Day 4 Tintern to Shrewsbury (Club Ride!)

I'm still feeling good, but my legs ache more each day and getting started in the morning seems to be getting harder.Today was a good day for cycling with the weather mostly good. More on that later.By the time I'd climbed out of Tintern my legs had woken up and I was spinning well as I headed towards Monmouth. However, just before Monmouth the heavens opened and a strong headwind made it heavy going.Luckily, this was to be the only rain of the day, but with a strong wind constantly blowing from a westerly/south westerly direction, any time the route headed that way, the going got tough - at least the wind would be behind me on the last leg into Shrewsbury.At Hereford I was in for a surprise. Approaching the bridge over theWye, I noticed a cyclist who had a similar bike to Bob, dressed likeBob and looked just like Bob. When he called out my name I realised it was Bob!

Bob, a fellow member of my CTC section and former End to Ender himself, was on holiday nearby and planned to lend me some moral support. Thanks Bob, I hope you enjoyed the ride to Shrewsbury? It was certainly faster than our normal club rides.

The final section was down the Hope valley. But first we had to climb up there! After a refreshment stop at the top, it was a great downhill where I was topping somewhere in the region of 40 mph. As the road flattened out, Bob, Steve and myself cracked along at over 20 mph before a toot from behind announced that Jan had arrived to pick Bob up and take him back home.

Steve and I pressed on to Shrewsbury and were first to arrive at the hotel - beating our roadie companions who'd got lost (again).
Destination Preston tomorrow - the route looks flat but is probably the most built up part of the entire route..p.s. with all the food AD are feeding us, I'm putting weight on!Bye for now