The Magnificent Eight

Spring is on its way, and with such a beautiful day like today who would not have wanted to go for a joyful club ride. Woodhatch was packed with cyclists, I lost count and with so many rides on offer, there was plenty of choice for everybody. Some decided to join me for a stroll to Edenbridge.

Our group was mixed and included people from different fine disciplines, that of road racing to mountain biking and even serious running! Lynne decided to do some riding on road for a change (but tomorrow she will be back off road right?!!) Chris Batch joined us in preparation for his Cat 3 road race tomorrow (good luck Chris). Agnes was taking it easy today considering her 18 mile run tomorrow (three more weeks until her marathon!). Triathlete and Iron lady Jo D was riding well throughout it, and the boys, Rick, Roy, Mike and Frank all seemed keen for brisk cadence. What group was it again?

As usual something has to go wrong, and this time it was my bike computer that decided to go flat just as we were leaving. This meant I had no idea  what speed we were going...all i remember is that at 10.04am we were approaching Edenbridge and I said to myself 'gosh..this is early!' too early for a cup of tea, I'm still digesting my porridge!'. Thanks to Mike Conway who knows everything, we did a loop and turned back to have tea at the charming spot aka 'Occasionally Yours'. There Chris Batch decided to carry on and go straight home. For the rest of us, we enjoyed our tea break and conversations ranged from recipes for cycling food to triathlon camps. we could not resist to pose when a gentleman offered to take a photo of us!

From then, time really went flying. It took us 35 minutes to get back to the base, there I found out our average speed was 14.8 for a 33 mile ride: not bad for a G1 eh?! But thank you all for tagging along with me and enjoying today's quick stroll to Edenbridge. 

Thanks a million to Frank for backmarking and Mike for making sure I was going on the right way! Wish you all a good week. 

Mari :-)