The ACG turned out in force yesterday morning.  We had five who either rarely come out, or were “newbies”, swelling our numbers to a new record.  13!   We ended up with not two but three groups – a fast, a medium, and a slow group.

Since no-one else had come up with a route, I’m afraid the fast group got to do my usual training loop – since I don’t have to think about that.  Which is just as well since I had to concentrate on keeping up.  I think I’ve created a monster!  The fast group may be speeding away from me…  To be fair, there was a certain degree of testosterone induced competition going on – you know who you are – plus MN who was new to us turned out to be pretty fast so I think we were trying to prove we were too!

Each group made their own varying way to Sweets Peat museum café where, somewhat unusually, we all arrived at pretty much the same time, and took over the place, much to the annoyance of some more normally dressed people who ended up having to sit outside.  Our group had averaged 16.2mph to get there, which just goes to show how daft we were being.

After a nice sociable break we split up and headed for home again.  We slowed down a little, mostly a tractor induced restraint as we took the Nyland loop, which we did ostensibly to add miles but more likely to prevent the usual foolish racing down the Wedmore road.  Just as well – ain’t no way I’d have won that one!  GB was saving himself for additional hills though oddly failed to turn right up the Gorge as planned, and was last seen heading up Shipham Hill as we cruised down the main road and back into town.

Cycling time: 2:06:30
Distance: 33.34 miles
Avs: 15.8 mph
ODO: 3198 miles

It was a good ride – and it’s amazing how much difference a couple of degrees increase in the temperature makes.  I didn’t regret any of my layers, but I did maintain contact with my feet for the entire ride!  It makes pedalling far more enjoyable, not to mention less painful.  By the time we left Wedmore we were even joined by an odd yellow disc in the sky.  I’m not sure what it was, but I quite liked it 😉

I’m really pleased so many people turn out and enjoy cycling with the group – because that’s how I wanted it to work out.  There are around 30 people on the mailing list now – and you can email me here if you want to join us – which means there’s now a great mix of people and abilities.  I love it when a plan comes together *grin*.

PS: there was once a nasty hole just as you indicate left to turn into Axbridge.  It was reported to Highways who considered it not of sufficient severity to fix – since they’d clearly never tried to cycle over it one handed (indictating remember?).  I used the CTC fillthathole website to report it and, lo and behold, it has now been fixed.  So if there’s a pothole bugging you – I recommend you do the same! 🙂