Brian Greenwoood was first away with 7 riders and he had this to say:-
My group of eight ( Sue F, Paula, Gill, Dave F, Geoff G, Pete B =, Keith and myself) headed off into Bushy Park wondering how long it would be until we met the rain. A bit of drizzle in the park resulted in us donning waterproofs before we hit the main road but after an almost dry and increasingly warm ride to Chertsey we stopped again and removed them in spite of a threatening cloud ahead. So far, so good but things became more eventful. I negotiated the pond in Hurst Lane on foot but Geoff decided to ride, misjudged the tree to his right and ended up lying in the pond. Both he and his bike were fine but sadly we don't have a photo.
We waited a while to regroup at the top of Tite Hill after Dave had an issue with his chain and then I set off thinking all was well to realise that I only had half the group becuase Geoff had punctured. Not his day!
So we were overtaken by both the other groups and eventually followed Dave's group closely through Windsor GP and on to Windlesham. After a long morning all were glad to reach the pub.
We then had an uneventful wind assisted ride back to Walton following closely behind Dave's group but seaparated at times in Addlestone as I follwed the gpx and Dave took the more traditional town centre route.
A great route (thanks Steve) and thanks to Pete B for back marking.
Dave Ward was second away with another 7 riders:-
It is always a pleasure to sub-lead on one of Steve's rides as he always likes to do something just that little bit different! Two of the 10.40 group had dropped out due to illness but the surprise last-minute addition of Alan Imeson, making his welcome comeback to 'A' rides after a long absence, more than made up for it! I always tell anyone co-leading on one of my 'bike adventures' that they should feel free to change my route if they like; Steve didn't actually say this to me, but I feel sure he wouldn't have minded me making one or two cheeky changes to his route. Thus it was that we set off from Teddington in the opposite direction from the other 'A's', our progress west punctuated by stops to put on and then take off rain gear! From the very wet roads we soon picked up, we were glad to see we had apparently just dodged some very heavy rain, but the giant puddle of Thorpe Green more than made up for it! An attempt at a back-road dodge round Egham left all the group, not least their leader, a bit confused, but we knew we were back on the right road when we came across the 9.30 group fixing a puncture. We slipped past them, leading to the start of some bitter rivalry which lasted the rest of the ride! They hadn't caught us by lunchtime, so we got our orders in first at The Half Moon (jolly good the food was, too!), and we were able to slip away from the pub just before them, but they were soon hard on our tail and it was necessary to try to out-manoeuvre them at Addlestone.
At first it looked as if the ploy had worked and we had shaken them off, but we were just caught by the level crossing barriers and they were once again right behind us. A little bit of local knowledge just gave us the edge on them at Hamm Moor Lane, and we beat them to the tea stop, although they technically managed to get to the counter first by out-manoeuvring us, so let's call it a draw!
Many thanks to all (Dave and Jennie, Sue C, Alan, Dave E, Nigel and Simon, who kindly and efficiently back-marked all day) for your company, and to Steve not least because of the problems he had in trying to find a lunch venue.
Yes Dave, the lunch venue proved a challenge itself. After dismissing The Dog and Partridge, Sunninghill I tried two other pubs and two cafes in desperation. The Half Moon served us promptly and efficiently with sandwiches like door stops!
However Neil ordered Sausage and Mash and it took 40 minutes to arrive. However the staff were not strict about when we could arrive and had reserved three tables for us, so not too bad.
I led the last group of 5 comprising, Ged, Patrick, Fiona, Clive and Neil C. As usual I tried to set a quick pace to get us to lunch with the first two groups. Near Cherstsey bridge it started to drizzle and jackets were donned. However after a while the rain eased and petered out completely. It became a pleasant ride through Windsor Great Park with the autumn leaves starting to fall, but warm for the time of year at 16 degrees. We passed Dave Ward's group and then negotiated wet roads until we also passed Brian's group. Geoff Gregory unfortunately had experienced a puncture. So we ended up at the pub first.
We spent some time here as Neil's order failed to arrive on time. We were giver quizzical looks by a couple in the pub who asked us about the torrential rain that had fallen and why weren't we drenched? So it appeared we had managed to miss some very bad weather. Finally we set off for the short 13 miles to Walton and The Wild Bunch cafe.
Thanks to my two leaders Brian and Dave Ward for helping with this ride, the last summer ride of 2022. Many thanks too to Neil Crocker for back marking and shielding me from the headwind on the return route, although thinking about it, the wind was behind us on the way back! Yes, and he was the back marker, I think I need to sit down and think this through........
