A little while ago The Railway Inn in Yatton got in touch with me, and invited the ACG to pop over some time.  Well, any excuse for a pub lunch works for me, so today was an ACG jolly.  Everyone was up for it, and committed to coming along, so that the pub knew roughly how many people to expect.  It all got a tad complicated but…essentially there were three groups.  One for the hill inclined, one for the Strawberry Line, and one for anyone else to get there anyhow else.  For some reason I’d convinced myself that hills were a good idea, which made me one of 5 who set off from the Square at 9:30am.

The route had nothing to do with me, which is probably just as well.  If I’d be warned I’d be going up the Gorge for the second time in a week, I might well have had second thoughts!  Yatton is only 10 miles away, but we went a properly circuitous and lumpy route that included the Gorge, Charterhouse, Blagdon, Butcombe/Redhill and Wrington Hill.  The latter was a killer so it was a case of mp3 player in, head down, and plod…for quite some considerable time!  I think my legs may feel it in the morning.  I could definitely feel that the odd glass of wine I may have had last night probably wasn’t such a good idea *grin*.

Having done the hilly bit, we did a nice flat loop round from Cleeve to Yatton, and had an awesome sprint down Kenn Moor Road into Yatton – doing some serious speed.  OK, so I started it, but if I’d remembered quite how long that road was I might not have done.  It was fun though 🙂

We were joined at the pub around midday by those from all the other routes, as well as family and friends which made around 25 people in total – a fantastic turnout.  Some of them were even mad enough to cycle home too, but I wimped out (bike racks are great!) and enjoyed a well earned pint (ok two) with a very generous and reasonably priced Roast Pork lunch.  At £5 a head for lunch, and £2 for apple pie and ice-cream, all enjoyed sitting outside, in the sun, in September…well, you can’t go far wrong with that 🙂

Cycling time: 2:02:53
Distance: 27.83 miles
Avs: 13.5 mph
ODO: 1924 miles

It was a lovely ride, and a really sociable occasion.  Definitely worth doing something similar again in the future I reckon 🙂

If you’re interested, and this works, according to GB, this was our route.  If you did the whole thing and didn’t bail at Yatton of course *grin*.

PS:  S joined us for lunch and, the Man from Delmonte, he say yes!  Yes – he agreed to do the 2011 Etape with me.  He did attempt to add caveats afterwards but…really, too late…*grin*  Mind you he has deprived me of several happy months of nagging and cajoling…  Come to think of it, maybe that was why he caved.   😀