On this misty Sunday morning would the group hammer round at summer pace or follow the general recommendations to easy off during the winter.  Things didn’t look promising as Tom turned up wanting to borrow a pump and had a broken spoke in the front wheel.  Stuart still has his extra wide tyres which appear good at through up more muck than 23mm tyres.  Heathers expectation was for lasting an hour before bailing out.  Sam came by car.  Besides myself, Dan and Mike were also raring to going.

Mike suggested the Pishill standard route in reserve.  This basically means a clockwise riding instead of anti clockwise.  Myself and Heather lead off all the way to Twyford at a relaxed pace.  A few minutes later to left Sonning and headed for Playhatch and Dunsden.  For the 1^st time on a club ride in my memory, NO race occurred up Playhatch.  The effort level was raised, but the group remained together as we headed left at Dunsden and off toward Sonning Common.

Instead of sticking to the reverse route agreed we again forked left and continued to climb up to Stoke Row.  The road isn’t steep but just feels like a drag especially with the rough surface.  After a short pause the group rolled on thought Nufield and headed for the top is Pishill.

Pishill was used as a comfort break.  By now Tom had acquired a 2^nd broken spoke.  He’s got good skills at securing loose spokes.  Saying we’re doing Pishill in reverse, some may assume we were heading down Pishill.  Wrong! As one of the group claimed to be a poor descender we headed to Christmas Common and avoiding taking chase of a group from GS Henley.   Having got to the top of the Chilterns, you’ve got to go down hill at some point.

Mike had ideas on which hill not to go down, but the rest of us didn’t fully understand the directions except we were heading to Marlow.  We eventual arrived for the Dolesden descent to take in the views of the Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang windmill.  At the top of the descent Mike nearly missed the 1^st sharp right turn.  Was it the mist or lack of wearing glasses due to the mist.  All safely down, we then had the short climb to Frieth and the decent into Marlow.  On route into Marlow we past a group from Amersham CC mostly complete with mud guards.  It was difficult to tell due to wet road and bright sun, but I think the Clock Tower group were going in the opposite direction.

To Heather’s annoyance we opted to go up Quarrywood instead of the flat route via Bourne End.  The first near race of the day now occurred going up Quarrywood.  Heather set the initial pace to well past the switch back.  Mike then saw an opportunity for a win and took over the lead.  Shortly after Tom took over, but I think Sam was the winner as he came flying past everyone at great speed.

We then dropped into Cookham where Mike got confused with my suggested direction.  Heading to Cookham we agreed to a coffee at Jenner’s café.  Heading along the river Stuart lifted the pace along with Tom, Sam and Mike.  With myself and Heather taking it easy we both thought they’d skipped the idea of Jenner’s as the group shot past at speed.  We pasted the café to see the group turning round having realised they’d over shot.  From the Jenner’s the group split to head home.

Looking at my ride today on Strava and comparing with the Clock Tower group, it appears for the first time the Clock Tower group were quicker than the Bird Hills group.