Chapeau! Amanda

The last two weekends have hardly been the sort to make you jump on your bike and train, but needs must I'm afraid.

Last Sunday was not too bad to be fair.... At Amanda's request we did the top section of the Hampshire Hilly Hundred route which covers around sixty miles and takes in a few decent climbs. What she didn't realise was that it was sixty miles if the ride begins where we usually start it (at Pitt, near Winchester). Doing the ride from home added an extra 7.5 miles on at each end ..... Suddenly a 75 mile ride!!
Still, to make up for it the weather was cold, overcast and generally doing its' level best to not help the mindset at all. We rode together throughout though in a valiant mind-over-matter display of winter cycling.
Amanda did really well, tackling the hills and descending more courageously than usual and finishing strongly and in good spirits, and just for the record, when she got a puncture in Overton - her support vehicle (i.e. me) was on hand to lend help in the roadside repair.
This weekend, I worked the mornings  and got home frozen (it really was very cold this Sat and Sun), so we decided to a little 19 mile route in the New Forest that we use as a time trial.
It is not a tough route since, as many of you will know, the New Forest not hilly but there are a couple of short, nasty hills. What is is testing though is the wind.... two sections of this route, Janesmoor Plain

and Deadman's Hill

(Roger Penney Way) are really exposed and because you we do them in opposite directions, you always get a headwind on one or the other.
On this occasion, with a North-Easterly wind blowing, it was Deadman's Hill that would be straight into the teeth of the icy wind. This is great training, there is no doubt about that, but talk about demoralising, it just doesn't let up.
Amanda could not hold my wheel on this section and we finished separately, but she averaged 16.7 mph over 18.9 miles which is exceptional and something for her to be very pleased with.
She is away visiting her family next weekend so I will no doubt end up nearly killing myself on club ride with the fast boys from Sotonia.
'Till then.......