There was a point this week when I thought that, come 9am this morning, I would be standing in the Square on my own…   As it turns out, this was not to be and (including myself) 5 members of the ACG gathered in the sunshine, ready to ride.

After a surprisingly short debate, we decided to head out to Brean Down, and duly set off.  Half way up the road I realised that I’d left my bottle at home and with the heat and sun, this seemed like a bad idea.  I nipped off home to get it, which left me tailing behind and with some work to do to catch up with the group.  I put my foot down, so to speak, and managed to catch up just as they arrived in Loxton – which was one hell of a way to warm up!

The ride to Brean Down was not as peaceful as we might have hoped as there was an unexpected amount of traffic on the roads, including a string of 7 cars that hooned past us at nutty speeds far too close for comfort on the long straight road by the railway.  Once onto the more wiggly and (usually) quieter bit we did a fine job of holding up the traffic desperate to get to the joys of Burnham-on-sea, though we did charitably stop and let them by from time to time.  Ah well…  On to a nice tea stop sitting outside the café in the sun watching the tide reclaim the mud – sorry – sand.

We decided to try and avoid the traffic and come back via Burnham, Highbridge, and Mark which, in retrospect, was not a good idea.  The school holidays may not have started yet – remind me to avoid the area strenuously when they have – but the road was heaving with people trying to get to the beach/funfair/caravan park* (*delete as applicable).  This made riding hard work and inevitably we got a bit strung out, only to pull ourselves together for the lovely stretch along the river path to Highbridge.  The tide was so high there were actually people sailing off Burnham which I’ve never seen before.

From there it was back to Mark, past the restored Ashton windmill at Chapel Allerton, down “John’s Hill” to the main road from Wedmore.  At this point we split up to allow everyone to go at their own pace.  There being no wind, and my legs being on fairly fine form, I let loose (in so far as I can!) and hammered it straight down the road…at some point realising that D had caught and hooked on behind me.  Now that was fun – flying down there…  As was what is fast becoming my favourite little stretch of road from the petrol station back down the bypass to Axbridge – I can get some proper speed up there on a good day.  And today was a good day 🙂

Cycling time: 2:27:33
Distance: 37.76 miles
Avs: 15.3 mph
ODO: 896 miles

Average was 15.7 at the break, but cycling with traffic slowed us down considerably…  Still, pretty good really, and definitely enjoyable.  I’m glad it wasn’t just me 🙂