First time on the bike for 17 days after heavy rain, artic conditions and then heavy rain again.

It wasn't great this morning, with water, leaves, twigs and branches on the road mixed up with sand that had washed off the fields (there's a lot of sand and gravel extraction in these parts). Garmin said it was 7 degrees C, but it felt a lot colder with high humidity and battleship-grey sky. Although I saw less than 100 cars moving, two of these were cabriolets with their tops down (an Audi and a Mercedes for those of you who like to know these things) .

Very greasy roads, with heavy rain forecast from 10am, so I just picked up the group and rode to the River Tame bridge at Elford. The river had flooded the fields, but not the road unlike the Mease which had shut the A513 and the Trent which had flooded the Walton on Trent road. Took the short route home to beat the rain and do an indoor session.

9.6 miles and 343ft of ascent.