Today's ride wasn't quite as hot as anticipated but nevertheless pretty warm with not a lot of breeze. 14 riders assembled at the car park in Clifton on Dunsmore with the regulars welcoming newbie Liz Pollard (already known to some members from Cyclesolihull rides)
Setting off eastwards Capt RobG kept the riders in the dark regarding the route having not published a .gpx file. Two reasons : the club website had some updating work over the weekend and there were changes to the component that works the library feature (now fixed) and as a bit of an experiment to see if not having a .gpx file kept the group together rather better than on some recent rides - it did!
Meandering through the countryside the plan was for 11s outside the shop at Naseby as on past rides but as we ascended the hill into Naseby we found a church hall doing teas - "Can you cope with 14 cyclists?" - "Yes, of course" and in we piled for a bargain cup of tea and a piece of cake for £1.50. Superb.
Onwards through lots of lanes and experiencing great views to the Bell Inn at Gumley (just by Foxton Locks) for about 1225 and lunch. The 4 F&F members appeared after a short while for a convivial lunch before going our separate ways.
More of the same and a 3s stop at Catthorpe (arrived at 1501!) for a more expensive but still good tea and cake before the last 2 or 3 miles .... and what happened? - JohnS experienced a puncture just as we were about to cross the busy A5 [We wont mention that John had no tube, no tools, no pump - these guys with Condor bikes think they`re invincible] After an almost F1 speed pit team tube change we were off to the finish and ended what was a very pleasant day.
There are plan afoot to consider running this car assist again in the autumn or next spring but in the reverse direction, with lunch at the pub on the flight of locks.
EDIT : Before someone comments and docks points from the Captain I should add that the very brief turn in the wrong direction not far from the start was the result of confusion with a new Garmin machine.
The analogue version of the routing gadget worked fine - both the "colour screen" (printed in colour) and "monochrome screen" (printed in black only) as a back up. The new Garmin did behave perfectly after a little bit of tuning on the settings.
