In January 2025, I did 11 rides. This January, I have managed only 1! And that was on Monday with friends. I was so looking forward to today's Breeze ride to Cookham and Marlow, (previously cancelled), since 48 hours ago the forecast was for sunshine all the way. But yesterday, the forecast changed to freezing temperatures overnight, but sunny and 4 degrees by 10o'clock. So we delayed the start to 10.30.
I had 4 signed up originally, then one lady had a change of plans for the week, and another was unwell, so it was me, Rose and Louise. Louise cycled a couple of miles to my house for a lift, and although it was cold, she saw no ice. Frost on the grass, but roads were fine.
I had just cleared the window on my van, a few minutes earlier and it was icy again. 😨 All around us there was no ice evident. Apart from the roof of my car.
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| Frost standing up on my car roof. |
As we almost reached Crazies Hill, we followed by hubby and his 3 riders from Wokingham CC. They had started 9.30 at Cantley. They pulled over to allow us to pass, and we parked less than a minute later at Crazies Hill. Rose was there, saying her saddle had ice crystals on it. WOT!!!!
As I unloaded bikes from the van, I expected the WCC cycle group to pass us any second, but they didn't appear. Finally John did appear, and said it was really icy on the hill I had just driven up. They all appeared one by one, the last one with skinny road tyres, had walked up. They were all feeling very cold, but said they had seen no ice until Crazies Hill.
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| John and his WCC Group |
Decision made. We ladies are NOT riding. They= boys decided they would stick to the main roads to continue their route to Henley, rather than on the lanes, and cut their planned route short. ( Plan A was
Nettlebed)
Rose followed me to Sip and Spoke, where there was definitely ice on the road, infact there was slush.
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| Frosty tables at Sip and Spoke. Think we'll sit inside. |
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| Cosy inside, and a chance for a chat |
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| A willing fellow customer took this one. (actually he took 7 from various angles, since the sun was bright) |
I was then surprised to see 4 cyclists turn up. The WCC group. They had a change of plan since the route they took towards Henley was very icy, so they had turned back. If there had been just 3 of them, Rose and I could have offered them all a lift back to Wokingham, but we couldn't take all 4. I did offer to take anyone who was miserable. The cyclist on the road bike was very grateful for a lift after his coffee.
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| We sat and talked "arts and crafts" while they boys talked about... .. what DO they talk about? lol😂 |
It was still only 11.45ish, so I invited the ladies back to my house where we had a fun game of Cycle Mania. Louise had played once before, and Rose soon picked it up. It's great fun.
At least Louise then got to cycle another 2 miles home. Well done. I have eye surgery on Saturday, so no more cycling for me for a couple of weeks. 😖