A long way for a pub lunch

I must admit that, this weekend, I was quite looking forward to putting my feet up, reading a book and having a glass of wine. However, Emily had other ideas. On Saturday we rode for three hours or so over the Ridgeway, down Oxfordshire way. It was particularly hard frozen there – more so than Oxford or Abingdon ten miles away, so we had an afternoon of cold ears and rock hard byways. It’s great to get back from a ride to see that your bike only has a coating of dust on it.

Sunday’s ride was a road jaunt to a great pub for lunch. Unfortunately the pub was 27 miles away… So a good couple of hours’ riding for a great lunch. The only trouble then is the long ride home, full of pie and pudding… Never mind, I’m sure that there was some slight gain in doing it over just staying in and eating a smaller lunch. Now did we ride to justify the lunch? Or did we go for lunch to justify the ride?

Mr. Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's ex-Editor At Large

With 25 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps holds the record for the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Chipps stepped down as Editor in April 2026 after 25 years at the helm. He's now wondering what to do next, while riding his bike in the French Pyrenees, where he also runs some gites.

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