Yesterday's ride ended in disappointment for Jon and I although Gareth did really well on his hybrid bike and zig-zagged up the 'Wall' like Corinne did last year.
Things were going really well until we got to the Elan valley. Jon and I had been taking it in turns to push the pace in a peloton of the two of us. We overtook a number of riders - as many as double figures. Then I punctured, broke a plastic tyre lever while I was getting the tyre off and, then, the remaining two levers snapped trying to put the tyre back on! They must have been the ones I bought from Wilkinson. The marshall on the motorbike was a great help with folding pliers in his penknife set. He also had a Lidl track pump that was not so good but got the tyre pumped up. In the struggle to get the tyre back on with the pliers I badly scratched the rim of the back tyre but it is still safe. I lost nearly an hour, with also struggling to get the nasty thorn out of the tyre without my tweezers that I had forgotten - along with my padded pants, so I was feeling it by the end!
Within a few minutes of my breakdown, Jon broke down when his right hand gear lever and cable to the rear gears so malfunctioned that he had to abandon the race/ride! In the process, he also lost his cycle computer. He went back but could not find it. Later in the afternoon, he overtook me but by sitting in the car that had rescued his bike and him from the roadside!
I ended up with the other old bods at the end of the ride but managed to overtake three of them. One was a 72 year old who, at 68 had cycled, with his son, from Lands End to John o'Groats in only nine days. An amazing achievement!
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