Club Ride Diary
Bumper edition of Spokespiece now available
This December we have a surfeit of material for the newsletter. With four tour reports and the usual end of season summaries there would have been no room for the photographs, of which there are many. Something had to go, and it was the sixteen page format, so here is...
Three Counties club ride
A sudden incapacity for the designated ride leader, our previous President, meant the Captain was called upon to lead. No time to post a new route, and upon checking the original plan, some alternatives were applied: I call this the ride leaders prerogative! Ten set...
A game of two halves
What a beautiful morning for cycling. With the stiff breeze on our back, we were flying, and really enjoying ourselves. It felt like being in the world class Brazil teams of old. Small setbacks like a muddy corner and small flood did nothing to dampen our enjoyment,...
Tewkesbury Novice Ride 05.12.25
Seven riders gathered in the square on a grey overcast December morning hoping that the rain was not going to be too severe during the ride. The group left Gloucester via Eastgate Street, down through Barton and out onto the Painswick Road. Then into the streets of...
‘Tis the season for …
With a wet forecast, three maybe wise men + two others were tempted by the shortened loop ride. The advantage of a pre-published route was made clear as the leader found a flat tyre getting his bike out, and the subsequent tube change meant he was too late to make the...
No ice cream today
We were fortunate again this Sunday with a dry, sunny day after a wet and blustery Saturday - but with rather a cold start. Eight riders set off from the Square, via Podsmead and Tuffley on black-slick wet roads to Kingsway; however no ice was encountered, probably...
Catch the pidgeon
The face says it all! The two endurance brothers left Kings Square on their own, heading for Tetbury. At Brookthorpe, we were joined by Ian Cole and James Reeves. The four of us shared the wind out through Haresfield, Stonehouse and Kings Stanley out to Frocester....
A rose by any other name.
Apparently the Inuit language has about a dozen basic words for snow, and about ten more for ice, plus many other derived words and expressions to cover all the many forms these natural elements can take. For us cyclists it's the obsession with getting up hills that...
23rd November
The 23rd of November has had many notable happenings on the day. In 1499, seven days after being convicted of treason, Perkin Warbeck, a pretender to the throne of England, was hanged for attempting to escape from the Tower of London; his supporter John Atwater was...
Teamwork makes the route work
An amazing ten riders set of on the ride in the wake of storm Claudia’s deluge. The autumn weather had been relatively kind but the inevitable change came with a vengeance. Considering the predictable disruption that the storm had caused, the Captain quizzed me about...