The first weekend of Spring brought out lots of us this morning - finally the wind has dropped, the sun is out and the temperature is rising.  A couple of the usual clock tower riders took the opportunity to ride out with the Bird Hills group and by all accounts cruised round the 60 miles plus at a speed of over 19mph.  The rest of us met at the Clock Tower at the usual time.  Tom had offered to take a medium-fast group over a hilly 55 miles (average 16-5mph), and the rest of us were set to do a 40 mile route (average 14-16mph). The plan was we would all meet up for coffee - I wasnt sure this would work with 3 groups, but its nice to aim for something!

In the end there were 14 people in the medium slow group. There were 3 new people who are training for the London Revolution, and there were quite a range of abilities in the group - but today it didnt matter.  Taran offered to be a backstop, and this meant that the we could form into a few smaller groups, re-grouping at times, ensuring that we were not a great big mass of 14 riders for traffic to try to overtake.  The route took us over the hill to Quarry Wood Lane, down into Marlow and up to Frieth.  The descent through the Hambledon Valley was a highlight today - felt very optimistic with the sun shining and the hint of summer in the air.  Into Henley and we took a variation of our normal route and went through Playhatch and Sonning before crossing the A4 to Twyford, and taking Bottle Lane back towards the A4 and over to Velolife.  And amazingly we did meet up with the other groups there!  Not everyone wanted to stop for coffee, and some carried on home, but representatives of all three groups managed to be at Velolife at the same time. And we could sit outside and eat our bodyweight in cake (OK that was probably just me - but I have no will power!)

Really lovely to see so many out today - and hope to see you all again soon.  And thanks to those who don't normally lead/take the back position for volunteering today - its made for a lovely ride.