Farewell to Cathy - Crazies Hill to Marlow

I hope that Cathy recognises herself in this little digital sketch I did.
This will be her next week when she moves to Corwnall. 😊

Today was my last ride with Cathy. It's been lovely to have her as a fellow Breeze Champ and friend this past few years, since we both trained together in October 2019. I have always admired her "I'll give it a go" attitude to life. She has joined me on quite a few of my more challenging rides.

I knew this would be a popular ride, and last week Gill C kindly offered to lead a second unofficial group in the event that our ride was oversubscribed. Which it was. Well, I could have taken more, but I don't like groups of more than 6/8. A few last minute changes due to illness, so Cathy and I took 6 ladies, and Gill took another 2. We started at Crazies Hill. Very nice to have Jessica join us today. I have met her a few times through the Breeze Windsor and Cookham Champs. Also nice to welcome back Cathy W who hasn't ridden with us for a while.

It wasn't the best light for photographs today. The promised sunshine never did appear, but autumn colours were just about hanging on.

heading down to cross the Thames at Aston

Jessica and Cathy up front

Cathy W and Amanda T

Rose and Louise

Sandra

Gill with Kim and Amanda O. We split up away from them after the lock
to keep the groups more manageable.

heading to cross The Thames.

As I was catching them up, a road block. 😃

Hambleden Weir

We crossed the main Marlow/Henley road and into the Hambleden Valley Road, called Skirmett Road, and we decided to have a loo stop at the car park, since 20 miles to Marlow. Gill and her ladies continued to use the one loo in Hambleden Village and we didn't see them again until coffee stop. (I think Gill got the better deal today. A well behaved group of 3... bliss. 😂)

Nature break. And and for Sandra, time time to rearrange the layers.

Through Hambleden and we climbed up the cheeky hill to Bottom Lane,
to get the elevated views over the valley, and our first glimpse
of Turville Windmill way in the distance.

We split into 2 groups of 4 along the Valley Road, passing through Skirmett and turned left at the end of the valley road, then left again into Dolesden Lane.

Waiting for Cathy's group to catch us up to face Dolesden Lane together.

Its a long slog, but I think other than one rider stopping for a second, we all made it to the top in our own time. I stopped at the last corner for a photo of the lead group ahead, and to wait for the others to catch up . Well done everyone. I think a few more layers were removed at the top!

The final push to the last bend on Doleden Lane.

Well done Amanda.

Well done Rose.

At the top, we passed through Turville Heath and and bit more of a gentle climb up to Northend. We are at our highest point now, and just before we all headed downhill to Turville, a group shot using Jessica's saddle as a tripod.

Group selfie on Holloway Lane.
Sandra, Amanda T, Jessica Cathy, Cathy W, Me, Rose, Louise.

And now I set off ahead, with a 30 second start to capture them on the downhill. The beech foliage unfortunately is pretty much off the trees, but lots of colour on the ground.

Holloway Lane.

As Jessica passed, I heard her call out "Someone is down".
It was Amanda.

She had slipped as she changed from one side of the lane to the other, but thankfully fell against the side, and not the tarmac. So although dirty and a bit of a sore elbow assured us she was ok. Maybe a bruise tomorrow. 😩

It was almost 11.30, and we had done 8 miles! 😂😂😂 It was also a little cool, just 6 degrees as we dropped into Turville, so no stopping, apart from this horse and cart as we climbed back to the end of the Hambleden Valley Road, passing through Fingest, to start our climb to Frieth.

We soon warmed up again climbing to Freith X Roads, and continuing over to the flat ridge to drop into Marlow. A couple of riders set off at a fast pace, to warm up, and I enjoyed catching them up. Since we were running late, I opted to avoid the official route, dropping through Bovingdon Green, and instead continued on Chalkpit Lane/Oxford Road into Marlow. It was a fast run down, and no traffic at all.

As I got almost to the bottom......😔... puncture. Ahhh. So close. I told the others to go ahead and I would walk to the cafe. Rose kindly walked with me. It was fairly close, and by the time we got there, the others were still ordering their food.

Arc Cafe at the Methodist church, Marlow.

Gill, Amanda O and Kim had already arrived of course, but not that far ahead of us. I had email the Cafe a couple of days ago, asking if would be possibly provide a table for 12, and they happily confirmed that they could. Excellent. Ordering was bit slow, but the food appeared pretty promptly after that from the kitchen. Most ladies had soup or toasted sandwiches since it was 12.30.

Louise helped the staff by serving our drinks.

I asked one of the staff to take a group photo. Completely out of focus as usual.

So, I took this one of the group, minus me.
Great space for a large group.

So, after my cuppa, I went outside to fix my puncture, assisted by Jessica. We took no time at all getting the back wheel off, tyre off, tube out, large thorn removed, tube replaced, then I struggled to get the wheel back on. I did eventually but it took some time. (Might have lost my sense of humour, sorry ladies.)

photo by Rose. Very oily hands.

We were all set to go, when Sandra then realised she also had a puncture. Aggghhh.

Rather than everyone wait, Gill set off with her group, and a few seconds later, Cathy W, Jessica and Rose decided they would also set off with them. (Just 6 miles back to the start.) I have never been abandoned by my riders before. 😂 What I didn't know, until I got home and called Gill, was that they didn't catch her in Marlow, but thankfully worked out the route back, and caught them in Temple. The problem was that Cathy O'Neil, had got a lift with me to the start, so there was no point her heading back to the start without me.

Here we go again. Sandra starting her repair.
We did struggle with her different type of value for ages.

In the meantime, to keep warm, I suggested Cathy give a line dancing lesson. 😅

Finally... after a long time, we left the cafe, and headed to Temple to cut through the underpass to Hurley. But the gate was closed with a padlock. This day was not going well. A couple of us tried unsuccessfully to open the gate. I tried calling Gill to ask what they had done, but no reply. (Riding on the main Marlow/Henley Road not an option).

I decided to lift our bikes over the gate and continue our route as planned, through Hurley. What a faff. I was sure Gill had done the same.

Sunflowers in Hurley, looking towards Crazies Hill.

Still smiling, with Sunflowers around us.

One final hill, up Rose Lane to the start. Phew. It's getting late.

I called Gill when I got home, and good to know that everyone got back ok. I asked her about the locked gate. "I had trouble with that too", she said. " But then after a few attempts, she looked over the gate to a "latch", and opened the gate. 😂😂😂

An memorable ride. We do enjoy an adventure.

A few of the ladies sent me some of their phone photos, so here are a selection. Thank you all for your good company, and a chance to say Farewell to Cathy.