The racing season being in full swing the “fast ride” only had two takers, who decided that riding with the Tempo group was preferable to a two-up 50. So it was that eleven of us left the Square along the Cheltenham Road. There was no chance of the group splitting along here for every few hundred metres a red traffic light prompted a regrouping. Not to complain though, for this was evidence that the new cycle spine was making progress towards the city centre.
So it was that we reached the Hare & Hounds and soon after collected a pair of Churchdown residents on their tandem. The ride leader threatened the group with Ham Hill, at which point the Club President absented himself to take in a couple of fords and the Gloucestershire Way instead. The Hill, when it came, persuaded our tandem pair that they too had better options, and so it was a reduced group that reached Brockhampton, where they lost the ride leader. Not being the Captain, he had no obligation to accompany his crew to the summit so instead went to a four year old’s birthday party. Although they climbed a hundred metres to the reservoir, the riders perhaps had the easier option!
The rest of the ride out was a mystery to the author, not least because he was busy getting his bike dirty, but apparently all went well and we reassembled at the Notgrove community hub for coffee and cake. A gentler route for the return was planned, through Guiting Power and down Castle Hill to Winchcombe before taking the three G’s route home. In view of the steep descent from nearly 300 metres to the river Isbourne some precautionary (and successful) maintenance to one rider’s brakes was deemed necessary. Again, your author can only note that the rest of the ride was uneventful, as he alone took the bridle path south from Deadmanbury Gate and various other tracks to Whittington before meeting up with the birthday girl for a celebratory drink at the old Elm Tree, earning an unusual second Dancey Trophy point for four Tempo riders.
94km @23 kph
MT