Weekly Roundup

The Wednesday evening Knight Rider session seems to be attracting quite a following. This week was no exception with 8 riders from 3 different cycling clubs: Peter C, Phil, Simon S and Steve K from the Clarions, Mark and Graham from Sherston Velo's and George from Performance Cycles, plus a guest who is currently working in Malmesbury during the week, and returning home at the weekend.

The popular Kingscote course was ridden, with some fearless cyclists opting to tackle the ford at Tetbury rather than taking the pathway.

(Click once to enlarge the pictures)

Saturday's 4th birthday event was a huge success. We might have fallen 1 short of last year's 21 riders, but everyone this time was a member, whereas last year we had 4 guests, which in my book, means a record number of members participated.

In alphabetical order they were: Alice, Andy Poolman, Dave, Des D, Heather, Howard, Karine, Ken, Malc, Mike P, Peter B, Peter C, Phil, Simon L, Simon S, Steve C, Steve K, Sue, Tim H and Tim W.

Peter B made a welcome return after his enforced absence. (No, we didn't ban him, it was following his unfortunate accident whilst mountain biking).

11 of us set about recreating Howard's Garmin picture of a three-leaf clover. Our brief was to arrive at The Angel Tearoom by 11.30am, but a couple of 'incidents' along the way meant a little pruning was required. Not that we needed to have worried, as we just managed to pip those on the more direct route, whom I understand had some 'incidents' of their own.

Howard seeks divine intervention from above 

With phase 1 of the operation successfully completed, Howard took to the floor and thanked members for their attendance.

Ably assisted by Sue, Howard skillfully sliced our wonderful birthday cake and distributed the portions. With plenty to go around, there was enough for seconds, and carry-outs, for some of those who couldn't be with us.

Members will already be aware that the cake was bought with club funds, but what most won't know, because that isn't his style, is that Andy Poolman kindly paid for all of our hot drinks. On behalf of everyone, thank you Andy for your generosity!

Suitably refreshed, we assembled outside for a team photograph. All that remained afterwards, was to ride home in our various groupings. Those taking the longer route made a bit of a deviation rendering our clover leaf completely unrecognisable. 

If you take a look at the profile picture on our twitter account and also the banner image on the website's home page, you'll see that we have a smart new picture of members outside of The Angel.

Sunday saw 5 members (Andy Poolman, Peter C, Phil, Steve K and me, Tim W) undertake the 54 mile round trip, to The Ox House at Northleach. This was the second outing in the 2016 Sunday Series. 

After Poulton, the course gently rises. Combined with a perky headwind, this meant that we had to work a little harder than we might have preferred, but we still managed to arrive at our intended destination just as the bells chimed for eleven o'clock. 

Bacon rolls made the perfect Sunday morning accompaniment to our hot drinks. If I'm any judge of bacon, I'd say it was a good quality cut of meat. There were plenty of rashers, and cooked just the way I'd ordered. 

With the wind now behind us, we made good progress on the return leg, and on schedule, returned to Malmesbury around 1.30pm.

The next excursion will be at the end of March when the mileage will rise to somewhere between 65 and 70 miles. The format of increasing the distance and difficulty is designed to help members reach the ultimate goal of cycling 120 miles on our last outing. All members are welcome, and you can take as much or as little time, as you want to complete the ride. Further details will be available nearer the time.