Ah, so that's what the Kidderminster Killer is like. Both brutal and charming, the Hannibal Lecter of the audax scene.Asterton Bank was quite simply a pig. I rode my geared bike over the cattlegrid at the bottom, swiped the front round, and up she reared. Front end jumping about like a cat on hot tiles, I lasted about 50 pedal strokes before I decided to get off and walk. Turns out this was a good idea - it was difficult enough to push the bike up let alone ride it up. About 2/3rds of the way up I was overtaken by MV, who was riding fixed (but not when he briskly walked past). The reward for walking/riding up the Long Mynd via Asterton Bank is the utterly stunning views from the top. You can tell they are stunning, because people drive from all around to see them *wink*Other than Asterton Bank, there are no climbs that require walking if you have a sensible range of gears. And that does imply that I think MV was bananas to ride the event fixed (although hats off, he was back at HQ before me). You also have to remember to select the right gear early enough - I was caught out by this twice, once at the ford after the first control and later on the climb out of Clun. With steep hills, it's nigh on impossible to get started again once foot touches earth, and so it's a hasty stomp up to the summit.My main promblem on the ride, though, was that my back brake cable ruptured and I had to rely on the front brake. Well, I say rely, but as the day wore on began to work less and less well. About 70km from the end it essentially decided to stop altogether (cable wouldn't tension properly) which resulted in a schoolboy like skid to a halt on a downhill section coming to a T junction using my SPD shoes scraping along the road. Pretty scary. Thankfully, the ride was levelling out and I could get just enough tension in the cable to allow slowing down (but not stopping on anything remotely downhill). Cue plenty of hesitant, slow riding. I actually thought about packing, valuing my own life above 2 AUK points and 3 AAA, but such defeatist thoughts evaporated when someone lent me a pair of plyers at the penultimate control (Tenbury?) that gave me enough confidence that I could get back to Albury safely, which was only 40km or so away on "flattish" roads.Lesson: Nokia brake cables look excellent, but aren't particularly audax friendly (the thin outer makes it impossible to thread a new cable into it without stripping down the entire set up, which involves unwrapping the bar tape etc)Enough technical moans. This was a pretty cool event - I did say to MV that I found it easier than the Elan and Ystwtyh, but my legs are telling a different story this morning. A real challenging roller coaster of a route, but well worth the effort since some of the views (provided you can see through sweat encrusted eyes) are quite jaw dropping.
