Flirting with the Aude

It's been a horrible few days, weather-wise and the only exercise we have had to speak of was a quick blast on the roadies from home up to Cominac via the Col de Saraillé 2 days ago to test out my new saddle. Now, I should maybe explain about this saddle business, as fellow roadie riders (especially of the female variety) may find it interesting.

My old saddle was a Sella Italia Diva Sport which was quite 'squishy' and not at all like the rock hard saddles that blokes seem to ride with. Although my sit bones were very comfortable on my squishy saddle, thank you very much, I was constantly finding myself shuffling around on my seat and trying to sit further back in order to relieve some of the pressure on my soft tissue area. I was often ending a ride in not inconsiderable discomfort and it was starting to feel like longer distances would not be possible for me. We tried everything we could think of to alleviate the problem, from tilting the nose of the saddle down, to moving it further forward, to changing the handle bar position but nothing worked. So I ended up replacing the Diva Sport with the Selle Italia SLK ladies saddle which is much much firmer and also (more importantly) much narrower towards the back. We also raised my seat height. The difference has been amazing. After an 83km ride today, I could have carried on! I reckon that the old Diva Sport saddle was simply too wide at the back and was effectively pushing me forward and thereby placing my soft tissue onto the most uncomfortable part of the saddle. My riding position was also too low on that saddle which resulted in early muscular pain and fatigue. So hurrah at last, I can now start riding seriously without fear of ending up crippled!

Anyway, back to today's ride. Full stats on the usual site. This was the profilePat and I had a wonderful gurly outing while the boyz did their own thing. We crossed over into the Aude department and were treated to a sea of yellow thanks to the numerous fields of sunflowers that are still in flower
This is an area of gently rolling countryside, lovely little villages and quiet roads not to mention some beautiful sceneryHeaven for the roadie rider! Poor Pat was feeling weak and washed out thanks to an ongoing gastric problem but being the trooper that she is, kept the pedals turning and we both enjoyed the return of the warm sun. I love riding with my mate! Get better soon, missus!

The boyz seemed to enjoy their ride, with Kev finishing his ride at Mirepoix for work reasons, whilst Andy and Céd made their way back to Neylis along the minor roads.

An enjoyable day was had by all!