Mild temperatures and a dry forecast seemed to bring a lot of riders to the Square, but there were no newbies looking for an easy try-out, so Jim joined my ride. I believe there were 14 of us although I’m sure I counted 15 at one point – however we did seem to have a habit of collecting other random cyclists at junctions so maybe it was one of them! Nobody expects that…
We started out along London Road, Oxstalls Lane, and Frogfurlong then turned on to the ‘Green Mile’ (cycleway) near the old Dowty junction. Progress seemed very efficient, helped by the wind which did strengthen later – when it was in our faces of course! The traffic lights at the crossroads just after the airport caused a split in the group but we slowed to allow a regrouping – keeping a group this big together can be very tricky at times, so it’s a good job I do my yoga to facilitate looking behind! Turning off the main road into the decaying Pheasant Lane we found that recent dry weather had allowed the mud to largely dry out, and all made it through and around the various holes etc to emerge onto the gentle climb up behind the GCHQ donut. Then a right/left combination was taken and we descended via Hesters Way Road then left along Village Road to the main road at Kingsditch, where Colin advised me that I was in the wrong lane. Fortunately traffic was pretty quiet this morning so we had no problems getting onto the right route and progressing along Manor Road where we stopped at the junction with Church Road to regroup, recount, and remove extraneous layers as things were warming up – even with the relative lack of effort.
Finally we escaped the urban jungle to take the narrow lane through Brockhampton and then navigate the chaos of the cars trying to access the car boot sale and/or Sunday morning football. After this small delay we were once again in the urban jungle, this time in Bishop’s Cleeve where once again traffic was pretty light and we progressed without incident onto the much-changed lane to Gotherington, where whilst navigating the roadworks some almost followed another cyclist in the wrong direction; but eventually we made it out onto the Gretton Road. By this time I was pretty sure we were going to be late to coffee, but it was such a nice morning (for February) that it mattered little. Next we enjoyed the little climb over Dixton Hill with its picturesque buildings and gentle descent, and began actually to head (loosely) in the direction of Tewkesbury (having negotiated various homicidal pick up trucks and tractors coming the other way).
Passing through Teddington (on a road new to the leader) we headed up to the Teddington Hands roundabout where even the Evesham road wasn’t too busy and we made it onto Crashmore Lane (another new road!) which thankfully didn’t live up to its name (although there was some crazy Corsa that seemed determined to cause an incident). This road did drag on somewhat all the way to Overbury, which caused the peloton to become rather strung out. Continuing on to Kemerton and passing behind Kemerton Court we soon reached the back of Ashchurch and crossed the railway line and progressed into Northway where we were firmly into the headwind that was now quite blustery. No matter, we had the end in sight and were soon locking up in the backyard of the cafe where lots of other cycles were already parked. 28 miles were covered from the Square, arriving at 11:20. Probably fortunate to be a bit late with the cyclists that were already there, but as ever we had a warm welcome and all found a seat/table and were fed and watered without too much delay.
TB