Where I am it is a lot of fun

First of all a big congratulations to Bunny (who is married aren't you Bunny?) for entering a 100-mile Audax today. I'm not sure if you can actually win an audax but he was also the first one to get back to the finish. Given his lack of cycling training and the poor state of the weather, this is particularly depressing. Following the Exmoor Beast in November, I calculated that the performance gap between me and him had closed by 2 minutes over the course of a year, over 100 mile distances. So if I could continue at that rate of progress, I'd be at his level by the time I was about 70.

Unfortunately this news would seem to be a fly in the ointment. I hadn't figured on Bunny getting better as well, never mind the lack of time I'm getting for riding at the moment. Still I will content myself with the fact that I have already done more exercise than I did in the whole of last January, and 2010 turned out all right in the end.

After an abortive start to the weekend yesterday, with the ACG ride cancelled because of freezing temperatures and lots of pesky ice on the road, I once again braved the tedium of solo, static cycling yesterday afternoon. Just 70 minutes this time, but it was enough to leave me slightly tired this morning as I set off to meet Skip for a hilly ride. Before I deal with that I'll just mention that I am now officially concerned about myself. I spent a good 10 minutes planning and choosing what to wear on the exercise bike. (I settled on a black/white combination with red trim, if you are interested). I think I spend more time planning that than I do a whole host of other things. Which is telling.

Good news, today the temperature was above freezing and the brisk north-easterly breeze kept the ground frost away, so off I went to Axbridge via Winscombe, to meet Skip for another opportunity to ride some hills. I was also tremendously excited at the prospect of trying out a cafe that I had not been to before. We started by heading up to Shipham, via Shipham Hill. Half-way up a blue car gave us the pleasure of listening to his car-horn, from a distance of about 2 feet. I unclipped because I nearly fell off, and yes I did swear. His (I'm assuming it was a man) is E354 EHA, and unfortunately it would appear that the car is uninsured and unregistered. Surprise. But as far as fast cars go, that was about it for the day.

From Shipham we bombed down to Churchill, Langford then cut across to Burrington before making for Butcombe. We were now on back roads, that were largely, but not totally, ice-free, but more than made up for it with mud and water. The views were fantastic compensation for the hard work, looking out across the valley, and relatively traffic-free, apart from a tractor and a white BMW (although it won't be white now unless it's been washed).

We wended our way up and down, past Nempnett Thrubwell and onto Chew Stoke, before edging Chew Valley Lake and on to the cafe at the New Manor Farm shop, the other side of Bishops Sutton. Enclosed within an old stable courtyard, it was fairly sheltered from the wind, and also had lovely and very reasonably-priced scones. And bike racks, and finally some sunshine.

We elected to go cross country to Litton, then onto Chewton Mendip and up past the Waldegrave estate, onto the top of the Mendips. With the wind behind us we made pretty good time, before carefully negotiating the Sunday drivers in the gorge and back home. A good ride with another 2500 feet of climbing, around 44 miles too, and also almost a circular route for me. (Second best to a true circle is the "frying pan" route. Have a look at the map on the Charlie stats, you'll work it out).

Skip and I never really finished our conversation about role models. It started in that time-honoured subject- the gender-bias of the cycling press. Was that prompted because we saw a cyclist in his Bikeradar kit? Anyway, quite rightly, Skip pointed out the absence of female role models of a sporting variety, who weren't then allowed to take their clothes off for a photo shoot. But I do remember Paulo di Canio being in a woman's bathroom not so long ago for a soap advert, and i don't think it had anything to do with football really.

Be your own role model? Take your inspiration where you find it? Emulate the good, discard the bad? I don't know the answer. I'm not sure I even know the question. Better go and get something to eat.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/64740710