Planes, Trains
and Ice Skates
Blessed with
perfect cycling weather we set off down the High Street, our ranks swelled with
the much awaited return from injury of Howard our illustrious leader. Even his
puzzling choice of legwear couldn’t tarnish our delight at seeing him back on
two wheels. (Perhaps rolled up denim jeans are the new look for 2014). We were
soon joined by Alison who had sensibly waited outside of the Rose and Crown for
us. (There’s no point in cycling up a hill that you’re only going to have to
ride back down a few minutes later). All
too soon though it was time to wish them both bon voyage, as they turned for
home at Dauntsey and we steadied ourselves for our assault of Lyneham Bank.
There’s an
eerie silence these days in the skies around the Dauntsey Vale now that the Hercules
planes have moved from RAF Lyneham to Brize Norton.
Lyneham Bank
has something of a chequered history. It caused Brunel no end of problems with
land slippages when he brought his railway through. In more recent times
subsidence has resulted in road closures and in order to alleviate the pressure
on the Council to carry out immediate repairs, it has been downgraded to a B
class road.
Having
conquered the hill we cranked up the gears and made good progress over to Royal
Wootton Bassett via Bushton.
Flexibility
is very often the key to success and this was certainly the case where our
coffee stop was concerned. After a couple of enforced switches, we visited the café
at Lydiard Park. A temporary construction had been erected to house an indoor
skating rink for Christmas, but fortunately for us, it looked as though it was
having a quiet start. A pre-packed slice of moist fruit cake, a latte and a hot
chocolate weighed in at a very reasonable £5.20. For those not familiar with
Lydiard Park there’s also a tea room on the other side.
Andy’s
suggested return route quickly won universal approval and suitably refreshed we
made our way to Purton turning into Pavenhill and then following the quiet,
well surfaced rural road that leads all the way to Garsdon and beyond.
I understand from MCCC HQ (Howard's house) that he and his wife Alison managed to rack up 13 miles without so much as a sniff of a cup of coffee. A very promising start given that this was Howard's first ride for nearly 3 months and Alison's in over a year.
I understand from MCCC HQ (Howard's house) that he and his wife Alison managed to rack up 13 miles without so much as a sniff of a cup of coffee. A very promising start given that this was Howard's first ride for nearly 3 months and Alison's in over a year.
Mileage: 38.6
miles
Garmin
reference: http://connect.garmin.com/course/5226121
The Cycling
Monk
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