It`s a percentage thing.

Yesterday after finishing a night duty, Mark, Chris & I departed from Wiltshire, to head down to Devon. Exmoor to be precise. The idea being to get some more hill training in, prior to riding Modane-Alpe d` Huez next month. We started at Minehead riding out on the A39 to Porlock (notorious for more than `Kubla Khan`). Once we arrived at the foot of Porlock Hill, like all others that have travelled, cycled, ridden horse back or walked that route before us, we were given the option of using either the toll road (£2.50) or the main A39. My car is old, so in order to squeeze a few more miles out of her yet, Mark & Chris decided to take the wise option of taking the toll road........I did not.

Oh how I wish I had !

It started like most other climbs, difficult, but manageable, but then came the first of four 25% hair-pin bends. Having read other blogs some refute this information, I would recommend updating their information. They ARE 25%. I manged to get up two, then had to stop, my heart rate monitor was reading 189 Beats per minute (BPM). Now if you are young, fit with no long term injuries, this wouldn`t be cause for concern, but given that I am close to 53 (smoke, I know) and have a less than perfect knee, combined with the fact that I`m recovering from a back injury, this caused me great concern. Stop, it`s a `no-brainer`. After a short pause, to lower my heart rate (HR), I gathered my thoughts, and then attempted to clip in to my peddles to resume my efforts, on such a steep incline this was funny. I somehow achieved it and continued to climb, round the third, once again my HR soared, once again I stopped. I thought to myself ` enough is enough` re-clipped in (yet again funny) and continued up to the crest without any more stops. I continued to ride over the summit to a resting area where Mark & Chris were waiting for me. (fortunately my car was in better `nick` than me).

After a short pause (for pause read fag), I then continued along the A39 towards Lynmouth (Waters meet), at this point the heavens opened & it poured down with rain.

I last visited Waters Meet many years ago with my parents & siblings, I remembered it with great fondness,.... truly happy days.
As I was peddling along a reasonable pace, I also rembered Shit, there`s a really steep decent into Lynmouth. As I started to decend into Lynmouth, my previous thoughts were confirmed, it was steep, torrents of rain running down the road, braking,. braking, not much response. I was seriously considering the escape lanes, wondering if cyclists have ever needed to pile into the shale that form these useful (sometimes lifesaving road features). Somehow I got to the bottom, saw Mark & Chris parked up, so I pulled in to have a quick chat and a warm cuppa.

I then started to cycle again, this time heading towards along the A39 to Barnstaple. That was fine except for one thing, it was the wrong way. ordinarily that wouldn`t have been a problem, but in this case there was a price to pay. The bloody road ramped up in excess of 25%, I kept cycling for as far as I could. I had to stop, this time for different reasons......

The rain was pouring down, causing torrents of water to run down the camber of the road, exactly where I was trying to peddle up. There were cars behind me testing their clutches to the limit.There were oncoming cars trying to decend as slowly and as controlled as possible, testing their brakes to the limit.

Oh yes......The reason I had to stop, my back wheel was slipping in the rain, might as well have been on a turbo trainer. Never experienced that before. I rested against a wall, had a think, realised that this was potentially dangerous, so once again tried to continue up. Still no joy, still spinning. Mark & Chris pulled up behind me. Chris got out and tried to give a push (much like the team mechanics do on the Tour du France). Saldy this didn`t quite work and I fell off, embarrasing, as those in the cars behind witnessed the whole thing!

At this point Mark chirped in with something that made me smile " errrr ummm, Jamie mate, we`ve gone the wrong way, turn round & we`ll meet you at the bottom"!

No I didn`t swear.....Honestly!

We then set off (on the right road) the B3223 to Simonsbath. This was one of the main reasons for travelling down to Exmoor. The climb out of Lynmouth to Simonsbath is close to 5 miles of constant climbing up onto the moor, in cycling terms a category 2 climb, nowhere near as tough, but similar to the ones I will be doing in France. A constant `grind`.

The scenery was stunning, it had even stopped raining. The climb was easier than I had imagined and I gently cycled up to the top. Heart rate fine. Spirits fine, mood fine. As I turned left onto the moor, things changed, I was cycling into a very strong head wind, it became a real toil.

Remember I mentioned previously that my back had been quite bad recently, well it was getting no better. At each stop, I had been taking pain killers, Mark & Chris saw this and were a little concerned. At the last stop, we all decided, better to stop now and hopefully be in better shape for France, especially given that the Alping challenge is only five weeks away and to continue could jeopardize that.

We packed the bike into the car and headed to Minehead for some food.

We travelled back to Wiltshire in good spirits.

I`ll write again soon and post some pics that Chris took, (he is a good photgrapher).
Thank you Mark & Chris for your constant support, as well as being hilarious, you are `nice guys`.