Wet Wet Wet

Ottery to Tiverton: 51.3 Miles

Started the day off with a really nasty climb, around 5 miles long all the way up onto Dartmoor. The moment we passed the "you are entering Dartmoor National Park" sign the heavens opened with torrential rain. Decamped and quickly threw on the wet weather kit, which seemed to generally do the job, although everything is a little soggy, there's only so much water lightweight rain kit can keep out. Climbed all the way to the top of Dartmoor in the rain, a really long slow slog.

Flew down the other side with the rain stinging my face. Broke the 40mph Dartmoor speed limit on one of the descents. The moment we leave Dartmoor of course the sun comes out.

Rest of day was pretty tough, but not quite as brutal as yesterday, albeit with two really nasty hills at the end - but generally was able to keep more of a rhythm up and down the hills, it was less twisty and turny. Other than in a couple of small towns we passed through we barely saw more than a dozen cars all day, a really lovely route.

Had to do a 2 mile steep descent down a narrow lane with full brakes applied all the way down to keep the speed down (as the road was covered in stones and organic animal matter). Stopped at the bottom and thought "hm, I wonder how hot the rims are" (the rims heat up due to the friction from the brakes and if too hot can cause the tyre to explode). Had a bit of a D'oh moment as I burnt the tips of two fingers in discovering just how hot the rims actually are...

Stats for the day:

Time spent cycling: 5hrs 2 minutes
Average speed 10.4 mph

Max speed 43mph (a new high)
Min speed 2.9mph (a new low...)
"The organiser is a sadist" moments: 2

love to all