I made good my promise to be more active in the Pedallers Group.
Simon joined me to ride to Crawley Pond to join the group. Surprise, Surprise! We arrived 15 mins early and were the first there. Other groupies soon arrived. Unfortunately Graham had a problem with a mudguard stay fracturing so our start was delayed while repairs were attempted by our resident expert Simon. Eventually the mudguard was removed and stowed in the back of Alan's car.
I was very impressed by Jo's lovely Boardman cyclo-cross bike. Great knobbly tyres for the winter roads! Later I discovered that Jo is also a Strava member so was able to link with her and compare our performances.
Alan led us over the ridge past Leckford Hut into the Test valley. The lane is much better now it has been resurfaced. Our route continued through Longstock towards Stockbridge before we turned northwards past Danebury Hill to Abbots Ann. I was finding the pace a little high on Sporty, perhaps i should have ridden Posh. However the others in the group kindly waited for me to catch up as we crossed the A343.
We turned to the East and arrived at the very large Andover Garden Centre. It has lots of ouitlets in their own units on the site including Cotton Traders and Bon Marche. (Not the Bon Marche I remember from my youth in the centre of Gloucester).
These colourful & interesting characters were also for sale:-
After some confusion as to where we could safely leave our bikes we queued for what seemed ages to get served with coffee and cake. When we got it it was very good.
Our route home was via the Anna Valley and the Clatfords and over the hill to Wherwell. Shortly after leaving that village Simon and I left the group to ride home to Alresford. Simon chose a very good route through Barton Stacey, Stoke Charity and Micheldever. By the time we got home we had done over 50 miles.
It was an extremely enjoyable day out with some of my best cycling buddies including Karen & Bill, Brenda and Ian.
Thanks to all who took part for a good ride.
Saturday 29th November 2014.
As I rode to Simon's house I passed about 30 cyclists in New farm Road, Some event taking place by the look of it.
Simon and I had once more decided to do our own thing due to time constraints. Simon suggested we went towards Odiham, So we set off up the valley to Medstead. our highest point for the day at about 700 feet. As we started to climb the hill we passed a group af beaters in one field and in the next were half a dozen guns popping away at the pheasants that had been flushed by the beaters.
We were taking it gently as I had had a slight problem with my left leg. However it did not cause me any distress on the ride.
When we got to through Lasham Village I suggested that we headed past Golden Pot and down the B3349 to South Warnborough. Here we stopped for an all day breakfast in the village shop. Extremely good value at £5.00 including a mug of coffee.
A couple riding a Tandem were also in the shop and we had a nice chat with them before they left.
Afterwards we headed home via Upton Grey. On the way I pointed out to Simon where the Alton CTC hold their Pace Judging and Freewheeling competition.. We had a go at the freewheeling, Simon beat me by some 5 yards. We were both in the range of the recent competition though I was some way short of where I'd reached on Posh.
We pootled along enjoying the lovely sunny day and enjoying more chat as we headed down the Candover Valley to Chilton Candover. Here we turned off over the hill via Spiers Lane which I much prefer to Bugmore Lane as that has a number of undulations.
I was home just in time to enjoy England beating Australia in the rugby match. Great stuff!
A different type of ride entirely to Thursday's.
Thanks Simon once more for your company
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| Route and Data for Saturday 29th November. |
So far I have raised £314 for Forever Angels thanks to the very generous donations received so far. I have been promised more! Not bad considering my original target was £100, updated to £200 after my birthday.
Gridironman.
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