On this gray but mild late October Sunday a group of around 11 turned up.  I didn’t do a full count to be sure.  Dan and Tom who have been out with the Clock Tower ride decided to join us today.  The route suggested was the classic route to Pishill with a detour at Stoner.

Stuart took off at the head of the peloton and set a pace strong pace.  On route to Twyford I did question the rush and just got a smile. We cleared the temporary traffic lights at Twyford and continued to Sonning, where again we got over the river without stopping.   The lights at the road works force a stop and we were surprised to see work underway on a Sunday.  It actually looks like the repairs from the winter flooding may be finished shortly.

I initially led onto the lower slopes of Playhatch.  Alan came powering alongside me and asked about the hill length.  When I suggested it wasn’t that long (but its all relative), Alan put on a hard attack.  Brett responded and dragged Stuart up to Alan.   Around 200m later I think Alan realised it might be further than he thought.  It’s good to see new riders to the group take an aggressive stance.   All safely at the top we did have to wait ages for Colin and wondered if he’d gone to open his new Evans shop in Taplow.  

Heading into Henley the group worked well together with Mike making comments about speeds over 30mph.  Through Henley myself and Stuart decided to continue to the top of Pishill due to the wind direction.   Since getting home Dan has described the pace up Pishill as mental.  To Stoner we averaged around 23mph with a number of riders give me a short break in pace setting.  The eventual winner was young Ed who’s tactics worked out well.  He attacked late and took Matt with him.  With me dropping back as the road steepened, Ed did look to struggle and appeared to want support from Matt on the front.  Matt didn’t want to or couldn’t and Ed did manage to shake him off to take a convincing win.

Rather than heading directly back we detoured down into Waltington.  What a bumpy descent.  The group slowed through Waltington to ensure we were all together before storming off for the A40 / Aston climb.  It was a relief not to have a head wind in this climb.

At the top it was onto Nettlebed via the top of Pishill for the normal route home.  Heading through Cowleaze Wood we caught and pasted a solo rider.  Nothing unusual in that. A couple of minutes later one of the group and non-club member asked me to easy up as the group was struggling.  What’s new with group having to work hard?  I did easy of a fraction, only to find the sole rider then came flying past at speed, which I thought was brave.  I initially showed restraint, but Stuart and one other took chase and before long we were on his wheel with Stuart continuing past.  Stuart couldn’t maintain the pace and got overtaken with the rider putting on another spurt.  Colin then took up the chase and we did all manage to catch him again.  Our group is quick but I’m fully aware there are far better riders around than us.  Were we up against one?  This time we all held station behind. As we past the Christmas tree farm the solo rider did look to be struggling big time and may have been indicating for us to pass.  As he hadn’t spoken to anyone we all stayed put and 200m later he blow up and we never saw him again.  The groups pride remained in tacked.

At the top of Pishill, Dan and Tom decided to head home down Pishill. Into Nettlebed and onto Sonning Common the well structured through and off, didn’t break out.  Instead a number of riders took turns at doing various length pulls on the front.  Approaching Peppard, Ed again showed his intent by coming to the front for the up hill sprint into Sonning Common which he went on to take with ease.

The rest of the ride remain brisk.  The Winery sprint was pretty much a none event as the group got split by traffic leaving Twyford and never properly reformed.  Four riders in a break crossed Howe Lane and contested the sprint.  Brett took up the initial pace, followed by me who got overall hauled by Les about 20m before the line.  A number of use then retired to the Golf club for a coffee.

Today’s ride was around 56 miles and for some reason the speed was down on last time I was out.