Weekly Roundup

Blogging can be a funny old business. Sometimes less is more. Bumper editions don't always mean bumper to bumper visitor traffic. This week's update is a slim-downed version. After all, it's too nice to be indoors reading or for that matter, me tapping away at my laptop.

Just to get you into the right frame of mind, I invite you to listen to The Beatles singing 'Here Comes the Sun.' Written by George Harrison, it was first released by the group in 1969 and appeared on their album Abbey Road. The video lasts 3 minutes and 7 seconds, which is probably all the time you'll need to read the blog.

Edit. Actually, depending on how quickly you read, you might need to play it twice, as I've added some extra items.

Clarions in the garden at the rear of Sweetapples Teashop, Marshfield

The above photograph was taken on 17th May 2014, and as I recall, was one of Phil's first rides with the club. How the last 2 years have flown by. Sheltering from the heat of the sun are Heather and Simon, whilst Andy Poolman tops up the tan to his legs.

Next Saturday we return to Sweetapples, located in the High Street at Marshfield. There's plenty of storage for your bikes at the back where the seating area is. There's no rear entrance to the teashop, so you'll need to walk around to the front to place your orders.

The Sporting Group's 42 mile course is ready to be viewed and downloaded.You can take your pick between the two formats below.

There's only 1,800 feet of climbing, a chunk of which, is the ascent from Ford up to Colerne. It's a good road. The elevation is gradual, but it does last for about 1.5 miles.

We could bypass Colerne, but as it's somewhere we don't normally cycle through, it would be a shame to miss the attractive High Street, with its war memorial, public houses, post office and shops.

Garmin

Ride With GPS 

For the Social Group, Howard has come up with the following course:

Garmin.

 

The sun arrived at long last

The dramatic change in the weather, plus the mention of a pub stop at the Horse and Groom at Charlton, certainly brought the riders out in force on Wednesday evening, which was great to see.

In alphabetical order they were: Des D, Karine, Malc, Peter C, Phil, Simon S, Tim H and me, Tim W, with Gary, Jonathan and Sean riding as very welcome guests.

Saturday's visit to Cafe 53 at Tetbury kept up the sequence of well attended rides. In alphabetical order:

Social Group: Clive (good to see back), Howard, Paul (making a welcome return) and Steve C.

Middle Group: Des D, Ian and Tim H.

Sporting Group: Colin, Jonathan, Malc, Peter C, Simon S and Steve M.

Meanwhile, also on Saturday, Mike moved up in the Representative Cup league table, by wearing his club jersey on the Lumpy Scrumpy 110km Audax from Parkend in the Forest of Dean. 

The course ran up to the Malvern Hills and back. The elevation chart shows just how lumpy his ride was. Mike topped this off by riding to the start and home again afterwards, registering a total of 165.6 miles for the day. A great effort Mike!

On Sunday, I rode the Blowingstone 107km Audax from Uffington, Oxfordshire, and like Mike, I rode there and back, plus a few more miles.

Last, and most definitely, not least of the weekend's activities, Steve K successfully completed his 500km London to Paris Myeloma charity ride on Sunday. A fantastic effort by Steve both on the road and off of it, in raising a lot of money for a very worthy cause.

Des D has brought the following to my attention, as a way of sharing with other Garmin users, an opportunity to acquire free maps. The usual disclaimers apply. This does not come with a personal recommendation. 

From the little research that I've carried out, as you'd expect, the publicly resourced maps don't come with any guarantee of their authenticity. Those covering urban areas are apparently more reliable than rural locations. Anyway, see what you think.

Here is a write up of how it works:

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/05/download-garmin-705800810.html#part-ii-ed

And this is the open map website:

garmin.openstreetmap.nl