Saturday 27th September - Coffee and Morris Men - Castle Cary (or Rocky Mountain/Shit'n)

For the third consecutive year we'll demonstrate our love of morris men, home made cakes and cheap coffee.

that's right, it's the 'world's biggest coffee morning' in aid of the Macmillan cancer trust, so what better place to go than Castle Cary, where the charity was founded.... and what better way to show our caring charitable natures than munching through an 'all you can eat' cake fest for £1.50!

we'll approach from burrington, then along the mendip motorway and past the b&w showground. this will offer alternative tri stops at rocky mountain and shit'n. latchers on can latch on at churchill lights at around 8:45.

we'll return via glastonbury. as i recall, total mileage should be around 75.

I would hate to miss the tri-annual trip to the land of bells and spotty handkerchiefs but I'll have to see how my hamstring feels. Twenty miles was enough last week and if I walk funny across Castle Carey town square in a strange outfit they might think I'm one of the chosen ones and expect me to join in!

An uneventful bunch ride via Sandford and Churchill followed by a reasonably sensible ascent of the Col de Burrington. Got passed by a number of other riders from some kind of proper club trying to muscle in on our ride! I'm sure Nick and Martin did us proud by getting the KoM points at the top. Being more of a team player I held back to wait for Bernie. After all, there is no 'i' in team. Having said that there is an 'i' in Bernie, and Ivan, and Nick, and Martin, and Richard, and Chris, and Neil and Mike and ...

We hit the Mendip Motorway before the other group set off giving us a slight advantage. Having pulled over a few miles further up the road to re-group, the other bunch then passed us. The red mist descended, carrots were dangled, and we set off in hot pursuit. A combination of some slow riding from our elder statesmen and the other bunch being a little slow up a small incline caused Ivan to go wide, then wider, then wider still. The waters were clearly not going to part for Moses today. Instead he went head to head with a car coming the other way. The car lost. Triumphantly we continued to Green Ore where we re-grouped once more. It's always good to meet other cyclists out on a run. The camaraderie of helping one another etc. I think it was at this point that Ivan steamed past latched on to a wheel with a large speech bubble stuck to his head which read something like: "I'll show those gits how to ride at speed." Good to see Ivan making new friends.

About 628 miles later we rejoined Ivan at Rocky Mountain. That is to say we re-grouped for about 60 seconds. Just long enough to see the B team park up for refreshments while the A team continued towards Castle Cary. Can't say Ivan ever pulls the wool over your eyes. He said he'd keep the speed down to below 35 and he did, probably averaging 25-30 mph - so no complaints there.

At the Castle we were greeted by the Morris men who announced our arrival to the crowds of onlookers. While they started their routine we started ours. "Could I have a piece of sponge please? Oh, and is there any chance you could spare a small piece of that flapjack? Look there is still space on the edge of my plate. Any chance of a squeezing a chocolate brownie on there too?" After tea and buns a few of the boys decided to bash some poles. I think it's called a job creation scheme. A bit harsh I thought. They then turned their attention to trying out a bit of Morris dancing, great fun (???), while Mike sized up the exhibits in the museum for a night time visit later in the week.

Return leg was a bit stop start. Ivan and Nick would start something and we'd all stop. Daggs Lane was a pleasure as always and I was glad to get home with two working legs.

Great day out. I always enjoy the annual Castle Cary ride and it's all for a good cause.

TTCR: 0/10
KFC: Personal rating 8.5/10, for everyone else, probably a 7/10.
OJC: 3 ish.

..dont want this little gem to get lost or forgotten now do we.

cs

nice video, thanks.

...but next time we go down i think we'll have to take a proper cameraman.