What happens when a non club rider sails past the group on a climb and one of our members experiences riding on the right side of the road!

On this cold damp Sunday, 7 riders turned up at the Bird Hills golf club.  These being Mike, Matt, Dominic, Jonny, Simon, Calum and myself.  No one had any strong views on the route, so it was agreed to take the easy option and do the normal route.  Several riders requested an easy pace.  This included a tanned looking Simon who had still not recovered from two weeks away skiing.

Myself and Mike lead off towards Twyford at a much reduced pace to normal, which allowed for much chat on route.  The leisurely pace continued on through Sonning and onto the foot on Playhatch.  Calum then came to the front and moderately lifted the pace with the group still all together.   About 1/3^rdup the hill an unknown rider came sailing past the group.  Jonny instantly responded to catch the wheel and past Calum in the processes.  I then took off with at least one other with me to join the leading pair.  Jonny looked comfortable on the wheel and I started to think about when to really up the pace against this other rider. Extra effort wasn’t required as about ¾ to the top this other rider had to back off, so the group make it to the top with it’s pride intact.

Jonny set the pace down the short drop towards Shiplake Infant School and initially lead towards Henley before I took over the lead.  For a change we only had to stop at one of the sets of lights in Henley before heading off up the Fairmile.  At the pause for the lights Jonny suggested turning right at middle Assendon for a different hill.   After the agreed right turn we negotiate a pair of runners not sure which side of the road to run on.   With the road gently rising it’s conditions rapidly deteriorates with massive pot holes, greenery coming through the tarmac, stones, rubble and general c@@p on the road.  I know Jonny likes mountain biking, but I don’t!!  Young Calum liking hills, again takes up the lead having crossed to the right side of the narrow lane.   Luckily after a while, but still on the right side of the road, Calum drops back.  As the leaders round a right hand bend the call goes up for riders coming down the hill.  I didn’t see what happened but luckily the groups past without problems.  The road eventually drops a little, just to allow the group to see a steep kick up on a sharp right hand bend.  An ideal chance to see if every ones bottom gear works properly.  Still on right side of the road, Calum took the extra steep route round the bend by taking the inside line.  All up the hill the group proceeded through North End and Christmas Common onto the top of Pishill.  The junction looked more like a scene from a Chinese junction with cyclist all over the place.  A group from Evo-tri came up the hill for a pause, followed by another group heading off toward Christmas Common and a forth group heading down Pishill. 

We paused along with Evo-tri for the downing of energy bars and gels.  While chatting, Gurpal and Sarah coming up from Nettlebed. Quiet a meeting point on a damp day.

As normal a brisk pace was set heading into Nettlebed.  Nettlebed is currently protect by a series of speed humps which make cycling a nightmare due to the pot holes on the left of the road forcing riders to ride in the middle of the road between the humps.  Not ideal.

Heading off to Sonning Common, Matt took up the lead at such a pace the group fractured into 3 leaders and 4 chasers.  The group came back together just before the drop and climb leading into Sonning Common.  Simon was the quickest down the hill and also first to the top, so his legs couldn’t have been too bad.  Through the lanes back to Sonning the group got split with Simon and Calum dropping back and a number of cars.  Despite a moderate pace into Twyford the group was again split by traffic.  Heading out of Twyford on form Jonny took the winery sprint from myself who was in totally the wrong gear.  For the first time in ages all those leaving the golf club arrived back safely and together.

So today the group completed 47miles with an average riding speed of 18.4mph and a maximum temperature of 42.8 deg C.