There were 10 at the clock tower this morning, two of whom were new ladies, and it was great to see Malcolm there too, for 2 reasons - one its great to see him on the bike, and two he was happy to take our new ladies out for their first ride with the club. Dave B was on a time limit so went with the slower group too....maybe one of you guys could let us know how the 4 of you got on? That left 6 of us. With a brisk south wind, and rain forecast by midday, we decided to head south so that the wind would be behind us on the return leg - and Rob is the expert on routes south of the M4 so we left it to him to lead us on a route through Wokingham, Crowthorne, Finchhampstead and back. We were going great guns, we tried some through and off (not very successful - couldn't decide whether we should have the person at the back coming forward, or the person at the front dropping back - and if so should they go to the left or right! Maybe a Birds Hill group member could give us some tips...) and all took some time at the front.

About 20 miles in Taran desperately tried to shout that we were losing Pedro - but by the time we noticed he had dropped off the back. We went back and looked up and down the road but just couldn't find him, and as we knew he had a Garmin had to hope he would make it back OK...which he did. Then there were 5. The rain started at around 11am (an hour ahead of schedule - honestly those weather forecasters know nothing...!!), and that spurred us on for home trying to outrun the rains Northward progress. We split up at Howe Lane with Rob and Steve heading back to Bracknell, Taran turning right towards Burnham and Matt and I turning left to White Waltham and Maidenhead.

It worked really well today, as we didn't frighten off the new ladies by being too fast (I hope! I am sure Malcolm and Dave looked after them!) - and the rest of us could do a really good ride - and it was a fast one for our group today. I logged 47miles with an average speed of 18.7mph.