An unexpected turn of events.

It has been another strange week for me due to family commitments. I was too busy to ride on Thursday to the HCMF meet, so made up for that by using Posh to pop over to King's Worthy on Friday to feed the rabbit and cat. I took the country route there along the south side of the Itchen valley.
Chores done I headed  along Springvale and over the ridge to Stoke Charity. It was a fine evening so instead of heading the shortest way home I turned north from Micheldever to M. Station and then then turned along the wooded road to join the A32. In East Stratton I thought about stopping for a beer but them decided I could enjoy one when I got home.

Friday's Route.

A good run to keep my legs tuned?

On Saturday 24th August I decided to make a real effort to join the Winchester CTC afternoon ride to Poppies.
I left home at 12.30 so I could stop off at West Winds to attend the animals and arrived at the RV in good time. A very good turnout. There were 17 of us, a large proportion being newbies.
It is great to see so many new faces, but I greatly miss some of the old ones.
We had received a message that David, our leader for the day had hurt his hand badly and had gone to A&E but would come to the start if he could. After a wait of about 5 minutes we had another message from the Winchester Hotel that David was still in the hospital and asking us to appoint a new leader.
I suggested Paul but as he was not riding the return route he declined but suggested that if I took over the leader's duties he would act as La Laterne Rouge. I agreed and after a short briefing we set off along the regular route out of town via the Bereweeke Avenue and the Old Sarum Road. Unfortunately two riders left us for mechanical and health reasons before we had gone two miles.
Here is my map of my route for the day (including my commute fromand to Alresford) from which you can see our route to Poppies took us over Farley Mount and through Kings Somborne and Mottisfont.

With so many riders we split into several small groups with the faster riders leading the way and then waiting to regroup a number of times.
At Poppies we found another Mike and Charlotte waiting to join us for tea. (We already had mike and Charlotte in the group). I'd not seen them for a long time so that was a welcome bonus for me.

Some of the group enjoying their well earned tea.

After tea we took the road through Belbins to the Braishfield/Romsey road where Margaret, Paul, one pair of Mike & Charlotte left us. Julie took over the role of back marker.
The hill between Slackstead and Merdon Castle was a test for all of us but soon we were on the last climb of the day to Oliver's Battery where we split up to find our own ways home or to the start point.
Here is one of the other riders comments on the day:

"Thank you very much for leading a most enjoyable ride yesterday afternoon with a very nice tea stop.  The route was lovely through beautiful countryside.
I am sorry I did not see you at the end of the ride to thank you in person.  The "newbie" at the back was clearly struggling a bit and collapsed with cramp at Oliver's Battery.  I sent Colin on, so hopefully you heard we were ok.  He is diabetic and fortunately I had a rice krispie bar with me and some water left, so after a sit down, snack and drink he recovered enough to cycle on.  He was heading for Wharf Hill, near Winchester College, so I decided to cycle with him through Badger Farm, Stanmore Road and St Cross to ensure that he got to his destination in one piece and then I cycled on home.  He did say he hasn't cycled 30 miles before, but hopefully will join us again. 
Julie."

I found it a rewarding day, and I am sure it was a new experience for a number of the participants some of whom clearly found it a bit tough but nevertheless had found they could achieve more than might have thought. We look forward to seeing them again!

Many thanks to Julie and Paul for their help and for the others who took part for their patience.

We all wish David a speedy and complete recovery.


Gridironman.