Thrills, Spills and a Bee in the Bonnet

First Club ride - Farnborough to Brook (Haslemere) and back
Ride out with ten members of the Farnborough & Camberley CC 

55.26 miles     
3hrs 34.09    Av. 15.5mph

No pics and an incomplete GPS journey but I thought I'd include this as it was my first ever 'club' ride, tagging along with FCCC

Riding with a group of ten at a brisk pace this was a challenging but rewarding ride through some lovely Hampshire & Surrey countryside. 

The ride down was straightforward and the half hour lunch stop with Chocolate Brownie and coffee seemed to do the trick nicely! 

The return went smoothly until, on a climb near Elstead I managed to get a Bee inside my helmet. I bet the guys thought I'd just stopped for a breather on the way up! Managed to stop and allow the Bee to escape without being stung. Phew...it happens!

Unfortunately, on the way down the other side of the hill one of the group hit a pot hole and came off at speed. Thankfully only cuts and bruises but he'd managed to sheer-off his carbon-fibre handlebars and so when all was deemed OK we fixed up a taxi pick up for him and the bike. The club guys told me this was a rare occurrence but it gave me a little more caution on the remaining down-hills!

Correction -  there was one pic. Martin took this on the cake stop in Brook. Yours truly in the foreground looking slightly worse for wear! 

Ride out route;
http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/287435129

Windblown West of Winchester - Evening ride 11th May 2013

Winchester -  Crawley (Hants) - King's Somborne - Farley Mount - St Cross 


Dist 23.85m
Tm 1, 52.10

Had two and a half hours to kill in Winchester while my son played a concert with the Alton College Big Band in Winchester's Great Hall. This was a black tie occasion for civic dignitaries to which parents of performers weren't invited! So......how to kill some time in and around Winchester......now let me think??!!

Had time to do a circuit which was the same as the route to and from the 'water station' at King's Somborne for last September's Winchester Mass ride.

Slightly off course around Littleton but put back on course by a local dog walker. Going out to King's Somborne was hard work into a blustery south westerly but between light showers there was glorious evening sunshine and some impressive cloud formations.

NCN Route 23, freshly surfaced near St Cross - if only they were all like this!

St Catherine's Hill from NCNR 23

Littleton Church  - with no tower

Crawley

Shower clouds - near King's Somborne

Rainbow over King's Somborne

Showers ahead - road to Farley Mount

Weird Clouds over Farley Mount

Tri-colour landscape

  

Silver & Gold -  on the way up

Sun sinking behind me

Looking North from the Mount

back in town - Winchester gothic

The Great Hall

Steps up to the hall

Roman Spring Ride - 20th April 2013

Phoenix Green To Calleva & back via Stratfield Saye & Bramley

Miles 25.1
Time  1.34
Av. Speed  16mph


Not quite Rome itself, more's the pity, but a lovely ride out to one of the Empire's far flung outposts, the Roman walled town of Calleva (Silchester, Hampshire)

Not much here to see except the extensive wall and the remains of an amphitheatre nearby but it's a nice spot, not far from Pamber Heath. The route is along quiet country lanes along the northern perimeter of the county.

On a day like this the site attracts a few tourists and ramblers but generally the surrounding lanes are quiet and it's a joy to head downhill towards Bramley.

Such a bright sunny day. Wall to wall blue skies. Lovely.

Clear skies & clear roads

Silchester Church &  Roman Wall

Roman town wall - Calleva

Hidden dip -  I would have taken a dip if I'd not been looking  where  I was going!
Oliver's Lane - Flooded  since Feb! 

Route