A group of seven left on a dry day, but with damp roads for a flat parcours to Croome Park. A buzzard swooping on some road kill 50 yards in front of us was an impressive sight. What I now know is Marsh Road, towards Birtsmorton was like an impressive causeway across flooded fields, alhough our luck ran out with a deep flood in the village. Some rather scary driving was encountered around Upton, but other than that, and two punctures, we arrived at Croome Park for some excellent flapjack.
Over coffee, we received an intelligence report from one of our agents, over our encrypted communications channel (WhatsApp) that Eckington Bridge may be closed. London taxi drivers have to pass “the knowledge”, and so do City ride leaders, in order to plot impromptu diversions on the fly. In this case Revills Barn and Strensham to cross the Avon on the Mythe Causeway, which was still about 1m above the water.
I finish with a fact retained from Mel’s excellent talk at last night’s dinner, that we added to the 750 riders per day that use the cycle path.
61 miles, 2,000′ ascent @ 17.0mph
IW