S2P meets Ironman via Wales

Today was to be the first outing of as many of the S2P group as we could muster, but in the final hours we were down to Me, Captain Turdseye, Paul M, Gareth, Gary, Mark Q - the new addition, Nathan and Tim.

Due to bad organisation and the drop outs nothing was properly arranged, until heard on the grapevine there was an 85 mile ride to the Severn Bridge and back being organised by a few of the guys doing the Ironman in Switzerland - as me, Mark and Turdseye are all doing it, we were keen to do this so we arranged for the two groups to combine and make a big ride of it.

Last night at swimming, I overheard that it was in fact going to be 110 miles not the 85 previously teased so let Turdseye know so he could relay the info to the others (i'm almost certain he didn't!!)

I've been having bike issues because Richard Bransons henchmen manhandle "Willy" on my flight home this week so I was back on Scott, however Friday whilst riding my pedal came off because being a girl i had crossed hte thread so had to cycle 5 miles home with just one leg!  Turdseye gave me his Specialised to try out but even though he's a shortass it looked too big for me, and I didn't want to risk it on a long ride so Mark managed to sort out my pedals and i decided to ride Scott - not ideal but better than not riding at all, even if he does hurt my legs.

The plan was to meet at 7am at the lake, most of us had the sense to drive out, except Turdseye and the other S2P guys, Nathan had come the furthest and already done 15 miles before we'd even left! SO 15 of us set off into the brilliant sunshine, the S2P guys had on their new cycling kit - all but me  cos i'm too fat for it at the moment! (plus i wanted to optimise tanning with a vest)

We started off pretty up together, then after about 10 miles, i dropped off the back, Tom waited for me for a bit to catch up, but i kept lagging behind. During this time, my spare inner tube kept spewing out of the bottle i'd stuffed it in so Mark took it for me, the tube however was stopping the tools inside from rattling, so all that could be heard of me was an annoying rattle. over pot holes they flew out so Turdseye took one an di put the other in my bike bag. there was still rattling though!

Despite being helped along by Andy for much of it the first 40 miles i felt like shit, I wanted to throw scott into the bushes, i felt like i was holding everyone up, like i shouldn't be there and totally useless. They were all really great and waited for me to catch up, ut this made me feel worse because i felt i was ruining their ride.

Mark fucked up the GPS and went the wrong way, but luckily Andy was waiting back with me and also had Garmin so we went the right way and got to rest while they found us again. When we reached the Severn bridge it was an impressive sight, i foolishly believed Andy when he asked if i had money for the toll!!

When we got across the bridge, we stopped to get some water  and snacks, Tim, Paul and Nathan headed home - i think they were sick of Miss Slowcoach holding them back.

The rest of the day was looong and very hot. The hills were equally looooong! But banter was high, there were a few mishaps.. Gary went ass over tit up a big hill - luckily both bike and rider are in one piece!

Mark got knocked off by me.... no idea what he was doing! and Peter fell over at nothing too exposing his ass to us!

I seemed to pick up strength in the last 3rd of the ride, maybe the combination of managing to keep with the pack to draft and having eaten a substantial amount!

All the guys doing the S2P (and Ironman) showed massive strength as riders and i'm really worried now i'm going to either not keep up or piss them off being so slow.

All in all a great day another century ride in the bag (125 for the guys who cycled to the lake!!) and a bit of a tan too! :) Thanks to Andy for letting us gatecrash and a personal thanks for everyone supporting me in my time of shitness - hopefully i'll get my act together by the 9th!