With the temperature colder than recent days 4 of us (Myself, Simon, Mike & Dominic) gathered at Bird Hills golf club for the 1^stclub ride of the year.  Dominic was feeling fresh and unfit (too much food and drink) as he’d only been on the bike twice in the last month.  The other three were all complaining of various levels of fatigue as each had taken advantage of the break and done 200+ miles since Christmas.

Mike needed to be home by noon at the latest, so after a short discussion is was agreed to do the usual route.  So we all set off at a steady pace for the time of year, crossing Howe Lane, and on to Shurlock Row.  Leaving Shurlock Row a munkjag dear jumped across the road in front of us, shortly to be followed by the call for a puncture stop.  Dominic was the rider with a problem.  After a few minutes to fix this we continued on to Twyford, where we had to wait about 2seconds for the lights to change for our right of way.  We cross the A4 and heading to Sonning with Simon lifting the pace a little. 

Another short pause at Sonning bridge and up the hill at Playhatch.  Mike set the early pace, but dropped back after a while to allow myself to lead Simon up to the top. Care was taken as we dropped down toward Shiplake junior school due to thick mud on the road.  Heading to Henley on the main road the pace was again lifted, only for us to be held up by a slow moving white van.  We had enough speed to pass but took the safe option and held back.  Leaving Henley we headed up the Fairmile and straight up to Nettlebed to ensure Mike got home in time.  This was done at a brisk pace with three of us taking turns on the front, with Dominic dropping back with each peddle turn.  We had a short pause in Nettlebed to allow Dominic to catch up and get his breath back before a well structured period of through and off in Sonning Common.

The down hill sprint through Playhatch was easily taken by Simon with the other 3 demonstrating a complete lack of commitment for a race.  We passed through Sonning and Twyford and headed for the Winery and another sprint.  Simon lead down the hill followed by myself and Mike again with no clear commitment for a race.  Crossing the small bridge at the base of the hill, Simon and I had a brief discussion about a sprint with what we through was the decision taken away from us by a car about to pulling out of the Winery without looking.   Mike hadn’t seen the car and decided to chance this luck with the sprint hoping to catch us napping.    The car did give way to us and Mike was robbed of the win despite pulling out a lead.  Dominic eventual caught up having had to stop after dropping his bike computer.  The pace dropped back through Shurlock Row, but was lifted crossing Howe Lane for a final sprint into the chicane just before the golf club.  I lead all the way but was pipped by Mike who took advantage of the slipstream.

So we did 37 miles @ 18.2mph as a group.  My total distance was 50miles @ 18mph from and to home.