Sunday 17th January

After another blast of midweek snow, the roads were clear again or so we thought! Black ice was still a problem this morning and with a certain amount of trepidation, the three riders out for the first real training ride of 2010, Pete, Chris and Steve, set out with a large circular route planned, taking in Wantage and Lambourn and Hungerford.

It had threatened to be a larger group but Simon was a late withdrawal with the Flu and the effects of the Port at the dinner party the night before had given false hope of Fran and even Matt joining us. We did however agree to meet up with Marwood and his friend Mike in Chieveley.

After a slow and cautious start we decided to change the route to take in more major roads and headed straight into Newbury on the A343. This out of the way we took the main Wantage road and the pace was fairly fast up the first climb of the day. Sadly the following descent wasnt fast due to the ever-present concern about ice and there certainly were some small patches here and there.

Due to the cautious riding the Chieveley village sign wasn't contested and we carried on over badly crumbling roads, caused by the weeks of ice, towards Peasemore. We soon came across Marwood and Mike as planned and they turned around to ride with us to Farnborough(no not the one in Hampshire, the smaller one in West Berks!).

After Peasemore, we soon encountered large patches of ice through Stanmore and on the descent to East Ilsley. A new riding style was adopted by most of the group which entailed leaving one foot out of the cleat in anticipation of counteracting a fall. Luckily no one succumbed to the ice.

The pace quickened again on slightly safer roads for the climb up to Farnborough and we came across a small group of mountain bikers dressed in what appeared to be shell suits. They didn't seem to take too kindly to us passing them, probably viewing us as a bunch of road riding, Lycra clad poofs! To their credit as the pace quickened up the climbs two of them made a good effort of sticking with us and eventually they turned off with a friendly wave from their leader.

After Farnborough we bid farewell to Marwood and Mike and descended towards Wantage. The roads looked clear of ice so the speed built up with Chris reporting an impressive 41.3 mph on the main straight.

Wantage out of the way we followed the pleasant lanes through Letcombe Regis towards Lambourn with a couple of 10% gradients to contend with. At the top of the last one there was a brief stop for a few energy gels to be imbibed and then it was off again to Lambourn.

Steve, as he often does, wound up the pace as Lambourn neared with victory in the sprint for the village sign in mind. He probably went a bit too early and Chris sat on his wheel to then sprint past at the "finish". Pete was nowhere to be seen so a quick double back found him replacing an inner tube due to a puncture.

We set off again, back through Lambourn and onto Eastbury to climb up to the A4000 and then take the lanes around Hungerford. At this point having covered 40 miles or so it was agreed we would aim towards Kintbury and the shortest route home. Tired legs for all and Pete was obviously feeling the effects of missing a few road sessions.

The last few miles were covered at a fairly leisurely pace and the weather could be best described as "Spring" like with warm sunshine. Bliss!

All agreed ithad been a good workout with 56 miles covered and over 900 metres of climbing in the best conditions we have enjoyed for a while. Only 25 Sundays to Tourmalet!