Sunday 21st February

On Saturday night the group was promising to be our biggest ever at 7 cyclists. By Sunday morning we were down to only 5. Simon had to stay at home decorating and Pete was still recovering from a stomach bug picked up in Barcelona, missing his last ride before knee surgery tomorrow.

We headed off towards the west in light rain. After only 3 miles or so we were down to a group of 4 - Mark, the new boy last week, punctured and after a quick replacement of a tube and two blasts with CO2 canisters the tyre went down again. He suggested we carried on without him and so we did!

The pace was our quickest ever over the first three hours as we stuck to "B" roads in view of the sporadic icy patches. It was great to cruise along at over 18mph, sharing the work and all of four of those remaining; Chris, Fran, Steve and Stuart were up for contesting the village signs. There was an equal spread of "wins"around the group and the pace often quickened a substantial distance from the signs which certainly took it toll on the legs later on.

The route passed through Hungerford and onto to Chilton Foliat then turning at Liddington Crossroads to head over to Uffington, up the tough climb over the ridgeway to Lambourn and then down the valley to Boxford, with signs coming thick and fast. At Boxford we turned north to Winterbourne to add in a little more climbing and then down the narrow lane to Bagnor. After Bagnor, it was to Stockcross, Marsh Benham and home via East End.

The pace slowed considerably over the last few miles as we waited for Fran and Stuart. Poor Fran certainly paid for his early forcing of the pace and the fact it was his first ride with the group for many weeks. The sun came out towards the end but we all were all covered in mud from the wet conditions of earlier and received some interesting looks from pedestrians at the roadside.

A good ride without the big hills of recent weeks but still over 2,500 feet of ascent in 56 miles and lots of fast and furious village sign sprinting.