Saturday 18th July - Glastonfenneysweetsish

unfortunately saturday's forecast aint great, but at least it should be warm.

we'll head out through sandford-cheddar and see what the weather lets us do.

we may be lucky enough to get as far as somerton/podimore, but if the bbc have got it right we'll be lucky to get past burtle!  

PS: don't forget that next week's ride departs at 10am from priory, it's phil's ride to bruton, lunch at the chapel at 1pm, you are welcome to ride with us or drive down and meet us there if you prefer.

please let me know if you're coming as it would be good to provide numbers.

Wot no report! S'pose I'd better put pen to paper (or rather finger tips to keys).
Seven hardy souls turned out for what was forecast to be a thundery ride. However, not a drop was to fall from the skies and it stayed relatively dry the whole way round. Roads were a bit damp and steamy in places but otherwise okay.

The Tour de Farmyard started in Bourton Lane when the lead group encountered a stray goat. It was one of them proper goats with horns to hold on to. It tried to gallop away but gave up and slipped onto the wheels as far as the motorway bridge. Not sure why Ivan dropped to the back of the bunch so early on in the ride. Must have had a mechanical or something. Anyway we pressed on to Sandford and picked up Nick on route to Churchill.

It was all pretty mundane up Burrington and along the Mendip motorway to Hartleys where we were served the usual delights of pancakes with bacon and apple or blueberries and strawberries, Kippers with a poached egg, toast etc. etc. Various stories did the rounds with the boys reminiscing about stone fights when they were younger. Apparently no-one ever got hurt. Apart from the one kid who had half a brick thrown in his face but hey - kids will be kids!

Clearly Neil didn't have enough gears for the amount of power he delivers and snapped a cable trying to find the small 3 tooth cog that he doesn't have. Dropped down into Wells and across the levels when we encountered an 'S' point on the ride profile. 'S' would normally signify sprint point but being Somerset this was Sheep. Wager the sheep dog/fox/something was useless at catching a stray that had shot back behind the queue of traffic. It was at this point again that Ivan had slipped to the back of the bunch. He disappeared behind a team car and then re-appeared with a large smile on his face chasing the sheep back to the flock. Adrian tried to secure him a doggy treat for his efforts but he seemed happy enough at the time.

I'll leave Martin to deliver the stats. Expecting it will look like: Excessive alcohol + bike ride = lack of energy and vomit potential.

Excellent Farmers Weekly report.
The local sheep have heard that we are looking for some new riding talent.



TTC - 9/10
OJC - 2
KF - 8.99 - when you're not fit even an easy ride is hard!
Stats - http://ridewithgps.com/trips/3030139