Seven riders set off at a brisk pace over to Leckhampton, although I was confident that would change once we started climbing, which was true for five of the seven. While Leckhampton Hill may have been accepted, Hartley Lane proved to be the straw that broke three of the riders, and with the threat of a couple more vicious climbs before coffee, they elected to return via Charlton Kings.
That left a rider who is less than half my age, and probably half my weight, the club hill climb champion, and two victims, to fly along the main road to Colesbourne, and then climb over to Whithington and up Withington Woods. Needless to say, two riders had quite a wait at the top, which they used for good recovery, as they soon dropped me on the descent of the Whiteway (and I averaged 25.4mph over the 5.6 miles). The traffic lights in Cirencester meant we all arrived at coffee spot on 11:00, where we met two riders waiting for the steady group.
Optimistic that I would have recovered over coffee, we set off, but after we passed the “source of the Thames”, and began the long gradual drag up to the Watershed at Sapperton, it became obvious that the return would be two groups of two. My slow progress on the long climb out of the Daneway proved conclusively that it is speed, not distance, that makes a ride hard, and that I had burnt too many matches on the way out. The two victims limped home across the tops, jointly battling the strong head/cross wind.
Although I struggled to make it upstairs to the shower, it was a very enjoyable ride in the spring sunshine.
56 miles, 3,400′ ascent @16.4mph