I turned up at the Clock Tower this morning in the rain expecting no one to be there - only to find one of the biggest groups of riders we have had for a while (except for Box Hill!). Along with Alan, Gurpal, David and myself, 3 of these were new - a young girl, Sasha and a French father and son Patrick and Pierre. We promised her dad we would drop Sasha back near home in Ascot and wanted to show the 2 French guys some of our countryside.

We set off past Clivedon (popping in briefly to the grounds) to Bourne End then up the hill to Lane End - I took the front, but Pierre zoomed past me - he was a strong rider! He has to wait at the top of the hill then the others soon caught up. The original plan was to head down through Hambledon to Henley, but everyone was looking strong so we continued up through Northend to Christmas Common.

On the road from Christmas Common to Pishill we tried a bit of through and off - it lost a bit in translation but we got there in the end...sort of! Then down Pishill (two chains off - mine and Pierres!) through Henley and to Wargrave. As we were going along the Wargrave Road my cadence sensor got knocked and as I was faffing with it, Gurpal looked round to see where I was, clipped Patricks wheel and came off...I didn't see it and he was being very brave but he smashed the cleat off the bottom of his shoe and had some decent rips in his jersey and gillet so I think he came down quite hard.

From Wargrave we went through to Twyford where we picked up a stray cyclist....he offered to accompany Sasha to Ascot so we left them at Birds Hill and made our way home.

51 miles clocked up, 1800 feet of climbing and a steady average speed of 15.5mph. A good ride - a new route for us!

Sarah