Sunday 25th April - "A lost hour" By Chris

Sunday morning and it was raining! A bit of a shock to the system having got used to the dry and pleasantly warm conditions and the fact we hadn't been out in the wet for weeks.
The previous evenings forecast had warned of this, but only showers, not persistent stuff and mist as well. It was commented upon as the four of us(me, Steve, Simon and Mark) rolled away that punctures could well be a problem again. How true this would be!

I had in fact entered a road race but elected not to ride as I couldn't face the thought of another drubbing by people a lot older than me and a 90 mins drive each way to Epsom! So, I had "sold" the plan to do at least 80 miles and get lots of climbing in to the others during Friday's pub session. Everyone was more than willing.

Our planned route took us first to Burghclere, then Kingsclere, down a lane with a ford where the water was at least 2 foot deep so the footbridge did the trick and over to Brimpton. Steve wound up the pace big time for the Brimpton sign and took it easily as a car coming in the opposite direction made a last dash for me too dangerous.

We then dropped down to Woolhampton with another ferocious sign sprint - this time I got my own back. After crossing the A4 and a short climb is was onto Bradfield at speed - 23mph then Pangbourne and Whitchurch on Thames where Simon got the first puncture of the day and showed how not to use a gas canister to reflate the tyre, most of the CO2 escaping into the atmosphere and freezing his hand at the same time. A navigational error by me took us down a narrow, but fast lane which came to an abrupt end in a farmyard! We turned around and I punctured almost immediately.

The others were so impressed with my tyre changing prowess, particularly without tyre levers, I let it go to my head and completely forgot to check the tyre for other foreign objects. No sooner had I pumped the tyre up than it was hissing again and the procedure had to be repeated. What a prat!

Within a hundred yards or so there was a loud PISSSST! No one knew at first, but it soon became clear, Mark was the next victim of the dreaded road flints.

Mark confidently set about changing the tyre and gave a perfect demonstration, much to all of our amazement, of how to use a gas canister to reflate a tyre. It was impressively, almost instant. "Wow" we all exclaimed. But our amazement was very short-lived. Mark quickly noticed that his inner tube was bulging, like a small hernia, through a nasty cut in the sidewall of his tyre. We tried a repair but the same happened again and he decided to call his wife for a rescue, it would only be a matter of time before there would be a loud bang and another flat.

I totted up the cost of my "navigational" error in my head - 3 inner tubes, 1 tyre - about £50. Sorry guys - at least I had been a victim too!

We left Mark to be picked up as the weather improved to descend at speed into Goring, climbing up Streetly Hill(easier than last time!) then onto Compton, East Ilsley and Farnborough. At Farnbough it was clear time was ticking on and no one wanted to be out until mid-afternoon, so we took a left there to return towards home via Wnterbourne, Bagnor and Stockcross.

The last few miles were a bit of a grind and I felt empty. My hot cross buns that had worked so well during my 100 mile ride last Saturday just didn't do the trick today and nearly every time I tried to eat one I nearly choked. Steve's ham sandwiches seemed far better. Maybe also it was because I only had part of my important first feed, a banana which broke in half and did a lap of my front wheel before being jettisoned off behind.

Nevertheless, we did do 67.5 miles and nearly 4,000 feet of climbing so not bad. The "lost" hour faffing around with punctures would have seen us comfortably get over the 80 miles mark.