Rapha #Festive500 Day 1.

We left home about 8am and the weather was pleasant, above freezing and no rain.

This lasted about 20 minutes.

By the time we'd got to Whaley Bridge it was raining properly, and this is the way it stayed for the rest of the day.

Heading up Long Hill on our way to Buxton, I was very glad we'd bought some bright lights with a flashing mode from 18 bikes. The visibilty became very poor as we headed up the hill into the clouds.

At Brierlow Bar we popped into the bookshop for a hot drink from their vending machine. Minipips actually wanted a vending machine with a nice hot Sun in it, but they didn't have one.

Revived, we headed out again. The rain fell heavier.

I'd thought we'd be OK though, more hot drinks at Parsley Hey but, they were shut.

Both of us in spite of having the right clothes, and lots of them, were cold.

So firstly we abandoned the plan of heading further south, then hammer down time in the hope of warming up. This worked a bit, but it was obvious that we weren't warming up properly. Rain from above and loads of surface water was not making this a fun experience.

So once back in Buxton we found a cafe for more hot drink and food, where I made the executive decision to end our ride.

Grandpa was happy to get out of doing the ironing to come and pick us up.

We'll be out again tomorrow, Xmas Day for a couple of hours, we're hoping the weather will be better.

Strava says we did 53.8 km.