Breeze Thursday ride to Binfield Heath - 24 miles

We dropped the final 2 grandchildren home at 8pm last night. It's been full on for 2 weeks with 6 of them here in rotation. So we are both a bit numb! 😩 But delighted that young Holly who is 8 can now do a few miles too. (11 miles Ascot and Windsor Great Park). 

I offered this Thursday ride, to accommodate those who weren't able to ride with Sue on Wednesday. 4 signed up, but 2 cancelled in the last 24 hours, so we were 3 today, which is fine by me. 

Route link

I met with Linda and Cathy W at Cantley after earlier rain, which we hoped had blowed through.  It was quite blustery today too at times, but never a problem.  To ring the changes on a route to Sonning,  we went via Hurst Lanes to  Whistley Mill Lane, to cross at Lands End Ford. A new route for Cathy.

This of course means manhandling the bikes over a style and also a tricky gate, but we all agreed we could manage before we set off. (If Sue, who had signed up originally had come with her heavy bike, we would not have come this way).

Crossing the Loddon at Whistley Mill Lane, Hurst.

My fellow riders today were Linda and Cathy W.

We crossed the style in to the horse field, where
today about half a dozen girls were having lessons. 

Linda had to reverse her bike across the next bridge
since not enough space to turn it at the stupid gate. She managed. 

A wiggle through Woodley, but to ring the changes, we turned left after crossing the railbridge on Duffield Road today, to cross it again on Butts Hill Road, then crossed it a 3rd time on Warren Road. We noticed how HIGH above the railway we were on Warren Road!  Then straight over the A4, to drop downhill to Sonning passing Blue Coat School, and into the Church yard. 

Another gate this time Sonning Churchyard

We walked through the churchyard, and got back on bikes down to the Thames path to emerge at Sonning Bridge. The only problem with that is you cant see the traffic lights, so we just pushed our bikes on the narrow path over Sonning Bridge to Sonning Mill. 

As we climbed Dunsden Hill, Linda said " Is your back tyre ok Anne". In other words, it wasn't! Aggh. Not again. My 4th puncture on 2 different bikes on recent rides. I struggled to the top of the hill on a fairly flat tyre, and set up camp at Dunsden Green War Memorial. 

Removing the tyre was easy enough, but then with Cathy's help we found nothing in the tyre. Hate that!  But I persevered and found a TINY piece of flint embedded. Neither nails, nor my plastic tweezers could grab it, so out came the metal ones from my medical kit, which eventually got it out. Phew.  New tube inserted, and with all 3 of us taking turns to add air, we were back on the road..... for about 10 seconds. 

"Ooh"  said Linda. "It looks a bit soft". 😢 A bit more air, but it was not going up very much at all.  Decision time.  They were happy that they could manage to find their way home, and I might phone a friend to collect me. Our route WAS supposed to go to Sonning Common looping round another 5 miles or so and back to Binfield Heath to coffee. But if my tyre could make it, we could ride directly there, and I could wait for a pick up if necessary. We would give it a go.  

I was defintley working hard, since it's still up hill to Binfield Heath, but limped to coffee stop at The Barn. I put more air in when we got there, as a test, hoping it would stay there, whilst we sat indoors for coffee. Plenty of seats outside too, but a bit cool today with the tail end of a hurricane. 

The Barn has change since I was last there. It used to have open sides and an earth floor. No more! Its beautiful. Also toilets indoor now.

Basin in the Ladies loo. 

The large windows and glass doors are also a new edition
as well as a proper concrete floor. 

A nice chat over coffee, and I was much relived that my tyre pressure had held enough to hopefully get me home. Cathy very kindly had her other half on standby to pick my up, since my hubby was miles away on his bike. (Pls thank him for offering Cathy!)

All downhill to Sonning of course. Loads of traffic through Sonning today!  Realised that they are all avoiding crossing at Reading Bridge since the Festival now on. So avoid Sonning this  weekend!

My thanks to Cathy and Linda for their company, their patience and assistance today, and apologies that I had to cut our milages a bit shorter.  We were doing a good speed until things went wrong, after which I wasn't confident going too fast with my soft tyre. 

(Back home, I blew the new tube to full pressure with foot pump, which now seems fine. A tiny air bubble on the punctured tyre when held under water.)