My ride was killed before it began, went to the shed an found the front brake had completely lost all resistance.

Pissed off is an understatement, everything was in the car.

Well I’m back, nettles 1 : my arms 0

Lovely ride though 😀

All set for tomorrow ? It being the longest day n’all….

Empty trails again, discovered some single track, cursed the wind but it kept me slightly cooler. Managed to find the (unused) church that was the purpose of the ride.

The village where I parked was hosting a flower show and offering refreshments. Enjoyed a delicious home-made meringue with cream, strawberries and raspberries, all washed down with a pot of tea. That’ll be £2 please. 8)

Quick look round church number 2 where there were some gorgeous flower arrangements and classical music was playing.

Not complaining!

216km (134 miles) 7 hours 54 minutes riding time – £241 raised for Woking & Sam Beare Hospices.
Longest road ride I’ve ever done, still buzzing but can feel the “ouch” starting to kick in now.
Backroads loop from Winchester to Salisbury was stunning, must try that bit again in a more relaxed ride, A31 was as bad as I thought it would be, but was the only real direct route back.

Well done hilldodger! 😀 Nice parts of the country and good that it’s inspired you. When is your Tour of Hampshire?

Wet, wet, wet round the Goyt. Hard to tell if I was in or just by the reservoirs. Now I’m back, it’s brightened up.

Grounded tomorrow

Cranham Woods this morning , loads of new to me trails with mates giggling like kids , local ride tomorrow afternoon . 😀

Tour de Hampshire is as soon as I can start taking some of my overdue AL – hopefully second half of July 🙂

Shall we now have a catch up?

How did it go then? Your overiding memory of the weekend (somehting you saw, rode over, under, hit, bermed, hacked, smashed, sweat over)

I did well. Saturdays CX’er hack was nice and having fitted 30t cassette made for some super spinny climbing sessions.
Sunday a right old hack, 16 mates from Town came down for an introduction to my part of the Hampshire South Downs roadie blast and we tip/tapped around in graceful purposeful style. All scoffed the huge cake I’d organised and a big thanks as always goes to Springs Cafe in West Meon for their dedication to feeding hungry bikists.
Top day, top weekend, top mates, huge smiles and aching legs…
and a bit of sunburn.
😀

Ours went to plan. The rain held off and we had two great days on the trails

Saturday

Sunday