After reviewing the weather forecast, I planned a route south mostly in the shelter of the Cotswold escarpment, with a coffee stop at Falfield garden centre.
At the square, Jim Anderson-Fish provided me the latest weather forecast, assuring me that although there may be an early shower, the outlook was dry!
With four of our regulars in Spain for a spring training camp, I only had three takers (including me) for the tempo ride. As two of us were regulars on the fast ride and the other was a young fit guy, we decided to ditch the coffee stop.
As we left the square, the rain started and continued on and off for the next two hours. Despite the weather and the mucky roads, we maintained a pretty good pace tackling the undulating terrain out to the Tyndale monument at North Nibley. As we left the shelter of the escarpment to ride downhill to Charfield the rain intensified and we felt the full force of the headwind.
Turning north onto the A38, the tailwind helped us achieve a pretty fast pace back. Since we were ahead of schedule, we elected to take the turn to Frampton and return via the Elmore Loop. The three riders worked well together to produce an enjoyable training ride.
57 miles 2400ft elevation 17.5mph average
DS