Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Audax => Topic started by: scottlington on 26 May, 2008, 06:56:13 pm
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Just entered - anyone doing this (or done this before)? Nice route?
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Nice route. Very nice route.
It's pleasantly devious, and manages to steer a quiet and largely laney route through the gaps between the busy places. It's not overly tough, but neither could it be considered flat; it usually takes me about the same time as the Elenith.
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+1, though be advised that if there has been rain before or, worse, during said ride, the chances of escaping the ministrations of the PF tend to zero :(
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It clashes with my event this year, otherwise I would be riding. Pleasant route and not too many hills for an old fart-on-fixed.
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I was looking at doing it also, but it's the day after my 40th so don't think I'll be fit to do anything much that day, let alone cycle 300k.
Rich.
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Adding my name to the "thought about it, but real life intervenes". Its an excellent ride, with some great views (Portsdown springs to mind). It's also an interesting challenge trying to get around before sunset - you look at the route and think "no problem" but at some point around the course start to think "I need to pick up the pace if I'm not going to get caught short"
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Thoroughly enjoyed this one last year and have entered again. Not flat by any means but I only recall using my granny ring once – the rest was gently undulating.
Made the tactical error last year of making sure I got my money’s worth at the eat-as-much-as-you-like breakfast at the first control so I struggled on the acclaimed bacon roll from the van on Portsdown Hill.
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It's a lovely ride, but I would say that, being the organiser... It never ceases to amaze me how quiet a route this is, given that it passes through generally heavily populated and trafficked parts of the country. Though the ride is hilly-ish, there's only one climb that even has me contemplating the granny ring. It's quite a good fixed route too.
Still time to enter... I'll accept entries on the line, but I'd appreciate a call or an email beforehand.
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Ahh madness sets in. One week back on the bike and I am wondering if I can do this in a week and a half - time to go a look at lump on shoulder and talk some sense into myself.
:o ::-)
Funny how the mind works. The memory of doing a good ride last year is more prominent in my mind than my aching legs from riding home from work.
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I've entered this and will be there unless the forecasts really bad.
Great rural route and you get to see the sea (just). I'm bringing gears and 2 spare tubes!
Nik
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I've entered this and will be there unless the forecasts really bad.
Great rural route and you get to see the sea (just). I'm bringing gears and 2 spare tubes!
Nik
A few more spare tubes and a couple of folding tyres, and I'm sure you'll be OK ;)
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Still time to enter... I'll accept entries on the line, but I'd appreciate a call or an email beforehand.
My entry's in the post, (or will be soon).
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Me too.
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I'm not really here but I'm having a bish at this - first 300. Apologies to Peter for the somewhat late entry from Friday last week, but I was seeing the doctor the day beforehand to find out if they wanted to cut holes in my perineum, which might have cramped my style rather.
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I've just posted off the route sheets for all the entries received so far.
If you've entered but haven't received your route sheet by Tuesday or so, PM me and I'll email you a copy.
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Rode this yesterday for a final route check and to prime the controls for next Saturday. An excellent day out—warm and almost windless, and dry despite sometimes threatening skies.
Some of the lanes are more than usually gravelly and potholed, especially at junctions. I noted a few points where road conditions are especially, ahem, challenging...
Stage one
There are a couple of bad potholes on the left before the turn at 34.77km
Stage three
At around 10.8km there is a vast pothole on the left. What makes this especially "interesting" is that the pothole is just around the gentle right-hander at the bottom of the fast, straight descent that starts at a house called "The Shielings."
At around 60km there is a "Mud on Road" sign. It certainly means it about the mud, but "Road" would fall foul of the Trades Description Act.
Stage five
Bad potholes on left around 2.75km in. Could be hard to spot if you're leaving Selborne in the dark.
There are no route changes, and the route sheet as mailed out is fine and won't mislead you. Minor details that I spotted:
Stage one
The Penwood village sign is missing before the turn at 31.0km (but there's a big Penwood Nurseries sign so you'll know you're in Penwood).
Stage three
At 28.32km, the Compton signpost has returned, but was looking very wonky.
The signpost for East Marden is missing at the T at 35.76km.
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I was out in very similar country yesterday, suprised our paths didn't cross. OK maybe not as I was riding a vaguely similar route but starting 180o from you I guess. There was gravel everywhere following heavy rain last week; I expect it will have cleared a bit by the time of your event (hopefully).
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There was gravel everywhere following heavy rain last week; I expect it will have cleared a bit by the time of your event (hopefully).
So even more gravel given the current view out of the window :(
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It's only Tuesday but there has been a lot of flooding around Denmead so I guess more crap on the roads north of Pompey.
H
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I would like to do a 200 this weekend, but can't see any in the calendar. So put me down as a 20% possibility for an enter on the line. And then a 5% chance of finishing.
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It's only Tuesday but there has been a lot of flooding around Denmead so I guess more crap on the roads north of Pompey.
H
And the weather is not looking too great for Saturday as it is... should be fun!
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This turned out to be an excellent ride!
I was very glad that I'd plastered myself in sunscreen and taken 2 water bottles. A fair amount of gravel and potholes on some particular sections but lots more good surface than I remember from previous editions. The recent wet had turned the fields and woods a healthy green and the visibility was excellent. Only went off route once for a couple of km when we were all too busy watching a buzzard to look at the various routesheets and gps.
Nice to meet Scottlington et al.
Nik
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Fantastic ride! Really was rural!
Rode round the majority of the way with a great bunch of chaps (NikW, Hugh and two others whose names I never did catch).
It took 20k or so for the field to sort itself out (from a start of 34 riders iirc). I settled in with Nik and Hugh, after Hugh had dropped back from trying to keep up with Chris Rutter! We rode most of the first stage by ourselves (10-15k of which I remembered from the Stonehenge 200 a few weeks previously) and, after a hearty breakfast at the first control we picked up another chap and set out on the short stage to Portsmouth. I'd been well aware that at some point I would get dropped as the scenery got lumpier, so it was not surprise that I fell off the back slightly as we climbed up to the second control. It was here that our final member of our fivesome caught us (I believe he took a wrong turning at the very first routepoint out of the start (must be a record!). I had a burger from the van, which didn't go down to wel and I ended up throwing half of it away.
We set of into the third (and hillest and longest ) stage and it wasn't long before I was on my own as the hills started. I wasn't really that bothered - kind of knew that was going to happen. Anyhow, I pressed and my legs started to come back to me and was going ok towards to latter half of the stage. Eventually joined up again with Nik, Hugh et al courtesy of a pit stop they had made at the INFO pub about 30k out from the next control and we all rode into Control 4 together. Must mention this control as it was one of the best I have been to, really good food, great service and very friendly. Stage was much the same story as stage 3, with me getting left behind about 10 k into it. Again, just pootled on - didn't get caught by anyone so I guess I couldn't have been pootling that slowly. Took a wrong turning just after Elstead but only wasted 5 mins or so. Pulled into the last control where I found Nik, Hugh et al just finishing up a sandwich, so I toook the opportunity to grab a very quick sandwich and a pint of coke (from the rather unfriendly waitress it must be said) and shortened my stop to set off with the others.
This time around it seemed to be NikW who was suffering, and his legs appeared to desert him as we negiotiated the final few meaningful hills of the stage. Conversely I felt pretty good - I did get dropped first of all by Hugh and the two others, but managed to catch one of the guys by Old Basing and the others were literally 2 minutes in front. NikW arrived about 15 mins after us.
Overall, a great ride, would definately do it again and comes thoroughly recommended. Finished in 16hrs 20 mins so very pleased as I was expecting 17.
Thanks to the organiser and thanks to NikW, Hugh and the two other chaps for some great company throughout.
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I did mention to PeteM that I would provide the total ascent figures, so here they are:
3456M total ascent.
Bear in mind that there may be some discrepancies - others may produce differing figures but that's about right.
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I did mention to PeteM that I would provide the total ascent figures, so here they are:
3456M total ascent.
Which, maddeningly, probably means there isn't a 100km extent with 1500m climbing to squeeze a quarter-AAA point out of.
I'll generate a RR at some point, but - finished about 0110, but since it was my first 300 attempt I'm pretty pleased I finished at all. A bit of a deathmarch, especially the 40k home from the arrivee - I stopped in Bracknell and hogged all my remaining fig rolls, and then managed to crawl home.
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Another principle is jettisoned: no longer can I call myself "Simon 'I don't do 300s' Spooner”.
Which just leaves me with 'Doesn't do dumps on Audaxes' and 'Hasn't DNFd on an Audax', though at one point on Saturday I was semi-considering the latter. A lovely day, a lovely route, new territory - thatched cottages, village cricket matches, village greens, duck ponds, lanes, pot-holes (ie not like the Welsh routes I’m used to) - but half-way through the Portsmouth/Selbourne leg I felt a wave of sleepiness come over me and felt my energy levels seep away. A planned inter-control tea-shop break did the job though, and I was OK for the rest of the ride. Not quite sure how a cheese salad, cup of tea and glass of orange juice can ward off sleepiness for 10 hours, though.
I hope you managed your 25 miles back your parents OK Damarell, on your mobile library, and well done on your first 300.
My computer gave 3019m of ascent, but around 100 or so metres in the 22km ride to the start, and consistently registers around 25% less than gps readings.
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A bit of a deathmarch, especially the 40k home from the arrivee - I stopped in Bracknell and hogged all my remaining fig rolls, and then managed to crawl home.
I think that I offered you a lift in a CAR - but in true cyclist spirit you declined on the basis that you never took a car. Pretty inspirational I thought, especially as the last thing I wanted to do was ride another 100meters.
I was the Lantern Rouge all the way round. Started 20 minutes late with cousin Jacinta. At about half way we picked up Richard who was taking it easy.
We stayed together for the next couple of sections till the fairy visited Richard and a tempting train nabbed Jacinta. Somehow Richard got back in front and I had 60 odd clicks to do alone in the dark at the back of the field.
The first 20 of those night kilometer were great. The pie and chips were starting to work and I had fresh legs. Earlier I had absolutely loved the 'laney' nature of the ride. But at night there were no street lights, signs of humanity or even the comforting extra degree of temperature that a small town offers. I was hurting.
Consequently, I struggled to remain inside the time limits at each control. Without a headtorch I was forced to stop at each intersection and shine my front light on the route sheet. This became quite laborious. It was also impossible to see trip distance or speed on my computer, so every 2km leg seemed to take forever and my confidence in my navigation was ebbing. Luckily I had full confidence in Peter's sheet.
The aarriivvee was extremely welcome. I had to take a quick break in the car for a nap on the way home, but eventually found my deserved welcome at home at 4:30am. Sleep was a blessed relief from the turmoils of the day.
Thanks Peter and to Richard for his company. Jacinta (who does not read these reports) was at her best all day. Thanks for being there.
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I think that I offered you a lift in a CAR - but in true cyclist spirit you declined on the basis that you never took a car.
Sorry if I was rather brusque; I was totally exhausted, in both the sleep and exertion senses.
But at night there were no street lights, signs of humanity or even the comforting extra degree of temperature that a small town offers. It was also impossible to see trip distance or speed on my computer, so every 2km leg seemed to take forever.
Although I had a headtorch, I had similar problems, as my RR will mention - especially the 7km and 11 km legs between instructions out of Basingstoke, which were mostly straight tree-lined roads - giving no real sense of progress in the dark.
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Ride report: here (http://damerell.livejournal.com/53780.html)
It's long, but so was the ride. Edited to remove LJ's stupid Adult Content notice from yacf's helpful fetching of the page title.
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Simon Spooner had a truly impressive headlight
That was Mark Williams with the bright headlamp. Simon was about an hour ahead of us. The one who borrowed your gloves was Richard Wareham.
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Oh. Well, I was totally confused, then. Come to think of it, the person I thought was your brother at the Arrivee didn't look much like the person I thought was your brother on the road.
That audax lark fairly scrambles the brains.
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Or, in the words of Peter M when you appeared at the finish:
I've seen more life in something lying in the ditch
Considering which, to ride the extra xx km was well above and beyond the call of duty.
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Anyone seen their brevet card back yet? Yeah, I know, it always takes longer than you expect...
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Anyone seen their brevet card back yet? Yeah, I know, it always takes longer than you expect...
They're just about to go off for validation (I've been away since the ride).
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Just thought would revive this thread only one week to go until my local 300.
Great ride with good commercial controls. I live in Reading so am use to the type of hills. I always find the climb out of Selbourne after the last stop the hardest. I have ridden this ride 4 times before and always had a good day out.
I will be there at the start. Anyone else?
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If all goes to plan, I'll be there
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Hopefully I'll give this a go next year. It sounds like a great ride. For now going to do the shorter Emsworth and Back from the same base on the same day. Wonder if we cross paths at all?
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I've entered but it's doubtful I'll make it given various domestic bits going on, I'll know for sure fairly soon - if I don't make it my travelodge room'll be vacant.
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I'll be along. Hope you make it, Arabella.
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Entered but not riding. Nice ride though. Fond memories of eating a gutbuster burger overlooking Portsmouth downs.
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Just entered. Riding a 200k the next day too, so will be taking it pretty easy.
Anyone know how many metres of climbing there are on this ride?
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Can't make it this year, but have good memories - a great ride!
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Anyone know how many metres of climbing there are on this ride?
Somewhere around 4000m I think. It's claimed as being just short of AAA points.
Only a few "notable" climbs though. It's the insidious rolling kind that creeps up on your legs. Well, my legs anyway...
Not doing it this year due to family commitments unfortunately :(
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I definitely won't make it, I need to be in Ipswich early afternoon.
Shame, I was looking forward to doing this one again, still, best laid plans etc., hope y'all enjoy it.
Anyone wanting a travelodge room let me know, it may as well be used (it's a family one).
I'll make up a 100km/m locally and push round it as fast as I can instead, I'd like some km in my legs between the 600 last w/e and LEL, doesn't look like I've any options other than short local outings now on though, tee hee. (Aka the disadvantage of having 0 family on the doorstep).
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Anyone know how many metres of climbing there are on this ride?
Somewhere around 4000m I think. It's claimed as being just short of AAA points.
Only a few "notable" climbs though. It's the insidious rolling kind that creeps up on your legs. Well, my legs anyway...
It's an easy run to the South Coast, but coming over the Downs is a corker with the notable bits in. After that it's insidious rolling, again. I found the long slow straight tree-lined ascents near Basingstoke very discouraging in the dark, with no real sense of progress.
Alas, I'm not riding it this year.
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Coast? Did you say coast?? :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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Coast? Did you say coast?? :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Bicycle Path - AUDAX: Rural South 300 (NAT) at Bikely.com (http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/AUDAX-Rural-South-300-NAT)
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Anyone know how many metres of climbing there are on this ride?
This may be a help (or perhaps not).
(http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~jwo/acf/ruralSouthProfile.png)
I'll be there (5th time for me I think). I'm not lending you my sock though.
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Perhaps you'd like a go faster stripe on your cap, then?
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I'll make up a 100km/m locally and push round it as fast as I can instead, I'd like some km in my legs between the 600 last w/e and LEL, doesn't look like I've any options other than short local outings now on though, tee hee.
Short-n-fast will do you more good at this stage. You KNOW you've got the distance in you - the aim now is to get fast enough to get decent sleep on the ride.
(And I didn't even mention the T word ... )
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Weather forecast has gone from good to abominable.
Met Office says, "at this stage there is low confidence in any details on the amounts of rain."
It reads as if written in a hurrry.
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Well, that's knocked the smile off my face...
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I currently have 28 audax points so far this season, none of which has been earned on what could be called a 'nice day'. I've lost count of the Sundays of fine weather that have followed a miserable Saturday of audax weather. Not to mention my weekends off audaxing that have been glorious wall to wall sunshine.
This is beginning to piss me off.
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This is beginning to piss me off.
It'll all turn good for you on LEL. 5 constant days of 38oC scorchio, unbounded humidity and not a cooling breeze to be found.
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I too have 28 points and have found the weather this year to be exceptionally good. I did DNS BCM largely on account of the weather, and I think I may have dns'd another 200 though. Even the Elenith was great apart from that early shower.
I think I will ride this weekend's events (Rural south and Barbuy Bash) come what may, as I have laid plans involving others and paid for a hotel. Plus my fitness seems to have disappeared after not riding for 3 weeks or so.
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Helen and I are booked in for this - I won't start worrying about the weather for at least another couple of days. By then the timings should be a bit more accurate. If it rains I'll probably stay local and do some loops on the mountain bike.
Julia
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Controls are all primed to welcome you. I posted out the route sheets yesterday.
If you still want to enter, I'd recommend doing so online via the AUK website. I'll have a few route sheets with me at the start. If you want to enter on the line, that's fine, but please arrive early and bring an entry form, SAE, and cheque. I'd appreciate a phone call or email beforehand too.
It's a cracking ride (we get a lot of repeat custom); hilly enough to be interesting, but it won't rip your legs off, and some terrific views. You'll be astounded that a ride through such densely populated parts of the country can be so quiet and, er, rural.
Bring your preferred weather with you.
The Organisator
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Weather forecast has gone from good to abominable.
...and relax.
It's back to being ok :thumbsup:
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The Organisator
When will the hall close, Peter? More to the point, will anybody object if I pitch a tent in the grounds as an alternative to catching some Zzzzzs in the car before heading home?
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When will the hall close, Peter? More to the point, will anybody object if I pitch a tent in the grounds as an alternative to catching some Zzzzzs in the car before heading home?
The hall will close as soon as possible after the arrival of the last rider, because by that point I'll probably have been on the go for about 22 hours, judging by past years...
I'll want to clear the grounds before I leave (there's a padlock on the gate, and I don't want to do anything to mess things up for next year), but there's no reason why you can't kip in the grounds, your car, or the hall until then.
Peter
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There's also a campsite about 2km NE of the end at Loddon Farm. Not the prettiest, but close and does the job. Stayed there the first time I did the Rural South.
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Arabella has kindly passed her travelodge room at Reading West (about 8km from Beechill) to me so if any tailenders need a bed for the night give me a shout. I'm planning on staying over and riding back to London in the morning.
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i'm staying behind the nuclear bomb factory. We look like we are on the edge of tomorrow's weather front.
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I definitely won't make it, I need to be in Ipswich early afternoon.
I'll make up a 100km/m locally and push round it as fast as I can instead
Well, I snuck out at 4:00 am leaving big guy snoring peacefully and did an OK-ish-ly quick tour or approx 100km, he was lying in bed reading when I got back. It was sunny when I left but got steadily cloudier, I'm assuming the sortof headwind blew the gap in the clouds over to Reading in time for the 6:00am start.
I assume there are currently several folks in the Queen's Head in Selbourne. Meanwhile I am off to bed when small guy goes, to catch up on Zzz.
No rain here.
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Text from the organiser says nine still to finish.
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Well it was nearly all good.
- The rain stayed away. There were some hints that in might arrive, but only small amounts of light rain.
- No visitations. I was lucky given the amount of grit on the roads.
- Had company a lot of the way. JWO and Swiss Hat mainly.
- Had my fill on the way around and still have lots of the food I brought.
- Rode from home and back in day light. No lights needed.
There were some lanes with a lot of grit, some with pot holes. There was one small part where I dare not brake and just hoped that I did not come off. Nerves were shot for a while after that resulting in nancy boy cornering. If I could not see round a bend I braked and went round very slowly. There was also a nagging easterly wind that only helped a little on the forth section. It also slowed me down on the fast decent from Farleigh Wallop, only clocked 63 km/h when 80 is possible on a still day.
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Had a good time on the '140' Emsworth and Back too. A really nice route on mostly quiet lanes and the weather down south seemed to be much better than in Reading.
Also the advertised 146km turned out to be 161km (by general agreement among those of us who had GPS's). Great in two respects - I have now unexpectedly passed the 'ridden 100 miles in a day' milestone :) and also when I do my first 200 it won't seem quite so far of a step up. :)
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I was looking forward to riding the Rural South again after last riding in 2006 but having had little opportunity to ride since the Brian Chapman almost a month previously, I was expecting a long day out. As preparation I had a pointless ride round the Nyctophobic with Swiss Hat on the Thursday before which ensured sore legs on Friday but I was ready to go on Saturday. The plan was to drive down on Saturday with Swiss Hat and then stay over at a local travelodge on the Saturday night and ride home on Sunday. Unfortunately I had set my alarm for 5am rather than 4am which meant that I had a rude awakening at 4:45 when my doorbell rang. The up side was that all my preparations were made the night before so 10 minutes later we were out the house and on our way. With several other events that weekend it was only about 20 seasoned riders that hit the road and I soon found myself propping up the rear. Some early light drizzle soon passed, and the wet roads meant I could amuse myself by tracking the progress of those ahead. I grabbed a coffee at the breakfast stop at Alresford and then pushed on Portsdown Hill to munch some egg rolls whilst chatting with PeterM in the back of his car, leaving just as the final back markers arrived headed by John Spooner. I rather pootled down the back of Portsdown Hill, expecting John and Co to swoop past but they never arrived so I pushed on and round on my own. As expected it was proving a reasonably tough day. I was riding reasonably well on 70" (42x16), with no perambulations except for the final ramp of Harvesting Lane, but I did seem to be flogging rather than flying and by the time I reached Milford was feeling a tadge cold and lonesome, and not convinced that I fancied another 6 hours of the same. As I rolled over the railway crossing at Milford I paused to consider my options. With 208 quality kms on the clock I rationalised I could pack with honour and call it a training ride, and then a train rolled in, my train straight home to be precise. There wasn't time to catch it but it did seem like a Message from God and I went onto the platform to checkout the timetable. The next train was an hour hence so decided to push on to the next station along to kill some time. Alas, this cunning plan fell apart when I met John Spooner and companion fuelling up outside the co-op at the next junction. Bugger! Nothing for it but to do likewise and push on back to Beech Hill! As is the way of things with some food inside me and good company my spirits improved and I finished in good form, which is kind of handy as it's the Irish Mail next week. I certainly hope the weather is kinder then it was for the Cambrian riders this weekend. Many thank to PeterM for organising, it really is a great route, to Arabella for the travelodge room, and of course to John and Nigel for rescuing me from the doldrums and seeing me home.
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I grabbed a coffee at the breakfast stop at Alresford
Did you go to the (steam) station caff? Probably not open early enough. The 110k riders had a delightful lunch there!
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Big thankyou to PeterM and all his helpers for what turned into a great day out. :thumbsup:
All seems a bit of a blur now after very little sleep on friday and saturday night, and a 200k on the sunday. Lovely route taking in some lush rhododendron lanes in surrey (?) as well as a stunning view over Portsmouth. Great company on part of the ride with jwo. Highlight of the ride was arriving at the carpark control at Portdown Hill to find PeterM sat on his car engrossed in a copy of Razzle.
(I made that last bit up)
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A full value day out.
Got up at 3:15, but my ride to the start was delayed for a while as I searched for my wallet. Eventually I tracked it down to the washing machine, and retrieved a soggy miscoloured tenner and some bent plastic cards.
On the way to Beech Hill I spotted a possibly confusing sign near the start
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3354/3606884176_a48b5fbe65_m.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnspooner/3606884176/)
After some tea and toast at the Beech Hill, I started near the back, and soon caught Colin Tame. Colin has never ridden a 600 ("ridiculous distance") but rode LEL in 2005 and will be riding again this year. The drizzle got a bit heavier but never turned into full-blown rain. At some point we passed a forlorn figure at the side of the road:
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3656/3606329047_26ce5ed4c4_m.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnspooner/3606329047/)
The rain had stopped by the time we reached Alresford, where, joy of joys, my bent debit card stiill worked which meant I could buy food. We enjoyed the distinctly unhealthy all-you-can-eat full breakfast at The Swan in Alresford, and then set off with Colin for Portsdown, briefly joined by Nigel from Southampton.
The queue at Mick's Burger van was a little too long, so Nigel and I set off together, and enjoyed a quick stop at the cafe at Singleton - a good job we did as the cafe at the farm shop control was closed by the time we got there. We stopped again mid-stage at the Co-op at Milford, where we joined up with a dispirited Manotea (Me: "but you can't pack, you're a Super Randonneur, you've got a reputation to maintain" etc etc), and rode as a trio together to Selbourne. Here Nigel left us to push on, but M and I stopped for tomato soup.
Manotea picked up his pace up the Candover Valley, and after Axford on the Col de Farleigh Wallop I had trouble keeping his rear light in view, never mind holding his back wheel. I think it was something to do with the neat Lucozade he was drinking. Thank goodness the navigation round Basingstoke slowed him a bit. We got back to Beech Hill not quite lanternes rouges, but in about the same time as I had finished the Elenith (i.e. pretty late). After my ride home I failed to get to bed less than 24 hours later than I had got up.
I think John Major would approve of the Rural South route - it passes through loads of archetypal English villages with thatched cottages, duckponds, and cricket on the village green (we saw 4 cricket matches in progress). If the ride were to be run on a Sunday, no doubt we would mingle with spinsters cycling to evensong.
Thanks to Peter M, you can get back to your Razzle now.
In other news: Before one of the other rides, Reading CTC made a donation to the Restoration Fund for Beech Hill Village Hall
(http://readingctc.co.uk/docs/misc/BeechHill.JPG)
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Thank goodness the navigation round Basingstoke slowed him a bit.
As I recall it is a bit tricky - last year I went SO at X and as far as I could make out you and two other riders were swallowed by a vast chasm and vanished for the next 5km or so.
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A full value day out.
Yes indeedy.
After my ride home I failed to get to bed less than 24 hours later than I had got up.
I woke up to find myself sitting on a chair in the middle of an apparently deserted village hall, PeterM having stripped the room about me! Happily he was on hand to point me in the direction of the Travelodge.