After a date with a young Filly I was soon bonking

After 77 miles of riding in 'Flat out in the fens' yesterday, I missed my undulations.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the opportunity to ride at a high Tempo for long periods of time, but this sort of riding felt a bit clinical.

I had total control, If I was hurting I could just slow down, it felt a bit of a cop out.

I missed 'The Devils Chimney' and its elevated cousins, I missed the clunk of the sound you get when you select a lower gear and realise you have no more left, I missed the combat, where some of the control belongs to the road and you have to fight against it to keep going.
When your climbing and it hurts, you cant slow down, you either work through it or stop.

To treat myself to my gradient deprivation I decided to venture out to 'Dalby Forrest' in the beautiful North Yorkshire Moors National Park.

Although I had been there with my girls, it had been in the car - I had never cycled there.

I reckoned the round trip would be about 100 miles.

The first part of the trip was great, a good fast pace from Beverley to the foot of the Forge valley, where the climbing really started.

When you are in a car you forget about most hills but do sometimes recall the more awkward ones.

The ones where your initial gear selection has been over confident and you stall.

Where you frantically scramble for first before you roll back onto the Range Rover behind you.

As I started climbing I had an awful sense of Deja Vu and then recalled some of the monster hills.

The Dalby Forrest Drive is a private Toll road and was principally created to service farms and the forestry commission, not for recreation.

Tarmac certainly was not wasted!!!

If there was a hill, the road just went straight up it.

After the first big climb I stopped at the top of the hill for a drink and to eat some dates

(Gels are all well and good, but with the packaging, and additives etc I see them as being a bit excessive. I try and use natural foods like bananas and dates etc)

As I was eating my dates a horse appeared next to me and looked at me with hungry, sad, and seductive eyes.

I was completely taken in and I gave her a date. She nodded her head in approval and flickered her long eye lashes. Before I knew it, I had given her the lot, after which she shunned me in exchange for some fresh dandelions.

By the time I had got through the Forrest I had completed 70 miles and countless climbs. The Fens were also catching up on me making my legs feels like they were stuck in one of their many bogs.

The homeward journey was a nightmare.

I have never 'bonked' before and just thought it was people exaggerating about a bit of tiredness.

How wrong I was !! I was totally 'F***ed' or 'cream crackered' as the cockneys would say.

The last fifteen miles I averaged 11 miles per hour. It felt as if I were towing a beer truck.

When I got home I had completed 108 miles with 7,000 feet climbing and over 7,600 cals.I guess those flat lands weren't so bad after all.