The commentator on Strada Biancha stated that they had had 4 seasons in one day. It was decidly wintery when we set off, with a frost even in the city. Consequently, we elected to go to Dursley via the gritted A38. After we cleared Quedgeley, the racing secretary took the wind, and set a brisk pace all the way to the Slimbridge roundabout. While we all welcomed the tow, there was probably a little relief when he decided to continue to the Severn Bridge.
A mexican standoff, with us and two cars all turning right at the roundabout at the bottom of Cam Pitch split the group, but eventually the standoff was resolved and coffee was reached. We were sufficiently early to use Emma’s reserved table.
On leaving coffee, we thought the sun had had time to work its magic on any frost, so headed up towards Kingscote. With slush in the middle of the lane and snow on the verge, I was wondering if it was a sensible decision, but the traffic had cleared any frost off our lane. The OS map shows one arrow on this climb, although my Garmin reported 20% at one point. Whatever the actual gradiant, it was a bit of a shock straight after coffee.
Once on the tops, it was delightful riding through white fields in brilliant spring sunshine to Cockadilly. No signs of the reported road closure on Frocester, but we continued with our plan to descend Selsley and on up Slad. A descent of Buckholt road and Fiddler’s Elbow rounded off an excellent morning’s ride.
44 miles, 2,500′ qascent @13.3mph
IW