Bluebell Time: 100k Audax
Posted on Friday 27 April 2007 by Camille Savory
Cough, sneeze, those of Central London who are still standing head West (the tug of apron strings or merely sunshine), in search of Bluebells. A picture for posterity and we’re off in the usual formation: the fast, the steady, the take-it-easy (and sadistic).Wheezing in the wake of our Esteemed Secretary (fixed, de rigeur), I think he’s doing it with his eyes closed. Possibly asleep. Inez and I fuss and chat and snack and query directions while he sensibly ignores us, bar the odd warning shout of ‘gravel’ or ‘granny’. Neither the lumbering horsebox on a steep downhill or the fact that we tailgate with smoking brake-blocks when the traffic picks up on descents elicits a reaction.
Disappointingly, the first info is not ‘distance to first bluebell patch’. After something more prosaic, we take an impromptu jelly-bean / tube-wrestling break. A clear run to the controllers cleverly disguised as garden gnomes, a snack, and through the humid, hazy afternoon to Gt Missenden. A ‘bl**dy Gatorskin’ stop this time, doing something in the process to disengage my gears when summoned for Stony Lane. Not that I had much hope anyway. Zombie-like, the Est Sec honks up, making it 2/3 the way before the bike threatens to disintegrate beneath him.
And so, bluebell quota more than filled, we head homeward amongst the rest of the West London sections. Reach Ruislip rather grubby and the worse for wear. Somebody wake up the Secretary and get him some coffee…