Stephanie lead today's ride with me assisting. It was a chilly start with a "feels like" of minus 1, so we were keen to get going asap. Karan, as we would expect had ridden from home and warned of a few icy patches, but by this time, any early ice was melting. After Storm Ciara, some lanes were a bit messy in places, with bits of fallen branches etc, but overall not as bad as they might have been. Stephanie had check out the route yesterday which had a couple of road closures too with roadworks, but ok for bikes to get through.
Route
We met at Shoulder of Mutton pub, then over to Hartley Wintney and took Church Lane which continues for a while then straight through X Roads and over the M3. Continuing straight for a few miles, then a right into a second Church Lane, Dogmersfield. This continues to the busy Farnham Road. Almost a dog leg here into Hillside and quiet lanes once more, taking us into the centre of Odiham. It's all downhill into Odiham said Stephanie at the Farnham Road. Erm.... not as I remember it! It definitely has it ups and downs. (This elevation on this ride is 728 feet overall)
We stopped after 10 miles in Odiham at Fountains Coffee Shop and met up with two Fleet riders who are friends of Karans. (we had agreed a 10.30ish meet up).
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| Karans Fleet rider friends joined us for coffee (and Cake.. am I allowed to say that here?!) |
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| Getting all the locks off after our teastop in Odiham |
The next few miles, where exposed, has some nasty gusts of wind, which were a bit worrying, but otherwise the weather was lovely, and we had warmed up by this time. Once through Newnham, we cut through the grounds of Tylney Hall, where I requested a photo stop of the group.
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| Daphne, Andrea, Karan, Vanessa, Lucy, Linda, Jackie and Stephanie |
Now through Rotherwick, and before we new it, we were passing Dipley Mill and almost back to the start. The ride was billed as 26 miles, but was in fact just over 20, so a few of us were pleasantly surprised to find we were almost finished.
Thanks Stephanie for organising, and great to see all you lovely ladies out today.
