20\12\15 - Santa Special 200km Audax

Started from Gt Bromley (nr Colchester) at 08:00.  A fast wind-assisted trip up to Halesworth via Wickham, thence onto Palgrave (Diss) for more food and hospitality.  This set us up for the toughie (headwind) bit down to Sudbury with most of the old hands saying "it's not as bad as last year".  Left Sudbury just at 15:50 but soon it was dark with torrential rain, a strong cross-wind on an unlit road and all a bit tricksie.  I made fairly good time and got back at 18:10.  A reasonably flat course engineered so that the bits that were worth seeing were during the day, whilst once it got dark it was a fairly easy ride back to base.  The wind was strong which explained why my first 100km was done in 4 hours whilst my second 100km was done in 5 hours.  It's not often that it's possible to do a December ride in Spring\Autumn conditions, but it was worth the effort.  PW.