HCMF Meet at Upham and Reconnaissance for VCC June Ride

Thursday 27th March 2014.

The phone rang around 9 a.m. It was Simon asking if I'd like to join him for a ride to the HCMF meet at the Brushmaker's Arms, Upham. I jumped at the offer and accepted but I wondered if this was a great decision as within half an hour the clouds had gone really dark and soon it was raining but I decided that wasn't going to be much and joined Simon at his house at 10.30. We decided to go via Kilmeston and Swanmore to enjoy a longer route to the pub.

We headed through Tichborne and as we came out onto the main road by chance we met Sarah and her daughter Chris out on a training run for their big Ride the Night event in May (Click here for Sarah's Link to find out more). We had a nice chat and we agreed to ride with them for a while through Cheriton and across the A272. Near Beauworth we left them when Sarah told us to carry on while they paused to remove surplus layers. I think they really stopped to see if they could spot the skylarks that were singing lustily nearby.

At the Milbury's we turned left to return to our original route to Beacon Hill and thence to Swanmore.
As we continued into Bishop's Waltham there were a few spots of rain but they soon blew over.

We climbed the hill to Upham and arrived at the pub around 12.15 p.m. to find about a dozen other members of the fellowship already enjoying their meal. More arrived soon after we'd ordered our lunch.

The Brushmaker's Arms.

Bob explaining how he got his picture on Face Book while Colin, Charles and Angela think "Oh NO! Not again!

Meanwhile others get stuck into their grub!

I tried to remember who was there after I got home. I managed to name 17 out of 18 present. I've forgotten the gentleman behind Colin talking to Roger. Not bad memory for an old fogey!

Simon suggested an alternative way home and we set off back down the hill to Lower Upham then along the B road towards Fisher's Pond. Next we turned up the lane to Owslebury and thence through Longwood, across the A272 to whizz down to Ovington. One last little climb up to the roundabout on the A31 and we were nearly home.

When I got there I discovered that instead of turning off the camera on my mobile phone I had switched it to video and I had recorded the inside of my bum bag for about 35 mins. Interestingly I had also recorded our chat, the passing traffic and the puffing as we climbed the hill!

I hastily deleted the recording just in case we had said anything libelous!

Our Map and Data for the Day.

Saturday 29th March 2014. 
Due to other commitments Simon and I both decided not to join the Winchester CTC ride to Tangley.
Instead I agreed to help Simon test a route for a ride he is leading for the VCC in June.

Simon had plotted the route on Garmin Connect and  we had both uploaded it to our devices. However as we had discovered before my 200 seemed to be less confusing to follow than Simon's more complicated version. Between us we manged to follow the planned route pretty well apart from Bossy Bryce leading the wrong way from Gundleton to Ropley. Hmm!

Here is our map and data for the day from which you can see that despite only covering 38 miles we did climb nearly 3,000 feet this is our excuse for only averaging a moving speed of 10.4 m.p.h.

En route to our lunch stop at Selborne we visited Chawton where I took these pictures.

They show the Church, Chawton House with its lovely display of daffodils and a couple of views of Jane Austen's House.

From Chawton we took the direct route to Selborne . it was hard work as apart from a few testing little rises the brisk breeze was right in our faces.

The pub was quite busy but we found ourselves a table in the bay window where we could enjoy a quiet chat whilst lunching.

Next came the hardest part of the ride. First we had that steep pitch of nearly 10% out of Selborne then several more steep climbs before we peaked at 829 feet after the climb from Hawkley. We seemed to be crossing one valley after another and the downhill stretches being in narrow and rough lanes could not be taken at speed.

We crossed the A272 climbed another hill and this time had a fast descent into East Meon. here we took advantage of the seat by the river to have a rest and a snack whilst soaking up the sunshine.A large group of cyclists passed while we were sitting here and we exchanged greetings.

The greatly improved surface on the road to West Meon enabled us to make excellent progress for a few miles. We were now on very familiar territory and the last few miles seemed to slip by very quickly, even the last few hills did not delay us much. At the top of the hill from West Meon we spotted this casualty of the storms last month.

Uprooted Beech Tree.

We arrived at Simon's Home feeling pretty tired and we enjoyed a cuppa while regaling Sarah with yarns of our derring do.

Thanks Simon for your company and enthusiasm on two very different but great fun rides this week.

Gridironman.