In the aftermath of “storm Ciaran” eight riders set off on an unusually sunny Sunday morning without the prospect of rain. It would be fair to say that I had envisaged a smaller take up of this ride, given the wide selection of rides on offer, however their presence was most welcome as always. I digress slightly to highlight that my last effort to lead this ride did not turn out as smoothly as I had planned, so despite the leg-pulling I was determined to make this one as uneventful as possible.
Leaving Gloucester town centre down Westgate Street, we travelled towards the Over Roundabout, turning left to head down the dual carriageway towards Over Farm. Turning right at the Farm Shop we took the cycle route to lead us to the Highnam estate, turning right at Oakridge to circle the estate and emerge on to the Newent Road. Turning right we stayed on the Newent Road tuning right onto Park Road Highleadon heading for the “Newent loop”. Staying on Park Road we turned left at the fork towards Blackwell End keeping to the cycle route up to the A417, “the sun is still shining”. Straight over at Hethelpit Cross then unfortunately one of the group had to head back home. We sent our best wishes, and carried on the cycle route through Gadfield Elm, along Mill Lane, staying on the route turning right at Lowbands, along to the Pendock Road, turning left back to the A417. At this point it was pointed out to me that Drury Lane was not the best surface, however I had my route planned and was determined not to repeat the issues I had last time. Turning right and then left up Drury Lane you’ve guessed…….. the surface was quite hazardous, maybe I should have rerouted (note for the future) but we all made it safely up (phew!) and the sun was still shining.
You may detect a note of trepidation in this report. Well there may have been as I had to perpetually reassure the group that we would not end up in “Newport” nuff said ha ha. Turning right at Redmarley along Bromsberrow Road, through Ryton over the M50 towards Dymock. At the B4215 we turned left heading to Newent. Along the B4125 a small “break away” formed to get to the coffee stop early. I am mentioning no names, Seb and John opps sorry. We arrived at Roses Garden Centre at 11.00am on the dot, so I had managed to lead the ride without getting lost and on schedule.
We met some of the Tempo group at Roses, who were obviously lost, but I was too polite to mention it……
On the return to Gloucester one member had a small mechanical (puncture) but that was soon sorted and we all made our way back to Gloucester with the weather still holding up, a great day out as usual.
JA