Err, weather forecast is rain.

Fortunately it gives me a chance to try out my brand-new over-shoes.

So that's a crummy night's sleep, 100 miles in the saddle and being rain-sodden all the way through it.

Deep joy!

I tried 75 miles in the rain without overshoes a couple of weeks ago. I reckon each shoe & sock together weighed and extra kilo with the water they absorbed.

Having said that the rain wasn't so bad. It stung a bit on the face down the faster hills, but also kept me cool.

Looks like rain for your ride.

Some ideas that may help.

The key areas to keep dry, or at least warm, are;-

• Hands, fully waterproof gloves are a must for the distance you are doing.
• Feet, overshoes are good but water will run down your legs and into them so you will get wet eventually. Consider a spare pair of dry socks in a ziplock bag, which you can put on at the halfway food stop. It does wonders for the morale.
• Arse, if your waterproof has a bum flap, use it. Consider getting a clip on rear guard to stop water coming up from the rear wheel.
• Head, difficult to keep dry due to perspiration but a wind stopper cap under your helmet will keep you from getting an ice cream headache on fast descents.

Wet weather means a greater chance of punctures. Take self-adhesive patches as well as a spare inner or two. At any stop check your tyres for flints caught in the treads.

One great bizarre tip. One of the guys in our group had a self-addressed envelope in his pocket. When we stopped at Brighton and the bad weather passed he packed his waterproofs into the envelope and posted it home. Saves carrying the stuff all the way back

Keep a clean, dry set of clothes in the car and change into them as soon as you finish and before doing anything else.

Hope you had a good nights sleep, looks like you have been luck with the weather, a couple of days ago it looked like a full days rain. You could now stay dry!

Let us know how it went... when you have recovered

Went well. Weather started wet, and we went through one puddle almost up to the bottom bracket, but the sun came out, and I finished with some colour on my arms. Red, but colour nonetheless.

Being wet, it ws puncture city. Mark and I only had one between us, if you discount the second caused by not checking the tyre on the first!! So we were 30mins longer than we could have been, but some people recorded 4 punctures, and possibly more.

Mark was in a very good condition. Training had been perfect, and he wasn't holding me back. Some good hills to push those legs, but it wasn't too brutal.

Congratulations gents!
What was the wind like on the day?
I remember the forecast was showing around 19mph earlier in the week.

I think Jim's being a bit generous when he says I didn't hold him back! Although I definitely didn't hold him back for the last 10 miles when he became a dot on my horizon!

Very fortunate with the weather. Was very grim at the start. Rain and wind for the first couple of hours, but then only a few isolated showers. Wind could have done with being a few notches lower, but I'm just glad I was able to take the waterproof off for most of the trip.

I averaged 14.4 mph (Jim might have exceeded that with his final push), excluding stops, but as we ended up doing a few miles over 100, that took it over the 7 hour mark for pure cycling.

Many thanks for all the support. In terms of sponsorship, with gift aid it's over £600 so far with promises of sponsorship to come in. 2 weeks to the next 100 miler!

Mark: I may have been able to go faster without you, but I wasn't waiting at the top of every hill, or continually having to slow down for you to catch up, and having to encourage you every turn of the pedal, so yes, you weren't holding me back from having a fun and challenging ride.

Although I think I am a lot more stomach-motivated than you. The signs for feed stops encouraged me to shoot off the front a lot faster than should be possible.

You also need to do a recovery ride today. Get on the bike when you get back home, and do a 5-10 mile ride, but pretend that there are eggs on your pedals that you are trying not to break. You need to get your legs rotating again, but not pushing those tired muscles

Times are out now. Finish times are 08:37 and 08:38 respectivley, which has put is in the middle third, so happy with that.

14.4 av is very good for that ride, well done. I only managed a 14.3 for the London to Brighton and return. Similar route profile too. Glad the rain did ease, it is terrible wearing a waterproof all day as after a while you end up as wet on the inside, none of them can deal with the sort of perspiration a 100mile ride produces. Good idea Jim on the recovery ride, you may feel a fool spinning the legs at 10mph but it will help clear the legs of all the lactic acid and ease the muscles back into life.

Also be ready for some serious form to arrive. A week after my ride I was flying

Did either of you trak your ride on a GPS device?

I'm afraid not.

I've now added our times to the post above.

Okay, on the plus side, including gift aid, we're over the £850 mark, with additional promised sponsorship to come.

But I am fed up with this weather - the forecast is basically solid rain for this Saturday's ride. This is ridiculous!

Next time, I'm tempted to just give the money myself to stay indoors in front of the fire with a nice bottle of wine.

To digress, I did 59.44 in the Welsh CA 25 to finish 69th.
SW gusting to 30mph and a few isolated downpours on the course.

Sub 1hr in still condition demands respect, with that wind too "chapeau"

News, Mark?

Well, that was pretty unpleasant.

The ride 2 weeks ago started off wet, but dried out by the end – which was what the forecast had promised. The forecast for this Saturday was also not good, a couple of rain-free hours in the morning and then showers for the day. However, on this occasion the forecast was wrong. There was one shower only. Unfortunately for me it was one shower of over 7 hours duration.

An early start, pedalling through the New Forest at 7am to get to the 8:05 Isle of Wight ferry. The rain is already flowing. This is a relatively flat section, though, so it’s a chance to get up a good head of speed – rooster tails of water coming off the tyres. Making very good time for the ferry. Ah, a puncture – deep joy! With one mile to go I take the gamble and try to unicycle on for the last mile (so I can change tyre on the ferry without the clock running), shifting my weight as far back as I can. It’s working fairly well until I hit the ferry car park and take a corner slowly but too sharply (not easy this unicycling) and over I go! No serious harm – just a dent to my pride and my cycle computer resets itself losing all data – and safely make it to the first ferry. On the plus side, because everything is sodden and lubricated by the rain it is quick work to change the inner tube. Not expecting the old one to be salvageable from the last mile it is binned. I must also apologise to whoever had the unpleasant surprise of sitting on my damp seat on the Wight link ferry after me. I spend much of the crossing in the toilet wringing out socks and gloves trying to dry them out over the hand drier – it sort of works, they are tepid and moist when they go back on.

On the Isle of Wight, the rain is even worse. At times, visibility is a problem. We miss a turning, but when this is apparent after a few miles, carry on when a quick map check shows that the road we are on will join up later on. It means I have cut off about 1-1.5 kilometres which I feel a bit guilty about, but it is better than cycling miles back the way we came. Most of the guilt dissipates when 10 miles on I get another puncture which more than loses any time gained! It could have been worse, had an extremely thorough tyre check not found a tiny stone shard embedded in the tyre. Another bit of good news some 50 miles into the total, I find out that the route has been shortened because of the weather with one part of the loop being cut off, so it is about 77 miles in total now.

The views would have been spectacular, had I had wipers on my glasses, but what I can see is all a bit monochrome. I am starting to feel a bit tired now too, left leg is starting to feel a bit tight. Big puddles, but I can’t get any wetter (make your own jokes) so it’s just a question of ploughing through them and hoping there are no pot holes. There are two big puddles where the road dips near farms, and you can just smell the warm brown water as you hurry through the slurry. Carrying an extra kilo in weight of liquid manure in each shoe is not my idea of a fun Saturday.

Back to the ferry. This time, I am with a group of soaked cyclists waiting to get on, and they leave us standing in the rain whilst all those people in their nice warm cars trundle on. The guy I am cycling with, Ian, notes that they are probably feeling a bit miserable from having such a washed out holiday on the Isle – but I can’t help feeling they’ve probably had their day brightened by driving past us and knowing that someone is having a worse time of it! On the boat they are handing out plastic bags for the cyclists to sit on. The ferry is dry, but this is not good. You know you are just going to go straight out into the downpour. We are shivering and hands are shaking as we wait to disembark, needing to get going to try and warm up.

Last 20 or so miles. Now the rain is at its heaviest, I’m expecting Cliff Richard to pop out and start singing - but it’s getting nearer to the end and I have a large packet of Tyrrells crisps (red pepper and chilli) to look forward to – frankly anything but energy bars and sachets of gloop would be welcome though. This has been basically cycling underwater, not something I am in any rush to do again.

Yee-ha! Made it! Even better, hot showers – the kind of drenching that is acceptable!

Oh right, I see, now you decide to stop raining!! Unbelievable!

Total time betwwen timing stations 5h 8m, which got me in the top 1/3 of finishers and earned me a ‘silver’ for an average of over 15mph including punctures, waiting at traffic lights junctions etc which I am chuffed about.

Total raised is over £900 with gift aid taking it over £1100 - http://www.action.org.uk/sponsor/MrJ. Thank you for your kindness and encouragement.

Well done Mark!

Well done again Mark.

Mill said was raining hard down here on Saturday, I had gone to sunny Lincolnshire for the day.

Massive well done mate.