Weekly Roundup

Without further ado, hold onto your cycling caps as we take a quick breeze through recent events.

Badminton House

The Wednesday evening training ride again offered an opportunity to put the top gears through their paces. For those that are still keeping the wheels of industry turning, it's the perfect stress-buster after a busy day and for those that aren't, it's a chance to wind down after a hectic session of dodging chores and anything that might vaguely resemble work.

While I think of it, in answer to Karine's question posed to me a few weeks ago, whilst the game of badminton appears to have been named after the Duke of Beaufort's Badminton House, it's unclear when and why the name was adopted.

(Click once to enlarge the pictures)

Thursday was race night at Castle Combe. Max continued his excellent run of form by finishing in second place in the cat 3/4 race, whilst George finished outside of the top ten, but in the first thirty or so out of a field of around a hundred.

For Malmesbury Clarions the chickens finally come home to roost

On Saturday we were very pleased to welcome back Clive. Five of us took the longer route to Toomer's Garden Centre and worked well as an efficient unit. Four others made the trip and under a bright sky it was good to relax together over hot drinks and cake. Whilst Toomer's cafe might lack the sophistication sometimes found elsewhere,  their homemade cakes at around £1.75 a slice are very reasonably priced and the staff always take good care of us. With barely a crumb left over, the two chickens hovering around us as we ate, were left pecking thin air.

Des gets in some practice changing inner tubes

We returned to Malmesbury via Pavenhill at Purton which rounded off a pleasant excursion.

https://connect.garmin.com/course/6278192

Near perfect symmetry as we approach Allington, near Chippenham.

For some, myself included, Sunday just couldn't come fast enough. The prospect of a full day's ride into uncharted territory meant that no alarm clock was necessary.

Howard led our peloton of nine riders out onto the Foxley Road. The route through Broughton Gifford brought back happy memories of our trip last year to watch the Tour of Britain at Bradford on Avon. However, this time we skirted Trowbridge, rode across to Steeple Ashton and then underneath the Westbury White Horse, where beyond the cement works, there were some spectacular views of the surrounding countryside.

Further proof of Steve's celebrity status, as this time he's recognised by a scarecrow.

The loosely assembled plan was for a coffee stop at Westbury, which was roughly the mid-way point. My internet research had identified a possible venue. I'll save the blushes of the establishment concerned by not naming them, but lets just say that in the flesh, it wasn't the sort of place we normally frequent. The general consensus was to push on to Bradford on Avon and so we did.

We rode through Rode (sorry I just had to work that one in somewhere) and found Bradford on Avon in the grip of a Bank Holiday frenzy. Some sanctuary from the hustle and bustle came at the cafe. A queue of nine hungry cyclists did cause the two members of staff some consternation though and during the interminable wait one of them was spotted exiting the nearby Budgens supermarket laden with provisions. Given the cafe's organic credentials, I trust they came from Budgens' organic range.

Malc checks his Garmin - 'Are we there yet?'

The climb out of Bradford on Avon was as challenging as it was scenic. Having emerged at the top we headed for Great Chalfield Manor unaware that one of us was about to suffer a near death experience. Unbelievably, a motorist who had clearly watched us approaching the junction he was waiting to turn out of, decided to do so at the very last minute. Quick thinking (and braking) on Steve M's part meant that he narrowly avoided being struck.

Nerves steadied, we enjoyed an incident-free journey back to Malmesbury. The epilogue to what had been a fantastic club run, is that a few members added on some extra miles at the end. George rounded his tally up to a 100 whilst me and Mike embarked on a re-run of Saturday's club ride. Before setting off we both agreed that after a spirited last leg back to Malmesbury, we'd drop the pace a notch or two. For some reason we did nothing of the sort and carried on as we had before. I think it was a combination of us both wanting to demonstrate to the other that we were actually capable of adding to the mileage and at the same time not wanting to hold the other up.

In Purton I suggested to Mike that we could take a left at the mini-roundabout and go down Pavenhill. Mike said he was 'easy' on which way we went, but I thought I detected a glint in his eye which meant he wasn't done yet and so we carried on towards Cricklade still with no let-up in the pace. 

Having cut off a small corner we joined the B4040 near Leigh and took this road all the way back to Malmesbury. Parting company at the top of Tetbury Hill, the thought did occur to me that perhaps I should accompany Mike to Tetbury, but I quickly dismissed the notion having secretly longed for an opportunity to ease off on the pedals, as probably Mike had too.

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