Executive summary:
Well, I tried it on Friday and made it to Northallerton before the weather made it impossible to
continue. This was rather vexing, since I had under 30 miles to go at that point 🙁
The full story:
I set off at 0645, and noticed that the wind was a) rather stronger than forecast and b) coming
from the wrong direction. Since the temperature was sub-zero and I couldn't even look forward to
turning round and riding with the wind like I could on a normal ride this was rather disheartening.
Still, I pressed on (slowly) and when the sun came out just before entering Gainsborough I cheered
up a bit. Not least because I'd been thinking up fresh insults to use on metorologists should I
happen to meet one.
Due to the wintry weather, I'd revised my route to use gritted main roads for the most part.
Unfortunately, the grit worked its way into the rear derailleur cable, resulting in some annoying
mishifts from time to time. Also, I saw several car-wrecks nicely stored by the side of the road;
such a cheery site when their precursors were hurtling by with inches to spare at times. Once rush
hour was over, things became much more peaceful.
I crossed the M18 junctions at 1000 and reached Selby for 11-ish. Unfortunately, the cold rendered
all my finger food rather unappetising so I'd not eaten quite enough and consequently the last 20
miles into York were extremely difficult. The world's largest baked potato, some hot soup sorted
that out and I stopped thinking of the train station with such longing, instead preferring to ponder
the fact that some people actually like deep-frozen mars bars. At that point, these unnatural folk
were welcome to the contents of my jacket pockets.
After a good long rest I set off again, rejoicing in the fact that the wind had dropped
considerably. However, the blue sky was soon replaced by grey clouds, then a few flakes of snow
fell. By the time I reached Northallerton at 1650 I was getting quite worried about continuing; I
only had showerproof clothing and my gloves, once wet, wouldn't work at all. So, with reluctance I
phoned a friend and got her to examine the BBC weather forecast on my behalf. Once she'd stopped
laughing[1] she obliged and unfortunately the precipitation radar showed a huge snow storm about to
descend and with great regret I boarded a train for Durham and abandoned my attempt 🙁
With hindsight, it was the right decision since there was already a couple of cm on the ground by
the time the train reached Darlington and much more in Durham itself. While on the train, I looked
out of the windows and could barely see the trees at the top of the cutting, the snow was falling so
thickly. Thinking positively, 115 miles into a headwind of varying strength was not a bad effort for
someone who'd only done up to 70 miles in a day before. I'd done my first century at least 🙂
Nevertheless, disappointing. Watching one of my mates attempting[2] to cook a barbeque in the snow
later that evening and consuming half a crate of McEwan's "Red Death" Export more than made up for
it though.
There is only one answer of course. I'm going to do it again when the weather gets a bit warmer.
Only this time I'll make sure I have a tailwind 🙂
Regards,
-david
[1] "Er, hi. It's David. Now, this may sound a little odd but I want a current weather forecast for
the Northallerton area..."
[2] Suceeding, actually. We were impressed!