Training#1 - Surrey Hills and a snapped gear cable

When is the worst time to get a mechanical faliure? Arguably that's the point when you are furthest from home. I'd argue it's when you are furthest from home, and all of your routes back home involve really big hills.

This was mid February. 25 miles into a 50 mile training ride, my first to prepare for JOGLE, my gear cable snapped with an audible twang. The gears were stuck inthe lowest gear, my bike had turned into a two speed and would really suck at hills.

My GPS said there was a bike shop 4 miles away in Peaslake, so having mostly pushed my up a huge hill (the shame!) I crossed my fingers and asked if they could change the cable. So it turns out the Shimano 105 shifters are tricky things when a bit of the cable breaks off inside. No joy, so instead the last 20 plus miles home (flat route home, but had to be longer to avoid the hills) were on dull but unihilly roads back though Dorking, Leatherhead and then into south west London.

Still the weather was lovely, and there's a store in Peaslake that does a mean pork and leek pastry.