Exmoor Explorer

I've cycled for years, since I was eleven or so, but because I'm short with shorter legs, I've never been a cycling god and have never entered any sporting event or race since I left school.

Until now.

A friend persuaded me to enter the Exmoor Explorer "endurance event", so I did; Moonface and I spent three nights down on Exmoor camping in dubious weather and having a great time with a load of people whom we had never met before.

The main event of the weekend was a long cycle across Exmoor in miserable muddy conditions, trying to keep our timing right and our bikes in acceptable fettle. And I managed it! In spite of all my postings bemoaning my general lack of speed and fitness, it appears that I'm actually better and stronger than I gave myself credit for.........I took much less time for the short route than many others, and I noticed that my bike was old and crap in comparison with most of the others on the course. (Much like my body, I suppose) In fact, I only saw three bikes older than my own, out of five hundred on the event.

But I got around, I enjoyed myself tremendously, and I had even spent the previous afternoon on the extra long loop that the experts rode around to justify their time.


(Here's Simon on Saturday afternoon when the weather was good, on our over-ambitious warm-up loop)


Hey, it was great!

:O)