemused to see my camera can take pictures of hallucinations.

Ceci n'est pas un cheval!

On the climb to Somerset Monument.