Saturday 27th July - Phil's ride - Bruton

In a break with usual form we will be riding to the same destination twice in a fortnight.

We will do this to retrace the steps of Phil Hemmings' last Chain Gang ride to Bruton on Saturday 20th July. Phil died from a heart attack today (22/7) aged 72.

Route is about 76 miles, ETA return to WsM is 2:30/3pm. If riders are able to, it would be much appreciated if they could complete the full ride which will be conducted at an appropriate pace.

Please wear your Chain Gang jersey if you have one.

I have booked the same tables at The Chapel cafe in Bruton as last week, outside on the terrace (weather permitting.)

Thanks to Nick, who kicked off a tribute strand for Phil in the notifications section of the forum.

Nick has kindly offered to do the ride report for this week and include a few words about Phil.

Here is the route - http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1536912

Official Jersey Count = 13

Toasted Teacake Rating = 9

Knacker factor = 5

I’ve been riding with Weston Chain Gang for over 7 years now and I don’t ever recall a Saturday morning turn-out of around 30 riders. There would have to be a good reason for it – and on this occasion it was to pay our respects to our friend Phil Hemmings. I’m sure he would have been very pleased with that in his honour.

It was great to see Bern, Dave T and Keith out too and especially our founder Gordon.

To ensure that the group stayed together a decision was made to ride at a steady pace. This instruction was understood by all and we stuck to our word quite well as the procession meandered its way out of Worle and across the levels to Churchill. I know for most of us it’s difficult to resist a challenge, especially where Burrington is concerned. Initially the climb up the Combe was treated in a sedate manner and cohesion within the group was unusually good . . . . . and then two infidels overtook us. We could see what was happening at the front and could only imagine what Misha, Martin & Adrian were thinking, ie. “We aint having that!” The inferiority of the two riders was promptly confirmed with several of our group taking them out in true WCG style. “See you at the top boys!” The pace changed then to the usual ‘consistent, variable, quick, steady, rant, wait’ riding that we’ve become accustomed to.

Some of the group stopped off at Rocky Mountain, with the majority continuing to Bruton. The weather was being kind to us so far and when we arrived at our destination we were able to enjoy our breakfast in the sunshine, as we did with Phil the previous week.

The return leg which takes us through Castle Cary, Keinton Mandeville and Glastonbury provides us with some opportunities to push the pace a little and those of us of that persuasion were inclined to do so. Although the pace wasn’t burning hot we did manage a couple of rants to allow our old friend lactic acid to pay us a visit every now and then. The usual Wedmore to Cheddar run seemed slower than of late, but as some of us were not running at 100% it could be regarded as acceptable on this occasion.

The day produced only one driver related incident, which was a trivial horn blowing exercise by a decrepit hat wearing old bastard in a Noddy car. None of us were upset by that at all !

All in all it was an enjoyable day, revisiting one of our favourite runs to Bruton. The official jersey count (OJC) was higher than ever (TBC). There were no punctures and no mechanicals and it stayed dry for us only until the very end.

Thanks Phil - you must surely be looking down on us.

Thanks for the report Nick.

Here are the photos Nick took on the day:-

https://picasaweb.google.com/chunkymonkey909/Weston_Chain_Gang?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJya7f3Iv6rJ0QE&feat=directlink

good report nicholas.

it was a good ride, i'm pleased that so many people have now ridden my favourite route. i hope we've proved to a few naysayers that our rides are still suitable for all, if that can be phil's legacy for the group, then great.

i believe ojc was 14, of the 17 people who ordered jerseys 2 were away (nick cook and tracey) and 1 just couldn't bring himself to wear the same as everyone else. an obvious repressed homosexual if you ask me; i reckon he works on the wrong side of the lens... no names, no names....

who's for meeting up this week, maybe old colonial