saturday 31st may - Sherborne, home of the guinness cake and the heavy ride home

seeing as we missed the merry monk this year due to bad weather and apathy we'll head for that there cafe by the co-op in the middle of sherborne. the guinness cake is recommended to anyone who fancies a heavy ride out of town; which given the 5 mile 'false flat' ascent (real in places) is a proper challenge (even tougher than 65 welsh hilly miles with a punctured lung!)

we'll approach via the mendip motorway, shit'n, castle cary and templecombe. this will allow for plenty of triathlete options and keep us on wide roads; despite a dry forecast the lanes could be covered in debris and dampness following the week we're currently enjoying.

mileage will be a healthy 90-100 miles again, it's becoming the norm'!!!

With a forecast for a cloudy but warm day 25 riders assembled for a trip to Sherbourne. There were a few faces we hadn't seen in a while. We made our way across Puxton and up Burrington where Mr Gough 'big ringed it up' to claim the KOM. We made our way along the Mendip Motorway until we reached the Rocky Mountain cafe which seems to be getting quite a few vists this year. Most people stopped there but 9 riders continued on - Ivan, Nick, Paul, Adrian, Stewart, Dave B, Nathan, Meirion and me. We had the usual problem of trying to cross the A37. It was very busy as the Bath and West show was on causing frustration for a few car drivers who cut us up when trying to overtake. As we reached the show ground the cars we queued back for half a mile and we took much satisfaction in passing them downhill. From there we continued south until we reached the A30 where we headed east. Unfortunately this was the site of the first of the days accidents. X (name to be revealed later) touched the back wheel of the rider in front causing him to veer across the road just at the same time as a woman was overtaking! X mounted the verge on the otherside of the road but as there was a big dip between it and the road it caused him to come off and fall into the path of the overtaking vehicle! Luckily the woman managed to stop without hitting him but she did leave an impressive set of tyre skid marks. After checking there was no major injuries just some brusing we continued on to Sherbourne. Three of our group had missed the incident and had riden on but they didn't know where the cafe was so had to ask the locals for directions to the cafe that sells Guiness cake and couldn't believe their luck when the first person they asked knew exactly which cafe they wanted.
After refueling we headed north east to Yeovilton, Glastonbury and the main Meare road to Sweats where we took the usual left across the moors. As you know its quite narrow and we met several cars comming the other way. You can probably guess what happened next. This time it was X (name to be revealed later) turn to tangle with a car which was coming from the opposite direction and did not see the need to slow down. This caused X to brake and perform a gentle somersault over the handlebars into the greenery. Luckily no damage done and the car didn't even stop! On to Blackford and Loxton and home to notch up 98 miles.

Bonus stuff this week:-

I am going to setup a voting poll on the forum where you can vote for the riders who you think came off - https://westoncg.forumotion.co.uk/t184-rider-crash-poll-for-30-5-14

Also here is a link to a couple of minutes of video of us decending and getting the usual corner at Butleigh wrong (there was a music track with it - Herbie Hancook Rocket but it looks like Youtube weren't keen on me using it). https://youtu.be/4BskT0jqNfw

Toasted Tea Cake rating - 9/10 - Cakes and prices are ace.
Official Jersey Count - 7 which is a record for this year
Knacker Factor - 7/10 - not too fast but almost 100 miles
Stats - http://ridewithgps.com/trips/2741116

Had a bit of a giggle in Rocky Mountain over a speed dating night which Andy S seemed very keen about. He was so excited he knocked his tea over the table much to Mars' disgust (the spilled tea that is, not the speed dating - she didn't seem too bothered by that). Usual descent down the Horringtons into Wells and out through Burcott. At this point there were three distinct groups on the road. Group 1 - Mark A, Goughy and me, group 2 - the Andies plus others and then the rest. Wasn't sure why Mark A was so keen to get going until he turned around to Goughy and said he had to be back by midday. Rather than stay with Mark I pulled over to wait for the others leaving Goughy on his wheel presumably all the way home?

After re-grouping Paul stopped for a pee. Following team orders the rest of us put the hammer down, confident that he would catch us up. Over the next 3 miles or so the group shed riders all over the place until there was only Andy and me out front with the re-formed bunch including Paul catching from behind. We eventually all came together (messy!) at Westhay before the long slog across the levels to Brent Knoll. The work at the front was shared between a number of riders keeping the pace to a reasonable 20-23 mph. There was the usual semi-madness of intermediate sprints on the way to Mark and also Accomodation Road. Couldn't tell you who won as I was in my usual armchair position at the back of the sprint!

Stats: about 58 miles at about 17 - 17.5 mph ave with about a mug of coffee and about a slice of cake.
TTCR: no idea - didn't have one.
KF: 6/10 - flat, steady so generally okay. Even managed to cut up my old garden shed in the afternoon without a nap or prozac so couldn't have been that hard.

Just noticed that I must have had a birthday recently. Last time I looked I was 100, now I'm 101. Woopee!

Congrats on your birthday.

You guys (team Rocky Mountain) kicked our butt! We only averaged 16.5mph

I was disappointed you couldn't give a TTCR. The cakes are usually good at Rocky Mountain.

35 views of the crash poll and nobodys voted.

Its not like you've got to vote for UKIP

Martin, Nice report as always. However, I suspect that the members of the group who visit this site most regularly are the ones who know which riders crashed. Possibly why there's such a low response. I would love to guess, but I feel I may have a slight advantage.

Saturday's distance for me was 100.4 miles, with an average of 17.4mph. In your face Rocky Mountain snails (no provocation intended naturally). I do love you all. Anyway, that's 3 century rides for me in 2 weeks. Where we going next week Ivan? Lyme Regis?

  

By the way Martin, nice choice in music. I could hear both versions; Herbie Hancock & Richard Wagner (not at the same time).

Richard, Nice to see you smashed your shed up. I like it when a day goes to plan.