Some belated thoughts from me, as I ended up being rather busy yesterday, doing other stuff.
I've done the Thame to Oxford section few times now, and in fact Rogerzilla's route mirrors what I'd previously worked out, so it must be good!
It wasn't too cold really, so I only had a thin jersey + armwarmers under my jacket and fingerless mitts. Setting off through Oxford, it was surprising seeing how many people were on bikes - and most of them seemed to have some sort of lights (even if a few of them were the green blinky sort, including one chap using that as a rear light).
Once we got out of Oxford, you could really appreciate the stars which were twinkling away. In some ways it was a shame we were a fast group, as there wasn't really any opportunity to stop and gaze upwards. In Horspath, there was the first indication of dissent amongst the gps users, as one track was indicating us to go up Gidley Way. That way's great for going
to Oxford as it's a steep downhill, but it's a bit of a hike uphill. The way we went, although longer, is less steep. As Grub mentioned above, he then had to sort out his gps, but all seemed well in Wheatley.
Going through Thame, unlike previous occasions , there didn't seem to be any rowdy troublemakers, which was nice. Not so nice was the fact my batteries suddenly died. With hindsight, I'd realised I hadn't done a deep discharge and charge, only a top up charge, which clearly hadn't been enough, so it was my own fault. I switched them back to the set I'd been using for the ride up to Oxford, but it meant I couldn't use the eye searing setting.
On the road to Chinnor, I commented that it seemed longer at night. Of course the reason is that it's slightly uphill, and during the day, I've normally gone the other way. We didn't see Matt hanging around anywhere in Chinnor (and we didn't have his number), so we pressed on. I ended up walking up Chinnor Lane and Smalldean Lane as expected.
We were making good time when we rolled up at road-runner's house, where his never ending supply of tea, coffee, toast, crumpets and other things was very much appreciated. I was quite amazed at Matt finding us, and I had images of him peering through any lit up house, checking to see if it was the right one!
I put on my full length gloves once we set off, but couldn't resist chuckling if Grub was in front of me and was indicating or pointing out hazards, as he had lobster type gloves on.
In Chalfont St Peter, my chain managed to get itself well & truly mangled round the rear dérailleur, after initially coming off the front, so we had a short stop to sort that out, although thankfully no damage done.
After passing the M25, that was just about the end of the countryside, and then we were generally following the signs for the West End. I could remember the way, so could shout out corrections for those following their gps devices.
For the final part, we weren't rushing, as we knew the scheduled café wasn't scheduled to open until 6.30 am. However, before then, when passing through Acton I spotted an open café, and shouted out for the others to stop, and we all piled into
Café Paolo's, which seemed to have every variant of a cooked breakfast that you could wish for.
Once fully refuelled, I set off with Matt towards Paddington Station. One obstacle we had to avoid was loads of horse poop and near Lancaster Gate we went past at least 15 riders who were each leading a spare horse, so that explained the volume of stuff on the road. After leaving Matt, I decided to stick to my original idea of riding home, and just followed the signs for the A5, basically all the way home, so ended up doing 142 miles in total.
So good fun all round despite Rogerzilla not being there, and nice to meet (or see again) some other yacfers. And thanks again to road-runner for his hospitality.
Oh, and Grub you utter ******* for mentioning the
number plate game. No matter how hard I looked on the way home, I couldn't find a "1" to start me off. Lots of 2 - 5 plates though. Grrr.
