The Rural South

[Ian H]

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.

[Manotea]

Well, that's knocked the smile off my face...

[red marley]

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.

[Greenbank]

This is beginning to piss me off.

It'll all turn good for you on LEL. 5 constant days of 38^oC scorchio, unbounded humidity and not a cooling breeze to be found.

[Hot Flatus]

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.

[JBB]

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

[PeterM]

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

[Hot Flatus]

Weather forecast has gone from good to abominable. 

...and relax.

It's back to being ok 

[Manotea]

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?

[PeterM]

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

[red marley]

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.

[Manotea]

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.

[Hot Flatus]

i'm staying behind the nuclear bomb factory. We look like we are on the edge of tomorrow's weather front.

[arabella]

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.

[Ian H]

Text from the organiser says nine still to finish.

[Bianchi Boy]

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.

[dave d]

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.

[Manotea]

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.

[mattc]

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!

[Hot Flatus]

Big thankyou to PeterM and all his helpers for what turned into a great day out. 

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)

[Salvatore]

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



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:



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

[damerell]

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.

[Manotea]

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.