Report from Andy Flint on the Dartmoor Demon with Andrew Hunt
The Dartmoor Demon lived up to its name - weather was awful - almost biblical and yes, similar to Ride London, but with visibility of 30 feet and hills galore - and I mean hills! 20 and 25% and long... at 20%... continuously!! Walk of shame on more than one occasion for me - I need a 32 on the rear like Mr Hunt, well that is my excuse! I also had the pleasure of a puncture going downhill (serious down!) and then found myself changing my tyre with the company of a cow... or was it a bull? It was huge and roaming around on the road as I later found out from a passing motorist it had wandered off the moor ("ere... nothing to worry about)!! We 'only' did the standard route (55 miles) as recommended by the organisers, but 5 hours of that was more than enough!
For good measure Mr Hunt took me on a 'recovery ride' the following day (I think he wanted to get in the extra miles we'd missed the day before) to view Dartmoor Prison! We got a glimpse (depressing!) and also got very wet.. again! We did 2500+ feet of climbing in just 30 miles - they like their hills in Devon!
So even though we didn't do the epic route the whole weekend was basically epic!
Uncle Kirk (Alderson) was well. He arrived back from Mallorca on the Sunday afternoon, so we met up for a well earned (by us) pizza before we departed Plymouth and returned to Herts. Good fun!!