As we passed through Didbrook, I told the group that Stanway was probably the easiest way up the Cotswolds. I was made to eat my words, as each member of my group came past me and left me struggling up the hill. We met the 08:30 group at the top, and broadly rode as one group until the early group went onto an unsurfaced lane, while my group turned to stay on tarmac.
The vistas at the top were great where the group crossed the lavender fields. After my recent crash, Campden Hill was taken extremely cautiously into the “chocolate-box” village of Chipping Campden, with its yellow stone.
To ensure the riders had reason to dislike me, we left coffee and went straight up to Dover’s Hill, then worked our way over to Elmley Castle. The heat was intense by this point, and the suggestion that we had a second stop at a village shop for some pop was popular with most riders, but apparently not with those at the front, as they sailed through Beckford, Conderton and Kemmerton without stopping. A near mutiny took us tothe co-op in Ashcurch where the riders loitered in the fridge section taking the cold air while slowly choosing their refreshment.
Lacking fitness following my crash, I was starting to fade as Chosen Hill appeared far in the distance like Mont Ventoux. The state my legs were in, it felt like the beast of Provence too.
71 miles, 3,300′ ascent @15.4mph