THE ALAN FURLEY MEMORIAL AUDAX 'DOWN THE UPS' RIDE - 8th June

Beech Hill - Hermitage & back - West Berkshire Audax 

111km - 5hrs 42 mins

My first Audax ride was an annual ride organised by Reading C.T.C.

Interesting mix of ages on this one and as ever you get talking to fellow riders along the way.

A lovely sunny day with a cool breeze and some very pretty villages on the route.

Crossing the River Kennet

Participants passing Bradfield College
The chap in the foreground in red and yellow made it round more less alongside me and it was only when I got back to  Hall in Beech Hill that he told me he was 73 years old. Not only that, this was his 9th Audax ride this year!! If I can do this when I am 73 I'll be more than happy!

Rolling Berkshire landscape

Chievely Church

School boy sign prank near Snelsmore

View near Snelsmore

Winterbourne Stream - tempting my hot feet!

Bagnor

View of White Hill - near Kingsclere

Ecchinswell

Aldermaston Village 

Beech Hill Village Hall - Start & Finish

The Route

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

Timebends #3 - Thames Loop - commute ride November 2012

Some pics from my regular commute ride which I have been doing 5 days a week since last November.

Faced with a cycle journey to work each day, the challenge is to find routes that vary slightly within the time available either side of the working day. That's easier when the days are longer and warmer but its always good to change things and try to find more attractive roads or tracks.

Following the Thames gives you plenty to look and it often takes you away from the cut and thrust of the rush hour traffic.

Riverside Bike Park - Essential transport for Bargees

The long track from Ham House to The German School in Petersham

Ham House

Winchester to Phoenix Green - including Hockley Viaduct and roads on and around NCN Route 23

30th March 2013    Distance 39.92 miles

Time - 3hrs 8 minutes


Plan: Train to Winchester and, after checking out the newly restored Hockley Viaduct,  a ride back on and around Route 23 following the River Itchen for the first few miles.

Bad oversight: almost the entire ride was in a north to north easterly direction........into that unforgiving wind that just doesn't want to go away!

Got talking to another guy with a bike on the train. I asked ''how far are you going today?''  ''Lands End to John O'Groats'' was his reply! Well, I did ask. Brave man doing it into that North Easterly which may well be in his face for at least another week.......ouch.

St Thomas - Winchester

Cathedral Gate

River Itchen - near St Cross

Newly restored Hockley Viaduct with the lovely NCN r23

The signals are good....

Sound advice - still saw dog crap left on the Viaduct though!

Fast Flowing through the City.

.....and some much needed sunshine

Ovington Park

Crystal clear Itchen River at Itchen Abbas

Itchen Stoke 

After a long slow ascent into that cruel wind over the open hills, it was nice to a get flatter roads from Totford on the B3046 Alresford - Basingstoke road. Fro there it was a familiar territory back through the Candovers, Herriard and on to Odiham and home in time for a huge lunch!

Open road, open landscape - Near Totford

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