Forecast for light showers
What could possibly go wrong? Mark
Al Lewis did not get far from home when he rode through a pothole (don’t see many of those around these days) on his way to MSC. Should have been okay on tubeless, but no, he abandoned - lucky boy.
Adi arrived just on time but had a slow puncture & no bidon! Selflessly he told the group to go on.
Splitting into ‘equal’ groups with the usual Cheetah maths 11 went into a 6 & 5.
The second group consisted of Phil G, Jan, Ben, Colin & Mark
Light rain welcomed us along the Henley road with the usual patient drivers cutting us up. Climbing up passed Friar Park towards Badgemoor Park the skies darkened to produce more precipitation.
By now Jan was ruing his decision to join us, he had left High Wycombe bone dry only to be greeted by drizzle at Handy Cross
We pushed on apace with the route taking us towards Stoke Row then down to Sonning Common, road conditions were now resembling a babbling brook with feet and legs getting squelchy.
A quick referendum at Sonning bridge had us opting for a short cut, however with Ben wanting to make the best of his fortnightly ride, he had no route and maybe no idea where he was. So the road captain took pity on him and agreed to guide him to familiar territory (something the rest of would maybe regret later).
Ben was toughing it out in shorts & light jersey but Colin who was now soaked to the skin decided at this point to don his rain jacket!
On the outskirts of Twyford we waved goodbye to Ben, by now the showers were turning into a deluge stinging our eyes as we reached 56kph heading towards Hurley.
We passed Lars and Ed attending a tubeless fail, asking if they were oaky, a reply came back positive. This was probably before Lars had discovered that his tyre could not be plugged and his spare tube was welded together so could he could not inflate the top of the tyre (how novel) Ed could not supply a tube with a long enough valve but offered to ride back to Marlow and rescue him. By that time Lars had managed to run/walk back to Bisham.
Adi managed a slow (for him) solo, but also took on another flat 4k from limping home frozen and sodden.
Not surprising then that only three managed to attend MSC for coffee and bacon rolls.
Character building or stupid?