South Gloucestershire's Somerset Monument
Deciding
what to wear for the club ride is always a challenge and isn’t helped by the
weather forecast very often being at odds with what I can see out of my own bedroom
window. Do I let my eyes be the judge or the latest meteorological devices? I
suppose this is where a decent sized Carradice saddlebag comes into play. You
can then happily pack clothing for every eventuality and never be too hot or
too cold. But of course nowadays we’re all so weight conscious and like to
travel as light as possible. I recently read a review of the Cannondale Evo
carbon water bottle cage. To eliminate or minimise the risk of the bottle
popping out, Cannondale has introduced some rubber strips. The reviewer liked
the safety element, but was concerned about the burden of the extra weight!
For better
or for worse I made my apparel selections fairly certain that others would have deliberated in the same way.
It was good to welcome Andy Poolman back to the fold. We were also pleased to be joined by Tommy for his first ride with us. Hopefully we’ll get to share many a mile with him.
Having
allowed plenty of time for any latecomers, eleven of us set sail for the
Tortworth Estate Shop. The Estate in
this case meaning part of a country estate, as opposed to an estate formed by a
large collection of houses. In other words, it’s a farm shop. Actually it’s
more than that because it has a café. Anyway, you get the idea.
Heading
northwards up to Kingscote is always a bit of a gradual pull and wasn’t being
made any easier by the headwind. Two groups took shape or three if you count
the one with me and Alice in the middle.
Having
reached the highest point, it was time to open up the throttle across the top
and down into Wotton-under-Edge.
Routing can
be a tricky business. During the planning stage even after you’ve clicked the
box to stay on roads, Garmin has a nasty habit of letting you blindly plot a course along a
bridleway. Added to this, roadblocks and diversions often spring up. To try and
avoid any such embarrassments I rode the route on Thursday to check that all
was well. Howard’s encyclopedic knowledge of the road network stops him
falling into the bridleway trap, but he still physically checks for
anything that might cause a problem.
One thing
that troubled me about Saturday’s course was the number of lorry movements on
the B4059 between Wotton-under-Edge and Charfield. If necessary, to reach a
particular destination, I don’t mind taking busy A class roads, but club
routing isn’t about what I find acceptable, it’s what the members feel most
comfortable with. Sometimes though, it can be a necessary evil to
reach hitherto unexplored areas, but that's only if we as a club want to do that.
We all
arrived at the café within a five minute time span. Tommy was a bit pressed for
time and so had to turn straight around. Unfortunately the rather dull weather
cast a bit of a shadow over what can under a brighter sky, be a very attractive
landscape.
Some of the Clarions about to leave the Tortworth Estate Shop
After hot
drinks and cake we headed to Wickwar. The rural setting across the Inglestone
Common was a useful counter-balance to some of the morning’s busier spots. All
the while the Somerset Monument stared down at us and we knew that the hill had
to be conquered.
The peloton starts to reform after the ascent
One by one
heads appeared at the summit and having regrouped we rode for home across to
Didmarton and down through Sherston and Shipton Moyne.
Well done everyone, you can each have a qudos from sunny Barcelona.
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