What an eventful day during todays group ride.  Lots of practice in mending punctures and avoiding wild life.

8 riders turned up at the Bird Hills golf club on this cold, gray day.  Consisting of Sam, Les, Simon, Dominic (with correct inner tubes this week), Mark, Calum , Mike and myself.  After a brief discussion it was agreed to head out towards the weir crossing at Mill End and then on into the Chilterns.

This week the group started all together, through Shurlock Row, past the Twyford winery were Sam, Les and Mark raced up the hill toward Twyford.  At the roundabout we turned right and headed through Ruscombe (for an argument with a silver Merc), over the A4 and skirted round Wargrave, to Crazies Hill, before dropping down the hill Aston. The hill down to Aston was in a general poor condition as could be expected due to the weather, with Calum thinking he had a puncture part way down.  As Calcum had a none existent puncture, the group headed across the Mill End lock, only to find Simon had a puncture.  At this point Mike decided to press on home via Henley as he had to be home by 11am sharp!!  With the group about to set off across the weir announce a 2^ndpuncture in his other wheel. Luckily it was about 7 deg C so no one got too cold standing around.

Eventually we set off again and to most people surprise Mark decided to lead us up the track (again in poor condition) toward Rotton Row and on to Frieth.  Heading up Rotton Row, Les made a gear change and managed to lose his chain, but no harm done and all eventually regrouped on the approaches to Frieth.  Turning left at the Frieth cross roads and heading towards Fingest, we came across an attractive lady flagging to slow us down.  Just as well, as round the next bend we came across a large flock of sheep being driven up the hill by 2 more pretty female farm hands.  So a short pause to allow the sheep to pass by.

Back on the move again, at Fingest we forked right and thought we were heading up Turville Heath, but Les had better ideas and led us towards Turville hill.  However, before getting there another puncture occurred.   While the repairs were under away several other groups past both ways along the road.  Setting off again we quickly caught and passed a group of riders on the lower slopes of the hill.  The pace was kept manageable with Andrew and Calum leading with Les and Mark following on their wheel.  At the top we kept rolling on to allow the tail enders to rejoin.  As we rolled through North End on route to Christmas Common we were followed by the rumbling of V12 engines.  With the road widening we were past by 5 red Ferrari, 1 black Ferrari, a Lamborghini and a couple of Maserati’s.  Having followed us up Turville hill, they were lucky no cars were coming down at the same time as passing would be been extremely interesting.

We then had a fairly un-eventful, 10-15 minute section along the top of the Chilterns for the left turn down Pishill.  The descent started well, but about ½ mile down the 3 lead riders (Mark, Les and Sam) had a fright as 4 dear jumped out in front of them.  Luckily, riders and dear all avoided each other.  5 of the group then worked well as a team down the hill as fair as Middle Assendon when Sam reported a puncture (number 4) and hence another stop.  The paused allowed the other 3 to rejoin the group who could report more excitement with dear.  Our 3 riders plus two others had an even closer encounter with one of the riders clipping the rear of a dear.  Luckily again the riders were ok and it would appear no serious harm came to the dear either.

Time was now getting on and everyone was keen to get home.  Calum turned for home in Marlow as we went through Henley.  However, leaving Henley towards Wargrave, Simon got his 3^rdpuncture of the day, which was fixed in under 5 minutes.  That more practice than he’s had all year up to now.  We then had to stop at the traffic lights on the narrow bridge, Wargrave and again in Twyford.  Mark left us at Twyford, with Les leading the group up the hill out of town.  The normal sprint up the short rise by the winery was led out by Andrew, who was caught and passed by Sam in the final meters.  A good win to Sam.  Andrew and Sam then lead the group back to the golf club via Shurlock Row and both complained about being pushed by the other all the way. 

After a short pause at the golf club to confirm routes home, we all set of for Holyport being led by Simon.  Dominic turned for Fifield and Windsor on route to Holyport.  Shortly after more bad luck occurred.  Simon got his 4^thpuncture of the day before reach Holyport.  After 6 punctures the group still had spare inner tubes available.  Eventually the group reach the A4 at Maidenhead, with Les turning right for Slough, Andrew heading through Maidenhead, with Simon and Sam heading to Bourne End and Marlow.

So today’s group ride from and to the golf club was only 44.6 miles with an average speed of 17.6mph.  Riding time was just over 2hrs 30 mins, but due to the 6 puncture stops the elapsed time was 3hrs 25mins.