Oxford to Cambridge

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

At the end a nice man in a BHF top congratulated me for completing the
ride and gave me a medal. Then I found my friends and they directed me
to the baked potato stall. Bliss. Eating that made me feel almost
human again and combined with the rest I found the ride back home
considerably easier.

Ah, the restorative powers of a baked potato.🙂

Quoted message said:

Over 95 miles in all (not a record, that's 111) and ready for a nice
warm bath :-)

Well done anyway!

What was the weather like? Simon got in this afternoon soaking
wet and windswept having set out on a reasonably pleasant
morning.

Juliette
--

Juliette said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

At the end a nice man in a BHF top congratulated me for completing the
ride and gave me a medal. Then I found my friends and they directed me
to the baked potato stall. Bliss. Eating that made me feel almost
human again and combined with the rest I found the ride back home
considerably easier.

Ah, the restorative powers of a baked potato.🙂

Quoted message said:

Over 95 miles in all (not a record, that's 111) and ready for a nice
warm bath :-)

Well done anyway!

What was the weather like? Simon got in this afternoon soaking
wet and windswept having set out on a reasonably pleasant
morning.

It was variable. The wind steadily increased throughout the
day (which was generally a good thing since it was mostly in
the right kind of direction). The rain started from about
midday when we were in a tea shop having sarnies and a cup of
tea. I have to claim responsibility from this because I had
just texted my girfriend to tell her it hadn't rained yet!
It varied from then on between light drizzle and light
rain, enough to get quite wet with.

--
Simon

Simon Proven <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

The ride was claimed to be 75 miles but it was more like 85.

My bike computer measured it as 85miles

Quoted message said:

Over 95 miles in all (not a record, that's 111) and ready for a nice
warm bath :-)

Well done !

Here's what I wrote in my blog:
http://www.tritalk.co.uk/forums/view.php?b=12

There had been several forecasts that Sunday was going to be very wet
and windy, this didn't look good for Zoe and I to do the Oxford to
Cambridge bike ride. As we got closer to the day though it looked like
the rain would hold off until the afternoon, so we decided on an early
start.

We had already booked a hotel room so at least we wouldn't have far to
go in the morning. Saturday afternoon we drove up to Oxford had a
wander around and a nice Chinese meal. Sunday moring started a little
overcast, but not too grey and we drove to near Wolfson College and
parked in a side street. Unpacked our hybrids (I wanted mudguards and
panniers for this ride so the road bike stayed at home), there was
quite a mixture of different bikes around, but with more emphasis on
tourers, road bikes and hybrids than mountain bikes and shoppers than
London to Oxford, and most folk looked like they were used to long
rides.

Jeremy Irons was there to start the ride off and he said he had heard
it was a little longer than the 75miles advertised. We set off just
after 8am and after an initial short stretch through town along a
cycle lane we got out into the Oxfordshire countryside.

The sun made several attempts to break through the clouds, but didn't
seem to be putting too much effort into it. We cruised along at a
moderate pace (Zoe's previous longest ride was 70 miles), we wanted to
make sure we could get there. There were a few rolling hills, but no
big climbs and the miles just ticked away. We took a couple of short
breaks, but wanted to keep ahead of the weather so kept pressing on.
This meant that although we were going slower than them we kept being
re-overtaken by the same set of roadies who obviously were taking
longer stops.

Once I flipped the map over at about Woburn I did a quick guestimate
that the ride would be a smidge over 80miles by the time we got to
Cambridge. The roads got a little flatter and the wind picked up a
bit, but it was largely with us giving a small helping hand. We had a
few spots of rain, but they didn't amount to much and fizzled out
before I could work up the effort to get my jacket out...

As we got towards Cambridge the rain became more of a light drizzle,
but I still didn't want to bother with a jacket, we were also seeing
road signs that said things like "Cambridge 12" and we had done
73miles. The ride finished in a school playing field with a Jazz band
playing. The total distance was 85miles, we got there at about 2:50pm.

Well done to Zoe for making the distance

Went to book our seats on the coach - unfortunately the first coach
wasn't until 4.30pm, that meant quite a while standing around a cool,
windy, playing field int the rain. We did find some shelter and a hot
cup of coffee and at least had some extra layers to put on - I finally
put my rain jacket on...

The coach took 2hrs30 to get back to Oxford, then we had to wait
nearly an hour for the truck with the bikes.

Overall a great ride a good day out, just a shame about all the
hanging around afterwards.

Doug

Sounds like a good ride.

Cheers, helen s

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Juliette <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Ah, the restorative powers of a baked potato.🙂

Now *there's* an advertising slogan if ever I heard one ;-)

David E. Belcher