Two questions from today 80km reliability ride.  How many Tesco super stores are there in Bracknell and how many balls should be in a bottom bracket bearing?

The Bird Hills group agreed the previous week to meet at the normal time.  Due to the weather, besides myslef, Colin with a hangover, Mike and Stuart where the only takers.  We quickly set off for Braywick and encountered a bit of road rage heading into Holyport.  Mike then took chase and just prior to the motorway bridge got soaked by a car coming the other way as it ran into a very large puddle.  Never mind Mike.

All safely at Braywick we got introduced to a number of members who normally join the clock tower ride, while David checked all riders in for the reliability ride.  Shortly after the entire group left and we stayed pretty much together to Twyford. Leaving Twyford toward Hurst, it was clear Stuart wanted to ride harder, so the pace went up and I believe we were still all together at Winnersh.  The pace was high going into Arborfield, with a slight period of relief heading towards Swallowfield.  This didn’t last and by Risley the group was definitely split. 

Risley caused Colin some problems as despite the group slowing and calling due to missing a left turn, he decided to continue on for a while.  When we reached the A327 for a slight pause we did wonder where Colin was.  He turned up a few minutes later having been chasing us for the last 4-5miles.  As we heading towards Crowthorne most of the group was feeling the cold due to the continual rain.  Mike was looking worse than most and was going to head home at a suitable point between Bracknell and Ascot.

Leaving Crowethorne my bike started making unhealthy sounds and I wasn’t sure if it was a bottom bracket or a rear mech problem.  Crossing the A322 in Bracknell I pulled over to take a look.  While doing this Colin for some reason headed down the A322 toward Bagshot.  Myself and Stuart were confident that he’d seen us head toward Ascot as he was in about 3^rd place on the road.  Stuart did going looking for Colin but there was not sign of him.  I couldn’t find a problem with my bike, so I continued on.  After a couple of miles the cranks started wobbling around and decided to quit the ride and look for a dry location.

Just round the corner I found a Tesco store, so called for my bike support car to collect me from the Warfield Tesco.  However I wasn’t at that one, so after some stressing my true location was identified and I got collected in a warm car for the ride home.  I’m since told there are 4 fairly large Tesco stores in and around Bracknell.  Can they keep to one per town to avoid confusions please? 

I would also be grateful if someone could go back around the road by the Lookout to find my missing ball bearings from my bottom bracket.

I trust everyone else got round safely.  Thanks for organising the ride David.