Yep as others have said, you couldn't fault the weather. It was perfect - sunny all day and not
too hot.
As mentioned ^^^ my ride started at Romsey at (whisper it) 5am so I had a v.quiet ride to Demead via the Morestead Road, just the Owl and the Pussycat for company (plus a hedgehog).
We were waved off by Dave P. somewhat early as per usual so we were off at 6.45 rather than 7 (explains why I didn't see Hummers).
Set off riding at a steady pace with Barry and we remarked that it wouldn't be long before Tuggo et al would be along. Sure enough, a volley of abuse from behind announced their arrival
and we were rolling nicely along through Micheldever, taking the obvious short cut to the Bear & Ragged Staff.
Goodbye to Tuggo et al here as Barry stopped to tighten a loose routeholder bracket. We had a pretty fast ride over the Forest and decided to give the Ancient Highway a miss and use the main road instead (the "rough road" description on the routesheet really is stretching the definition of "road"...). The track also caught out frere yacker who apparently took a tumble at one point.
We arrived at Milford as the others were leaving and a large rock cake went down nicely here. The next bit is a bit too busy for my liking and it was a relief to get the Ringwood/Ashley Heath bit done with and be off in the lanes again.
The temperature was hotting up and a stop at the pub in Shapwick was called for. The lane from here to Blandford really was unbelievably gorgeous, it was almost a shame to reach Blandford but the control (hello to Danu/Yorkie/Tuggo as they left) was great. We must have looked pretty done in as the neighbouring table donated half their chips to us to fuel us onward.
The ride back across the lowland Cranborne Chase was great, as predicted by LEE last week the wind did seem to change during the day and get behind us to push us home. The lane from Downton was hard work and Salisbury couldn't come soon enough. The stop seemed to do me some good and I picked up for the last bit back to Romsey. The inclusion of Dean Hill after ~240km (280 for me) was a bit mean I thought. Barry (on fixed) was reduced to zig-zagging his way up it but made it OK). Glad to reach the top but the descent past bright yellow fields of oil seed rape made up for it.
The sunny A27 was a blast and it was on to Ower services. Sitting on bags on charcoal on a garage forecourt swigging orange juice shouldn't have felt as good as it did...
The last bit for me, only 7km, up the hill and a swoop down to Romsey. Farewell to Barry as he left for the last bit back to Denmead, and I turned off to finish at my front door, 185 miles so a smidgin under 300km I guess.
As I type, we have had rain, thunder and lightning here this morning so I guess we were pretty lucky.
