Blog Bulletin

Phil's holidaying on the Isle of Wight (about which, you can read later) set my mind racing for an Isle of Wight related piece of music. San(Down) San(Down) by Status Quo, was one of three rather feeble efforts. I won't subject you to the other two equally cringe worthy attempts. Fortunately, Phil came to my rescue with a far less convoluted connection. 

Released by Status Quo in 1979, 'Living On An Island' reached number 16 in the UK Singles Chart. The first 100,000 copies were issued with a picture sleeve featuring penguins. This continued the penguin theme started with their previous single 'Whatever You Want.'

You can imagine yourself living on an island by listening here.

Peter C has filed the following report regarding the Sporting Group's ride to the Allington Farm Shop Cafe on Saturday 12th August 2017:

It was a little overcast, but overall dry and relatively low winds, with a lot of road traffic around Marshfield for some unknown reason.

The new diversion around Wadswick proved a great success avoiding the very busy road between the 5 Ways junction and the A4 at Corsham. We were also rewarded with a fantastic view looking over to Westbury.

The cafe was good, as always, and we met Paul's old club Ride 24/7 outside for coffee.

Talk of the day was of Lyndon's new rear cassette on his Trek road bike, which looked like a dinner plate boasting a range of 42/11, with the rest of the drive chain being standard. He is trialing this set up, but I think he will need to speak to Mike G on this, as he appears to be our resident guru on non-standard set ups!

Riders: Lyndon, Mark Jones, Paul Hudson, Peter Baptiste and me.

I'm grateful to Phil for this very entertaining review of his cycling on the Isle of Wight last week:

On our first proper visit and family holiday to the Isle of Wight I thought it would be remiss of me not to load up our bikes and tackle the Island on two wheels. A number of fellow cyclists had mentioned a round the island route and after a bit of web searching I found the following site http://www.cycleisland.co.uk which had details of the annual 100km Randonnee held on the island. 

Having already got a couple of 100km rides under his belt, James was keen to tackle this ride with me, so we set off in a light drizzle unsure of how wet we would get on the way round. We selected the clockwise, road only route (there are a number of cycle trails and paths which can be used to circumnavigate the island) and headed from our holiday home in Gurnard (West of Cowes) to the official start point in East Cowes. This required a short trip on the chain ferry to cross the River Medina (Tim - insert chain ferry history here!). 

The cycle route does its best to track the circumference of the island avoiding most of the busier roads and town centres. It does however go through numerous pretty villages, small woodlands and open coastal roads so offers a bit of everything. 

About a third of the way round I called James to a halt to take a picture at the sign to Alverstone. This was after the blog article released that day linking Glen Campbell’s 'Galveston' to Alveston on our trip to Chepstow. Sorry I couldn’t resist it. 

At the half-way point James and I decided to stop for refreshments and happened across an interesting concept. Where many village shops and post offices have closed down and moved in to the pub, in Niton they have decided to add a real ale bar and cafe to the Post Office - Excellent! I think this concept should be adopted in all villages all over the land. I believe it would encourage many men to write more letters - just off to post a letter love….. back in an hour or two. 

Okay, back to the ride. After our lunch & ale at the southern tip of the island we headed North West on to the fantastic Military road which travels up from the lowest point of the island along the cliff tops and ending at Freshwater Bay.

From here we headed due North arriving in Yarmouth before the home stretch, mainly through farmland, on the way back to Gurnard. A nice round 65 miles/100km. 

I enjoyed it so much that two days later I tackled the ride on my own in reverse. I must admit it did seem more challenging (hillier) this way around, or maybe it was because I didn’t have James to pace me, who knows? 

This weeks musical accompaniment which I sang to myself on my anti-clockwise route - Status Quo’s 'Living On An Island' of course.  

Phil.

Floating Bridge No 6 out of the water

Without wishing to appear a smarty pants, as I only know this after a bit of research, the chain ferry is actually a floating bridge. Established in 1859, it's one of the few remaining floating bridges that haven't been replaced by a permanent structure. Although officially known as Floating Bridge No 6, a petition in 2017 to name it Floaty McFloatface attracted over 2,000 signatures.

Editor

We're delighted to have received the account below from John Shephard regarding his cycling tour of Snowdonia:

John's trusty steed

In May six of us from Minety spent four days cycling around Snowdonia. We drove to Welshpool and parked up there. We averaged about 60 miles per day and stayed in bunkhouses along the way. (Editor: I bet the mention of bunkhouses has grabbed Mike G's attention).

Stunning views abound

We incorporated the Dave Brailsford Way [http://www.visitsnowdonia.info/ffordd_brailsford_way-294.aspx]

within our route shown at the top of this article.

We also used some of Lôn Las Cymru (Sustrans route 8). The hill South East of Machynlleth is really, really wonderful. It's a monster of a hill - probably the toughest any of us have ridden up fully loaded. Great to get to the top!

Snowdonia is highly recommended for a cycling holiday. It's very accessible from Malmesbury. The routes are quiet and beautiful. The accommodation is cheap with an average price of £23 per night.

Please follow this link for an album of photographs taken during the holiday.

You can also watch a short video of our adventures here. 

If anyone wants further information, please feel free to contact me.

John

Bibury looking stunning

Further to Tim H's recent email, a reminder that the next ride in the 2017 Sunday Series, will be to the very picturesque village of Bibury, on 27th August, departing at 10.00am.

You can see and download the 55 mile course here.

Absent in 2016, Bibury featured in the 2014 and 2015 Sunday Series. To whet your appetite for this year's outing, I thought it would be interesting to look back at our previous visits.

Sunday 1st June 2014, saw Andy Poolman, Gary, George, Tim H and me, Tim W, complete the excursion. 

Andy and George at the Trout Farm Cafe

Clarions saddling up for the ride home

Our peloton weaves its way through Bibury

Coincidentally, five members made the trip on Sunday 12th April 2015. They were Alice, Karine, Steve M, Tim H and me, Tim W.

Our peloton waiting to join the Whiteway at Cirencester

The fish counter at the Bibury Trout Farm

Steve M came up with 'The Famous Five's Foray to the Fish Farm' as a fitting title for the blog piece about the ride.

Ready to head for home