Sunday Ride 4th May 2014

An audience of one man and his dog (Tim H and his canine companion) witnessed the start of May’s Sunday ride, as a trio of Clarions trickled out of the Cross Hayes car park.  With plenty of climbing ahead, we adopted a leisurely pace enjoying the sunshine as we passed fields of bright yellow oil seed rape.  They must have been sending the pollen count off the end of the scale, as I quickly  developed a running nose which was to stay with me for the rest of the ride. Constantly wiping my nose with the crocheted thumb of a pair of cycling mitts would later result in it becoming red raw.

We had an enforced stop on Hawkesbury Common to repair George’s punctured back tyre.  After Wickwar, we were sailing (pedalling) in unchartered waters. As we became absorbed in our unfamiliar surroundings the miles drifted by almost unnoticed.  I do recall passing the gates of Leyhill Prison at one point, which was as close as I wanted to get.

A large container full of grit placed at the bottom of a hill is never a good sign, although it did occur to me that one only half full is probably worse.  The grit bin at the bottom of the hill up to North Nibley looked well stocked, but as we eased ourselves up the steep climb I could only think that they must have had a mild winter.

Sticking with the nautical theme, having safely reached Cam, we were somehow blown well and truly off-course, as we rode into Dursley and out onto the Uley Road.  Just when an assault on Crawley Hill looked unavoidable, the Garmin took us down a narrow lane to our right. Alarm bells immediately began to ring as I feared this was the one Tim H had previously warned me was steeper than Crawley Hill.

Slowly winching our bikes up the sheer cliff face inevitably took its toll and one rider sensibly decided to forgo the pleasure of a date with the ‘W’ out of Nailsworth, and headed for home instead, still managing to clock up a good 55 miles.

Meanwhile the remaining duo dropped down to Nailsworth for refreshments at the Courtyard Café. Surrounded by ridiculously priced bits of rusty salvage, I enjoyed a pot of tea and a toasted tea cake whilst reference to the Garmin revealed just how far off-piste we’d gone.

The ride back to Malmesbury was one even we would have found difficult to get wrong, but having cut off a sizable chunk of the journey, we had to deviate at Long Newnton to get our mileage up.

Any lingering disappointment at having failed to complete the proper course evaporated when at Garsdon we picked off three unsuspecting Westbury Wheelers.  

Although the leader board remained unchanged by our efforts, it was still a good ride and I’d definitely like to have another crack at the actual course as soon as possible.

Garmin Reference: http://connect.garmin.com/course/6386991