SATURDAY 8th October - What a Racquet

Anyone for a Saturday ride? Anything else just wouldn't be tennis!

Yep, Bath......That Georgian Oasis.

Stopping at the Tennis club so you may want to bring a lock as we can't watch the bikes from the cafe.

Route out will be via Blagdon, Chewton Mendip and Farrington Gurney (for the benefit of the Wednesday riders,) offering a few tri-options.

Initial route will be Puxton, Sandford, Churchill should you wish to latch on. Total mileage should be around 75.

We'll return via Saltford, down Gough Hill then through Pensford, Chew Magna and Winford.

FRESHFORD NO LOCKS https

Hope you all celebrated world octopus day today. October 8th

I certainly 8 a lot in the cafe!

Ride report.
None of that Sunday nonsense this week. Back to the usual day at the usual time of 8:45. I didn't have time to count all the riders but there was definitely more than 8 as we set off at 8:52 - a little L8.

The pace across to Churchill was quite sed8 and even when we got going a bit we were thwarted by a sp8 of large lorries. There was quite a long w8 at the top of Burrington which wasn't gr8 as it was quite chilly in the wind. A small br8kaway group soon formed and took off across the Mendip motorway. Guess how many were in the breakaway? That's right, five. Bad luck if you got it wrong.

The breakaway stopped just past Hartley's waiting for the rest of the group who, after 8 minutes, had not turned up. We then doubled back and hammered it down some main road heading somewhere. No one seemed to quite know where it was going. We even did our best to ignore any sign pointing to Bath and instead headed for Trowbridge. After some gesticul8tion from Andy we headed down the A358 (probably wasn't but who cares - it's got an 8 in it) and up a couple of h8teful hills around Midsomer Norton. They weren't hugely steep but not easy climbs either. By my reckoning they were probably about 8%. The traffic into Bath was something to h8, all stacked up around the gir8tory system by the st8tion. Not to worry, we arrived at the tennis club in time to meet up with the rest of the group who had taken the official route. I say 'group' what I mean is Ivan and his domestique (Eng. - domestic) Martin.

After tea and c8ke we diligently followed Ivan so as not to get lost again - str8 into the local industrial estate car park. A quick rumble through the jungle brought us out onto the canal path followed by a belt along the cycle path to Saltford. A gentle pace home took us to the A38 where all hell broke loose. After some madness down to Wrington we had taken a lot of the top 10 places on Strava, Andy getting the KOM and Ivan rolling in......yep - 8th. News flash, he's now 9th. Newsflash, he's now 11th.

Anyway, I think all had a gr8 laugh even if the unofficial detour was a little frustr8ing.

8 / 10 for the ride report :-)