It's the end of October, so it's time for the Dartmoor Devil. This year's ride was a brilliant contrast to my last in 2013, when heavy rain and high winds made a hard ride even harder. This year we enjoyed sunshine, mild temperatures and almost no wind for the Devil of your dreams.
A new course for this year, with the general direction being anti-clockwise and some new hills that the organisers were able to fit in. We had a double passage of Widecombe in the Moor, a village in a deep fold meaning 20% climbs to get out of it, and Pepperdon Hall Lane, a new one for me, very steep, narrow and covered in slippery moss and leaves. My GPS gave 38%, which is surely not true, but it was very steep.
Soup at Whiddon Down, lunch at Princetown and the finish, as usual, at the Kestor Inn, Manaton, reached by the 'Classic Route' over the moors, with wild rocks, autumn colours and distant views of the sea.
69.2 miles, 8411 feet of ascent and a really good ride.
Mark
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