Sunday 21st March (part 1)

Whilst Chris and Simon were off racing in the Cotswolds that left Stuart and I (Steve) to return to one of our favourite rides. After the excesses of the Wayfarers Wheelers fundraising Disco on Saturday night we decided to have a late start. We set off at the gentleman's hour of 9am in glorious sunshine, and whilst the clouds did appear later we had great weather all morning.

Our ride took us first over Watership Down at Sydmonton then South towards Whitchurch before turning West to St Mary Bourne. The route then follows the Bourne valley through Hurstbourne Tarrant, Upton and Vernham Dean heading toward Oxenwood. We peeled off the main road to climb up past the Shalbourne Gliding Club who were making the most of the weather. The steep decent into Shalbourne marked the turning point toward home. On another day we may have taken in some hills on the way back, but instead opted for for the easier route through Ham, Inkpen and Ball Hill.

38 miles in total at a steady 14mph was all we needed to clear our hangovers.

Saturday 13th March

Spring is here!

The temperature was finally into double figures and the skies blue. A team of 4 set off from Highclere this morning to do our regular hilly ride, taking in Wantage and Lambourn but in an alternative clockwise route. The group comprised Mark, Chris, Simon and Steve.

As we freewheeled downhill, away from the start an agreement was made to "work together" doing some "thru 'n' off" to keep the pace up. It was suggested there would be a fine of 20p a mph for anyone who came through and increased the pace above 16mph! It wasn't long before the potential for fines was substantial! Especially for Steve!

Our first 2 hours of the eventual 4 hour ride were done at well over 16mph and its only when we hit the hills after Lambourn that this reduced slightly, with the overall ride being done in just over 15mph - the fastest yet for a Wayfarers Wheelers training ride. Made more impressive by the 3500 ft of climbing en route.

Sign sprinting got off to a start at Kintbury, taken by Chris(the next one for him was at the end of the ride at Bagnor!). Each sign was contested by all with Steve taking his fair share but others won by Simon and Mark and the Marwood who joined us just before Lambourn.

The hills were another matter, Mark's climbing abilities were more than matched by Marwood as they powered away up each ascent. Simon and Steve followed with Chris bringing up the rear, although he did manage to beat all the group to the top of one steep climb towards the end of the ride after Farnborough "This isn't meant to happen" said Steve as Chris powered past " I am practising for the hill sprints in next week's road race" Chris replied. Fat chance!

After Peasemore and then Chieveley, the group slowed down as tired legs from earlier exertions had an affect. Marwood turned off for home at Winterbourne and the group broke up. The Bagnor sign was a big tactical game. Mark taking the pace up, then Steve "boxing in" Chris. The uncertanity about where the sign actually was contributed to a nervous mile or so with Chris eventually going very early and managing to hold off the others all the way.

In the last few miles Steve disappeared and Chris turned back to find him but soon gave up on the assumption that he had headed straight for home. Later it emerged that Steve's chain had come off and tangled, bending a link in the process - a ride home on jumping gears followed.

Great ride in perfect conditions with 60 miles covered in under 4 hours, no wonder everyone was tired.

Sunday 7th March

As mentioned last Sunday, the Wayfarers Wheelers went off to do different events this week.

The weather was the best this year so far with clear skies but still very cold - about minus 3 degrees C, warming up to only plus 5 degrees as the day went on.

All of the group had a late night the night before with Pete, still recovering from his knee operation, gloating as we left our Murder Mystery party that he would be reading the Sunday papers as we left very early to get to our respective venues.

Steve went on the Evans "Ride it!" event at Watlington, near Oxford with a route around the Chilterns and came in just over 4 hours for the medium 60 miles route.

Chris and Simon took part in the League of Veteran Racing Cyclists 19 miles 2-up team time trial at Napton in Warwickshire. A real "baptism of fire" for the two of them but a lesson in how fast they will need to go to be contenders at their level. They recorded a time of 1:05:30 compared to a winning time of just over 46 minutes. It had started so well with smooth changeovers between the two of them but a strong easterly wind and prolonged climb had its effect, particularly on Chris as they battled to turn in a respectable time. Simon remained strong to the end and there were some fast bursts in the last few miles but overall the field was a good 5-8 mph faster over the distance! The duo did however beat their "standard" time for their ages by 3 minutes 25 seconds and are keen to do another!

Back to a group ride next week and more hills no doubt but with a mind to the need for greater speed!

Wayfarers Wheelers team kit finalised!

Here is the team kit that the Wayfarers Wheelers will be wearing when competing in road races, time trials and sportives as well as out training this year. Sponsored by local media solutions company, Cache Media www.cache-media.com a big thank you to Stuart and Lisa there.

There is also a separate deal with another local company, C&N Sales www.cn-sales.co.uk for

arm warmers and legwarmers - designs to be released soon. Thank you to Neil and Christine at C&N.

Also thank you to Gianluca at MSTINA Cycling Wear www.mstina.co.uk for the jersey designs and production.

The boys are going to look smart!

Sunday 28th February

The forecast was bad, very bad, but Simon, Steve and Chris ventured out in the heavy rain and strong winds. In the end it was better than expected but other things took their toll on this week's small group.

The route took us out towards Hannington for the first climbs of the day and then turned west to, Overton and St Mary Bourne and our now favourite Stoke Hill before heading to The Chutes and then turning north to arrive home via Linkenholt and Faccombe.

As usual the sign sprints got going early, Steve sneaked away to get the Old Burgclere sign and then there was a full sprint for Sydmonton, won by Chris. His last showing of the day apart from the Stoke sign as he was complaining of feeling energy-less after a "bad" chili con carne the night before. The same chili had also affected Steve and Simon, but was clearly brushed off by Steve who remained strong throughout the ride.

Simon had shown good form in the sprints after Overton and towards St Mary Bourne as he pushed the pace to drop the other two as he practiced the speed he needs for an event next weekend. Sadly though, shortly after Stoke Hill he had to make a dash for home and apparently descended into Hurstbourne Tarrant at 45mph such was his need! No more details, but in the end his wife was called to the rescue!

Chris and Steve soldiered on and made a wrong turn adding a few miles and another climb to the route. At the highest point, Chute Causeway, Chris punctured. The wind was cold and the tube was swapped quickly but not before both of them lost the feeling in their hands.

There was a resolve to push on homeward after this unfortunate event and Steve pedalled away from Chris on the climbs only to take a wrong turn and be beaten home by him. Chris had assumed he had been (quite rightly!) left to fend for himself in view of his suffering.

The route felt like over 60 miles but was only 55 and 2500 feet of climbing.

Next week the group go their separate ways; Chris and Simon to a two-up team time trial in Southam and Steve to the Evans Wallingford Sportive. Pete is now out for a few weeks after keyhole surgery on his knee. All were Amazed he had walked into the pub unaided on the Friday night - you can't keep Pete from his beer!

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.

Sunday 14th February

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 obviously 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.

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.