Big Boss Bike Ride Day 1 - 2nd installment....

We headed through Oxford in the traffic making modest progress and soon realised we should be on the pavement (which in Oxford is called the cycle lane). Once we were out of town we were cruising through the countryside - lovely. 10 miles in and everything was going well and then Chris had a front brake failure, which was a good excuse for an impromtu water stop.

While Dave, the ride leader, fixed Chris's bike, the rest of us took on fluids. Barbara, CEO of Children's Hospices UK, was having trouble with her clip-in pedals. These are devices that lock your feet to the bike. Since I had been using clip-ins for at least 2 months, I was the 'expert' on-hand to give advice. You will understand why Barbara was taking her life in her hands taking advice from me in a later installment. Basically, you have to clip out before you stop or you hit the deck with a big crash!!???? I'll tell you the whole story later.

Meanwhile, unbeknown to me, a team of Phoenix Traders (later to become the cheering crew) were helping Richard, one of the support team, set up the tent for the first official water stop at Cookley Green. They only parked right at the top of the hill... the one we all had to fight our way up to earn our banana, energy bar and water!!

Anyway, we all made it and at the top we were happy we had beaten what we were told was the biggest hill of the day! Banana please!

This is the wonderful cheering crew, Diana & Tony Corris, Liz Gordon and Jacky Barrett...thanks you guys for your wonderful support and encouragement (and for posting pictures of me in lycra on Facebook. Oh dear...its not a pretty sight!)!!

...16 miles down, 72 to go!