Saturday 6th June - NOT Lyme but +99

Just awaiting that beautiful southerly before we dip our size 11's into the lymy briny.

They now forecast a keen westerly which would normally send us to the quantocks or similar, but we've been down that way the past 2 weeks.

so how about a northern trek? and how about democracy in action??? (committee is in recess.)

let's break this down into 3 options:

1. wotton-under-edge (via bitton tri-stop) - 100 ish
2. monmouth (via bristol tri-stop) - 110 ish
3. blaenavon (via bristol tri-stop and the ToB's famous tumble climb) 135 ish

please vote for your favourite candidate in messages.

i personally fancy option 3 as we probably won't get back til 6:30-7 and we could ride straight to wrington for the meal and cadge lifts home, could be a smelly table though; a surreal end to a mental day.

for those that wish to latch on, i'll confirm destination and route out on friday evening once the (plethora of) votes are in.

I like the idea of blaevon,wrong wind

well, as predicted, weston's broadband service has been straining to cope with the influx of 'votes' cast.

i think whatever our final destination, we'll head for bristol and across the border into welshy land; so usual route out, st georges, huish, congresbury, yatton, should you want to latch on.

i'm sure that plenty will want to peel off in bristol but i do know that adrian wants to stop in chepstow and i'm sure he'll be happy to hold someone's hand.

the hetro' option will be either monmouth or tumbley boo, but we can make that decision on the road. if we do go to blaenavon, return time to wsm will be 6:30-7 which does leave things a bit tight for meal.... unless we go straight there

Well... Democracy in action proved pretty successful didn't it!

Well it didn't turn out the ride we all thought it was going to be. BBC said 17 mph wind clear sky all day. Turned out that it was at least 30mph + wind all day also rained heavy in the first hour of riding. Mutany before we set out with tri guys and gals defecting to Farrington. We had a mutany in Bristol where 5 riders did a refusal on the Portesy and went up Bridge Valley Rd. Luckily we regrouped in Chepstow cafe where the traditional Welsh game of who's hid my bike took place. Tony's bike was put in the traditional behind the open door that looks locked area however Ivan got overwhelmed with creativity and excitement and decided the best place for Chris's new pride and joy was on top of the roof that covered the area we leave out bikes. Luckily Chris took this in good humour, called Ivan a cheeky scallywag and decided to reward Ivan with one less rider to burden him to look after and guide home by time trailing the 40 mile home leg with a 30 mph head wind on his own. By my reckoning in two years we'll be down to two or three riders in the the A group due to the pranks and non political correctness (how refreshing. All in all though, another very successful day out. By the way The Plough last night was excellent, many thanks for arranging again Mars, top job, top venue.

Nothing to do with yesterday's ride but I sometimes like to see who is logged on. Great fun if you want to track down where your access point to the internet is. Currently I am connected through Primus Telecommunications in Victoria Street in London. Slightly worrying is that the building appears to back on to New Scotland Yard. Better not mention words like 'bomb' or 'terrorism' - you never know when you might get that knock at the door and be spirited away in the middle of the night.

Mmm - not sure how accurate this is. Two guests have just logged on in the middle of a forest in Germany! My location has just moved to Storey's Gate in London - just outside the National Crime Agency. I'm starting to worry a little bit!