May 4th – I was, to put it bluntly, shagged out. I slept well, and there was nothing wrong with my legs or body, but my eyes were sore and I felt weary.  Not the usual post-ride dehydration, though, so the new gels I was using must be working. The day after a century ride I normally feel hungover. Today, just jaded.

I nipped up to the new Farmers Market at Chasewater, and was pleasantly surprised; after the disaster of the Innovation Centre-organised Christmas Fayre with 4 stalls, this commercially organised event was busy, even at my late hour. It wasn’t huge, but there was some interesting stuff to buy, and I spent fifteen quid on various bits and pieces.

Only one snag – no real produce stalls: if this was a Farmers Market, the farmers didn’t know: I hope this can be rectified for future events – we have Big Tasties locally for meat, bakers and cheese-mongers, so lets hope they take a stall; if they do, tis market will be banging in no time at all.

I was taken with the basket hack on a bike I spotted locked nearby; serious thought has gone into that. Bit more needs to go into the locking technique, though…