Only four out today. Pete had left for a week on business in Barcelona(although he squeezed out with Chris for an "easy" ride the day before - it was a far from easy 2 hours!) and Steve on a half term break in the Trossachs. Although Albert was back from school for half-term he preferred a lie in! So it was left to Simon and Chris, joined by Stuart and new boy, Mark.We had agreed on the same route as three weeks previously - Wantage, Lambourn, Hungerford and home. At our meeting point the weather looked grim with sleet falling under grey skies. All agreed it was probably going to be a wet one!
We headed out through the lanes to Marsh Benham, onto Bagnor and Winterbourne then Chieveley, Stammore and Farnorough before the long descent to Wantage. This wasn't as much fun as three weeks earlier, with a north wind blowing hard and requiring us to pedal on everything but the steeper sections. There was a brief pause to regroup at Wantage and then we turned for home via Letcombe Regis and up over the 10% gradient hill to Lambourn.
Our route then made its way to the village of Eastbury for our last climb of the day up to Lambourn Woodlands. We were then back on lanes everyone knew and Stuart obviousl
y got his "second wind" pushing the pace up to 31mph briefly with us all strung out behind. The pace then remained well over 20mph for the next few miles until a sharp right turn took us up a short but steep climb. Mark impressively powered up this in the big ring with the rest of us, nursing tired legs, going more slowly.
y got his "second wind" pushing the pace up to 31mph briefly with us all strung out behind. The pace then remained well over 20mph for the next few miles until a sharp right turn took us up a short but steep climb. Mark impressively powered up this in the big ring with the rest of us, nursing tired legs, going more slowly.Soon after we were at Hungerford Common and looking to complete probably our fastest ride this year until Simon punctured. A quick turn 
around followed and we made our way back to Highclere at a fair pace.
around followed and we made our way back to Highclere at a fair pace. Not mentioned yet are the village sign sprints; these got off to a slow start with Chris and Simon making a note of the new Bagnor sign for future rides. Overall it was probably an equal contest between both of them, with new boy Mark soon getting into the swing of things after an explanation by Chris of the folklore of Sunday club run village sign sprints!
Yet another great workout, nearly 60 miles in just over 4 hours and over 3500ft of climbing.
No comments:
Post a Comment