'B' Group - Weds 17 April

It was a glorious day for a bike ride (for the first time in ages), so it was no wonder that 30 of us, no less, set off from Walton.   We threaded our way through Shepperton and Laleham to Staines, then on to Wraysbury, next crossing the M4 by a fiendish, obstacle-course style footbridge to take us through Langley.   After that it started to get a bit hilly through Wexham and Stoke Poges but the scenery got better and it was shadier too!    We just reached  The White Horse at Hedgerley by 1.15 pm and they took our orders very efficiently, but thirty is a large number to serve and, while most got their meals quite quickly, just a few of us waited quite a long time for their food.  Nevertheless, it was still difficult to prise some people out of their torpor in the garden some time after 2.30 to tackle the nasty climb out of the village.   I'd hoped to pause at Pinewood for a group photo but our first plague, the plague of the punctures, was visited on us yet again (we'd already had two visitations on the way to lunch), and we pressed straight on via Langley (a different part!),  Colnbrook, and Stanwellmoor to Ashford.   A late train gets later, as the man said, and here we were struck by our second plague, the plague of heavy traffic, consequently not reaching the planned tea stop until after 4.30.    Many chose to ride straight home without stopping, including me - I had an urgent appointment at the allotment with my young tomato plants but, most fortunately, no plague had struck there (yet)!

It's always nice to ride with the 'B's' - they're such easy-going, pleasant company, and today we were joined by some new and newer faces, and some returners.   Before you can ask someone to mark a corner or temporarily take on the back-marking, they've already done it!   Special thanks though to Tim C, Gill, Steph, the two Tony H's, John A, Peter T and Christina, although those only the ones whose names I can easily remember.   Thanks to everyone else for for an enjoyable, if late-running ride!