SATURDAY 22nd October - Frome

We can't go another week without a teenage student lecture, so it's about time that we refreshed our left wing sensibilities with a trip to the garden cafe.

Please try not to mention sea creatures, land creatures, air creatures, creatures...... cfcs (or any other football teams) unless you enjoy a heated tounge lashing from a 20 year old Swedish blonde, (nope, not bjorn borg in his heyday)

Anyway, I transgress, route out will be wolvershill, Banwell, winscombe, cheddar should you wish to latch on and we'll be passing Wells if anyone fancys a shorter and less self righteous ride.

Steady on. I haven't written this weeks report and next weeks ride has already been posted!

Like a perfectly cooked cake there was a good turn out with about 20 riders in various states of winter dress. Pleasant enough ride to Cheddar and up the Gorge but the temperature was causing a few issues. Started round about 8 degrees but Mrs W reported that some folk in Wedmore were saying it was 1 degree. very damp and misty on the Mendips which is probably how we lost Chris. That and the fact that he couldn't be arsed to wait around in the cold at Priddy.

Never mind, we all gathered together again at Stallone Heights, Chris included and the final cut for Frome was made. Most decided to bail out but about 5 were in for the long one. That was until Nick(?) got a puncture and they all aborted. After tea and cakes the group eventually split with the famous five deciding to go on a tour of the lakes while the rest descended the Horringtons.

Nothing much happened on the return leg apart from the fox hunt that blocked the road causing Jeannie to stop to admire the swans and causing me to fall off. I knew there was a reason to ban fox hunting. Decided it was safer at the front but had to ride alongside Micha. Took me about 3 miles to work out what veee-a-pons were. Micha finally spelled it out: w-e-a-p-o-n-s! By this time I'd lost any sense of what he was trying to tell me in the first place.

OJC: maybe 3
TTCR: 8/10
KFC: for most people probably a 5/10. For me it felt like a 9/10 after a weekend in Belgium sampling the local beverages and then a shite week at work. Ho hum.

Yes, there’s nothing quite like a shite week in work to focus the mind and make the Saturday ride even more of an attractive prospect.

Richard, a well written account as always, but this is the ride from another perspective.

After unsuspectingly leaving Stuart at the garage in Cheddar we made our way up a well known limestone ravine dating back 1.2 million years to the periglacial era. Geology wasn’t really on our minds at the time, just the road snaking off in front, the next guy’s rear hub and the hyperventilating getting ever more deliberate. For those of a sprightly inclination waiting at the top proved to be a little too long and the disappointing climatic conditions soon brought the comfort levels down a notch or two.

Heading across the Horringtons we observed a lone bandit heading in from the north to intercept our group. Actually it was Stuart who had taken an alternative and more obvious route - all together again. So, due to unforeseen circumstances and an obvious lack of warmth or enthusiasm the cafe destination was indeed Rocky Mountain. In reality this was a momentous occasion, as it must have been the first time in eons that the entire group had congregated there.

By the way, has anyone ordered a sausage and egg sandwich? . . . anyone at all?

Anyway, in the end it was actually only three that chose a different route back; Neil, Andy C and me. Shortly after the main group’s grande depart we left the cafe with exclamations relating to the temperature and proceeded in a northerly direction - expecting to feel a little warmer soon. This seemed to take a bit longer than anticipated and blood in the toes wasn’t noticed until descending into Chewton Mendip. A nice easy constant 25mph took us through to West Harptree, Bishop Sutton and across the valley of the Chew. The pace up to Winford didn’t really seem to lessen much and once on the A38 we knew that the Redhill Wrington Razz was coming. At Redhill there was no faffing about at all and we went into the descent head first. No traffic interrupted our fun and in the end, as many already know, we got the top three Strava positions, with Andy taking the KOM off . . . well, himself!

In the end it turned out to be a good training ride. I just hope it’s a bit warmer next week.

Neil, I owe you a compressed air canister. Andy, sort your squeek out!