Middle aged woman on a bike
Despite having a lovely, but shorter ride in Wales, and knowing I had made the right decision to quite, the old feelings of doubt became to surface. What if I really am just not good enough? What if just getting there is always going to be this hard? Maybe I really should just give up this dream and go touring instead? But I had put so much effort in already, and a fair bit of money. I didn’t want to give up just yet....
I turned up in Chepstow, and looked around the rather smaller than normal group of entrants. Everyone looked very fit and capable, and then I also noticed the lack of women on the ride. In normal years the ride attracts a mixed bag of riders. There’s no doubt this is a challenging event...after all, it covers the width of Wales, and ventures into the Brecon Beacons in both directions. But, it is such a beautiful and iconic ride that many Audaxers like to give it a try.
Our girls French trip was a real eye opener for me. Here I was with a riding partner that I loved to ride with, who had a similar pace to me, but who had very different rest & recovery requirements to me. This could be a real problem. We needed a way forwards, but I had no idea what that was to be. Just a couple of weeks later, was the infamous Bryan Chapman 600k.....