Hills and Echelons

Today was a fine reminder of how it is to ride in the British Isles, made even better by needing to make up the 8 miles we weren’t able to ride the previous day -

The kids were happy for a challenge day, as Liv calls them.  From the profile above, you can see that the first three miles were a real delight.  I ended up jettisoning Ruby before the top, but Liv and Lyle made it all the way -

The chap that made a point of telling Liv out the window of his truck that “You have a couple of steep hills up ahead” was entirely correct.  We finally came down the back side, along an ugly A-road to the coast where we felt obligated to have a delightful second breakfast.  We thought eating outside would be nice until Lyle had a seagull actually swat him on the shoulder and take the apple turnover he was biting into.  They gave us a replacement when we moved back inside and said, “That happens sometimes."  Strange.

Afterwards, our route took us down to the beach, where we were met by a lovely, sustained 25-knot wind perfectly at 45 degrees to our heads.  It was everything we could do to keep the bikes moving forward, and everyone got to learn how to ride in echelons, with a trade every set of beach steps (100 yds?) and the resting position being with the other stoker even with the resting captain.  It was a minute or two of heaven before your next turn in the wind tunnel.  Geared down to my 34x32 we were just able to maintain 5 MPH for the 3 miles down the beach.  Good times indeed.  We made a point of keeping our route inland after that, which helped some, but the entire day was spent fighting the wind whenever the hedge rows had breaks or when the road was aligned with the wind.  All that for 40 miles was a really rough go.  Luckily there was no camping available for any distance nearby, and Liv had booked us a room in a simple hotel in the ancient city of Rye.  So glad that we weren’t cooking and eating on the ground tonight, as we are all beat.  A good and simple supper of fish and chips, and we are all ready to get some sleep.  

Tomorrow needs to be 35 miles, a long day for us, and we will be camping at the end. It will be nice to be out-of-doors again.  The wind should be down enough to ride more easily, and the campground will be less likely to tell us not to come, like yesterday.  Only a few more riding days on this adventure, and they are all going to be doozies...

-Dave