This was a right old ‘suffer-fest’ for me: I mean, 89 miles and it’s still only March, not to mention only my third ride of the year! Paddy and Chris – sorry no photos – sensibly headed home after coffee, but that would still have been about 60 miles. Good to see Dane at coffee too, which was at a café in Alresford. We – that is Clive, Dave, Keith and yours truly then headed south east to cross the South Downs bound for lunch at Rowlands Castle.
Clive deserves a medal for ensuring that the journey home – he peeled off at Liphook of course – was as flat as it could be, and to Dave and Keith for their excellent company; if it wasn’t for them I think I’d still be lying in a ditch somewhere along the way. There’s no doubt it was a lovely ride, and we enjoyed lovely weather too, as the pics below show.
Apologies as usual that they’re not in the order they were taken – it’s a strange quirk of this website that they load up randomly. The band of folk dressed up like they’re on their way to a fight were found in the Meon Valley. The final picture is of my heroes, Dave and Keith. Hope you made it OK back to Guildford – you must have easily topped the ton: well done, guys!
The route may be found on Strava here: https://www.strava.com/activities/915649606 It was 89.1 miles in length and total ascent was 4,333ft.
Great pictures, Mark. Really enjoyed the day – I trust the beer and curry tasted good after that!
It sure did, Keith, plus the other stuff I crammed in too! However I think it was a mistake to have had another curry last night – had my arm twisted so couldn’t refuse really. Leftovers tonight and another curry on Wednesday which I can’t get out of. Oh my gosh my golly..