Many thanks to Claire Hubner who planned this 30 mile route today for the Bucks, Berks and Oxon Breeze Champs, starting at The Barn, Stratton Audley, not far from Bicester. We were 12 in total including brand new Bracknell/Wokingham Champs Sue Poley and Hazel King who trained just a week ago. Great that you could join us, and to meet our area co ordinator Rachel.
I drove to the start with John, and gave Sue a lift too. (Cathy and Hazel both had plans for later so went independently). John fancied riding back home from Stratton Audley. The only problem today was a stiff southerly wind, but he decided to go for it, so left us at the car park. (he got home at 4.30 a bit weary, and said I would have hated climbing Brill hill btw! So thanks Claire for NOT planning the route over Brill.😉)
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| The first few arrivals. |
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| John had a quick chat with Rachel, then set off for home on his 60 miler. |
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Claire checking off her list of attendees. She also then announced that she would only
be able to ride the first part with us. (Mum commitments). |
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10 second timer shot from the fence post.
Claire, Sue, Heidi, Kate, Sue P, me, Rachel, Hazel, Nicky, Cathy, Ann, Glynnis |
We split into two groups with at least 300 yards apart, to keep the traffic happy. Much of the route was very quiet lanes, but the other theme of the day was potholes. There were lots! We left the pretty village behind, and soon doglegged across the busy A4421, to do a loop along some very pretty low hedge lined lanes, passing through Hethe and Fringford. A few miles on, and we crossed back over the A4421 once more, this time riding just a couple of hundred yards, before a left turn into quiet lanes once more heading to Poundton. It would have been nice to take a few more photos, but its always more difficult in a larger group.
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| Rachel's phone shot. |
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Fed and watered, we all get ready to go. We are now 11.
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| We accosted a visitor to take a photo on Rachel's phone. |
Having felt a little overdressed on the first part of the ride, I decided to pack my rain jacket away. That was a mistake, since I think it was less than a mile or so after we set off again that it started to rain, quite heavily. The red champs jackets are in no way waterproof, so a brief stop to put it back on again. 😔. But it passed fairly quickly. We were very lucky, since plenty of dark clouds around.
A very pretty ride, so many thanks to Claire in particular for organising the route today. Lovely to see all you ladies, some of whom I have met a few times now, and others for the first time.
