The forecast for this particular Sunday was not good – lots of rain and a yellow warning for thunderstorms. Given the extraordinarily heavy downpours of recent days, it was no surprise that the majority of riders chose to stay at home in the dry, expecting the worse – not helped by a sudden prolonged downpour at 8:30 just as many would have been considering their options… As ride leader I felt obliged to at least make it to the Square to see who turned up and what the consensus would be, so after a pretty wet few miles I duly arrived (at least it wasn’t cold) and found three riders waiting for me in the handy overhang of the Iceland building. As my chosen route was via the centre of Cheltenham, I proposed heading out that way and to reconsider when we’d got that far – either to go to a café there or abandon altogether. This was acceptable to all but one who decided not to chance it, and we were about to set off when another rider arrived, so we were four after all.
Heading off in what now was ‘normal’ rain we splashed our way up London Road and on out of town via Oxstalls. At Innsworth the rain eased off and we continued onto the Green Mile near the airport and then to the station where we joined the old Honeybourne cycle route (a lot less busy than usual due to the weather, which was already much better than expected). Leaving the cycleway at the athletics track we did a quick left then right onto Albermarle Gate – the view over that side of Pittville Park was lovely, and very green – then crossed the main road to head directly to the Pump Room. Through the gate we went and navigated carefully around the building, then proceeded on towards Prestbury. As we descended New Barn Lane a loud bang was heard, which sounded suspiciously like a tyre blowing out – which proved to be the case as Abu suffered a sudden deflation to the rear. We set to fixing it in someone’s driveway – they did ask if we needed tools or a pump, but being well equipped we declined and wondered if tea and cake could be provided instead? This was fortunately taken in the manner in which it was meant and we continued fixing. There was a nasty split in the tyre, which was rather perished although the tread was good, and so Les provided some patching material to prevent a recurrence of the tube trying to escape. After three of us managed to insert this, we were soon on our way again and the repair held firm. After visiting the Burgage and taking the main road towards Cleeve Hill, we turned off at Southam bound for Bishop’s Cleeve. Here the rain returned, although not particularly heavy, but it did look rather threatening in the Winchcombe direction. We stopped briefly beside the Black Gold café to decide whether to stop there or continue – the decision being to carry on to our original destination, although having lost time I cut short the original route and we went via Woolstone and then 2.25 miles on the main road to the Teddington Hands roundabout, followed by the drag up Crashmore Lane where the rain stopped again and we were able to reach the coffee stop at Beckford without leaving puddles on the floor.
24 miles to coffee. Return was via Bredon, Tewkesbury, Mythe, Forthampton, Chaceley, Tirley. Then we split up and went our separate ways. I covered 52 miles in total; the last 15 miles or so without wearing my raincoat!
TB