Record Ride (this year anyway!)

Sunday 29th July

Despite setting the alarm wrong and getting up an hour after we meant to, we set off only half an hour later than we'd planned. We set off at a cracking pace, heading out through Clyst St Mary and Woodbury, through Lympstone and along the cycle path to Exmouth. A ginger and white cat very confidently sat in the middle of the path, moved a bit to let the bikes through and then tried to follow me for a bit! We headed along the seafront in Exmouth turning left by the lifeboat station and climbing up to Budleigh Salterton. We joined the cycle track, where a dog then decided to chase after me barking for a while, but luckily got bored and ran back the other way. Although running a bit late for a coffee stop, we decided to push on to Otterton as planned as the cake is so good! It was well worth it as we tucked into delicious victoria sponge cake and coffee cake.

Olympic spirit seems to be running high in Devon. Cyclists seemed even more friendly than usual and people were keent to chat about the Olympics. At Otterton a chap asked us how far we'd cycled and where we were headed, when the little boy sat with him piped up and said 'we're missing Rebecca Adlington in the swimming'. Bless! He didn't seem to mind so much when a plateful of chocolate brownies showed up!

Lovely cake as always at Otterton Mill

Rather liked these granite owls - but wasn't going to carry one home in my pannier!

From Otterton Mill we headed up towards Tipton St John. We spied two more ginger and white cats sat out enjoying the sunshine. The lanes here were very narrow and there was a lot of traffic about, so we had to keep pulling in until we turned off. Our pace slowed a little after coffee - possibly due to the large amount of cake we had consumed - and the uphill and undulating route through the lanes. We didn't mind though as it's a beautiful spot and all the hay had been gathered into bales, creating a delightfully picturesque rural scene to cycle through.

Once we'd crossed the main road we seemed to be in Tipton St John in no time. We were only 5 miles from Otterton, so decided to carry on to Ottery St Mary before stopping for lunch. In Ottery, we took over a bendy bench in park. We both struggled to eat our sarnies as we were still so full of cake! Just before we left, three older people showed up and started playing in what we thought was a children's park, but then realised was outdoor gym equipment. Had we realised sooner, we would have gone to play ourselves, but we had plenty of exercise still ahead of us. We stopped briefly at Sainsbury's to make use of the facilities and stock up on water. When I came out to meet Ant he was discussing the Olympics with a little boy who had parked his bike next to ours. They were betting on Adele or Coldplay to headline the closing ceremony!

The Bendy Bench

We headed up out of Ottery to Feniton, where I saw a gorgeous 'Dulux dog' and more signs of Olympic spirit with multi-country bunting hung outside some houses in most of the villages we passed through. From Feniton we headed to Talaton where I'd been dreading the hill, but climbed it without too much trouble - although I did have to use my lowest set of gears for the first time in the ride. We usually head from Whimple out to Broadclyst before going back into Exeter, but decided we'd head straight through Whimple and join the old A30. This turned out to be a big mistake! Instead of the easier ride home we'd anticipated, there was a tremendous and relentless head wind. We battled against the strength of the wind and negotiated narrow sections of roadworks and were very relieved to turn off into Clyst Honiton.

From there is was short hop back to Clyst St Mary. Pulling over to let a car pass, we saw to little deer running through a field. So sweet! Just as we got back to Countess Wear we hit the 50 mile mark we'd been aiming for. No time to stop and celebrate though as Ant had to be back for a date with a batman film. So - again battling the head wind again (which possibly explains why we'd flown so quickly this morning!) we pushed along the river and back to the Quayside. A total of 52.6 miles today!

Completely delighted with our ride today. Yes we struggled at points and yes we're both shattered and still a long way off 90 miles - but we've achieved a lot in a short time and we have to stay positive if we're to have any chance of completing the ride in September. In the meantime, I was delighted to get home and see we've won a Silver Medal in the ladies road cycling...go Team GB!