Coast 2 Coast Challenge – the real challenge was the rain

Continuing my challenge on the Saturday morning, I woke to the rain shown at the beginning of the video below.

Scenes from my Coast 2 Coast ride

I joked with a couple of people the day before about the weather forecast.

I had been watching it in the week leading up to the ride, for obvious reasons. All through the week, the weather had been lovely, but continued to predict lousy weather for the Saturday and Sunday. On the Tuesday or the Wednesday beforehand, you always think “It’ll get better” but as the weekend got closer, the forecast remained poor. On the Thursday afternoon, I checked it one last time, and resigned myself to cycling in the rain.

Now, I don’t have a full wet weather cycling jacket, only a shower proof one. By Thursday, I was seriously considering buying one, but a decent one is the best part of £100. I would be unlikely to use it again, because if it’s raining on a normal Sunday morning at home, I won’t go for a ride – I’m a fairweather cyclist…. there, I said it!

I joked with some people on the minibus to Whitehaven that the weather this weekend will be my fault! If I’d bought the expensive jacket, it would have brought the sun out. As I didn’t, it was guaranteed to pour!

And pour it did. All day Saturday, and all morning on Sunday. The real irony for me was because it was so wet, many of the people with full waterproofing were soaked to the skin by the end of Saturday anyway. And like me, were forced to put wet cycling kit on first thing on the Sunday morning.

Only to get drenched within a few minutes!