Poor Student 200km - 6th Jan 2024

[Lightning Phil]

Maybe it should be renamed the Pool Student for this edition?

[drgannet]

You should all just about be OK along the Botley Road into Oxford tomorrow. The Thames is still rising, but slowly; some roads off the Botley Road are flooded, but provided no continued rise it should remain passable. The Wytham diversion is completely out, of course.

[PaulF]

You should all just about be OK along the Botley Road into Oxford tomorrow. The Thames is still rising, but slowly; some roads off the Botley Road are flooded, but provided no continued rise it should remain passable. The Wytham diversion is completely out, of course.

In a live update My wife has just got back from town and reports minor flooding around Bridge Street; buses are getting through but she didn't want to risk her new boots

As it's between the two "outbound" bus stops its also not that extensive and as we have no rain forecast should have abated by tomorrow

[Lightning Phil]

[mattc]

ha ha. Luckily it's been a sunny day in Oxfordshire. [I didn't ride!]

I live just south of the route, and flooding is about as bad as I've ever seen it. The good news is that lots of tarmac is dry (thanks to the mild temps), so some bits of the ride should be really nice.(much of it is on much higher ground than here)

Facebook post shows at least a score of riders setting off, good luck to everyone out there 

[P.P.]

Surprisingly little flooding out there today (compared to last year it was like a desert). I think the only really big puddles were in Oxford itself on the way to the finish.
A really good day out as always with what I thought was a surprisingly good turn out, considering the time of year.

[composite]

Fairly dry on the whole but the alternative route to avoid Oxford center didn't work out. Just after the village where you take a tight right and go over the bridge, the road was completely flooded. Whilst we stood there in the dark guessing at the depth and weighing up options we could see a light coming towards us, that turned out to be a lad pushing a bike in wellies and waders. He said it was knee-deep at its worst. We promptly turned around and went back to Oxford. 

[LiamFitz]

Fairly dry on the whole but the alternative route to avoid Oxford center didn't work out. Just after the village where you take a tight right and go over the bridge, the road was completely flooded. Whilst we stood there in the dark guessing at the depth and weighing up options we could see a light coming towards us, that turned out to be a lad pushing a bike in wellies and waders. He said it was knee-deep at its worst. We promptly turned around and went back to Oxford. 

In my day we swam around icebergs and killer artic sharks just to prove superior local knowledge... what's wrong with you boy??

[iddu]

I had Sydney onboard, so was never going to be bothered by other Selachimorpha... 

[D O G]

Fairly dry on the whole but the alternative route to avoid Oxford center didn't work out. Just after the village where you take a tight right and go over the bridge, the road was completely flooded. Whilst we stood there in the dark guessing at the depth and weighing up options we could see a light coming towards us, that turned out to be a lad pushing a bike in wellies and waders. He said it was knee-deep at its worst. We promptly turned around and went back to Oxford. 

Yes, well, faced with the flood and 2miles left of the ride OR backtrack and probably have 4 times that to ride I decided to go for it...it was axle deep, and very cold!



Could have done with a fresh pair of socks for the drive home...

Other than that flood, the rest of the ride had much less flooding that I had expected.  Enjoyed the ride overall - shame that the mist took the views away from the scenic bits, I remember them being quite worthwhile when I rode this a few years back.