On arrival at the golf club just before 8.30 it didn’t appear fully light and it remain grey all morning.  A total of 9 riders gathered.  Les came armed with a chain checking tool to test Colin’s chain after his gear shifting problems of the previous week.  Today Colin was on his summer bike with the expectation that was all working well.  A couple of seconds later any joy disappeared as Les announce his chain was worn.  Several others were checked with about 50% tested being warn.  More bike maintenance required.

A few weeks ago the group headed on a southerly loop to Fleet.  It was agreed to do this route again to make more riders familiar with it.  As usual Les took up the lead this week supported by Stuart.  By the way Stuart was riding, I don’t think he fully committed to the performance test he completed yesterday.  The first part was familiar to most as it follows the Pangbourne route to Swallowfield, where we took a left for Bramshill.  After this much of the route was unfamiliar to me. 

The full route can be seen at http://www.strava.com/activities/98029682.  In summary we went through Eversley, northern Fleet, Farnborough, Brookwood, Bisley, Chobham.  In Sunninghill we had a 15min pause for Simon to fix a front puncture.  We then skirted Ascot and the Great Park and eventually arrived at the Drift Road.  With pause at the start of the Drift Road to regroup, the discussion turn to through and off and a final sprint at the RR finish line. 

As Danuta was over due, I turned to retrace the route and quickly found her on route.  As we past the rest of the group, I decided to go for a long and early attack with about 3.5miles to the sprint line.  So into TT mode wondering if / when I would get caught?  I’ve learnt from experience not to look back as this can show signs of doubt or weakness and encourage the chasers to keep going.  With about 400m to go Colin came past.  My initial re-action was to concede to him, but as no one else came though I caught his wheel for a slight breather, thinking I still stood a slight chance.  A few seconds later I went back to the front, but was struggling and couldn’t muster more effort for a sprint, so properly conceded this time to Colin.  The rest of the group was only a few yard back, but Colin held on for the win by a couple of bike length.

At the golf club, Colin and Danuta continued for home while the rest of us retired to the club house for refreshments.  Heather was the first to work out we did about 50miles with an average speed of about 19.6.  Not bad for a cold winters day!!!