Essential Reading Results

Lots of variety, both in terms of times and routes. Neville was the first to get started, on Friday, though he did miss a turn or two, but reprised some old quiz photos.

Neville

Ron

Cycled to Mackney Island today! (Saturday). What is locally known as Mackney Island is on fact a small village south of Brightwell cum Sotwell surrounded by streams, making it technically an island!

Monday I cycled from Blewbury to N Stoke then up to Well Place, then home. Beautiful sunny ride 24 miles.

Phil
I did the route on Saturday and was surprised it included a road I have never been down before.

Simon

Thanks Steve for the joy of two rides this week. How spoilt we were.

My data as follows:

Boxford Alps (Sat)          Essential Reading (Sun)

Dist:      36.86mi                             25.6mi

Time:    3.12                                   2.02      

AvSp     11.5mph                           12.5mph

Elev G   2766ft                                1,324ft.

The Bagnor Valley and the Alps was absolutely delightful and well worth the ‘hilly’ bits. Essential Reading was also great but I took issue with the ‘Easy’ epithet when coming down Berins Hill my brakes completely failed! Thankfully my cycle shoes provided just enough drag to stop at the bottom and the ride was long enough after that to regain some composure. I ordered new disc pads immediately followed by a very strong drink.

Chris

Sunday I drove to Streatley to ride the Boxford route, on a rather cool and cloudy day. Did it anticlockwise, which meant straight up the hill! And I’d forgotten Frilsham’s also uphill.
Pleasantly scenic route anyhow.

Andrew

Thanks for the route, lovely ride with Tom today (Monday) which we completed this time (with a couple of minor diversions to reduce main roads mileage). BT Openreach had closed the road near the old Cross Lanes orchard but no problem for cyclists.

Regarding the quiz this week, some great entries but none with full marks yet. By the way with one exception, each clue is a specific landmark, so I think answering Goring for the “GOR” clue would get 0.25 of a mark. New (and updated) entries up to Thursday Zoom call…

Alun

Alternative Monday exercise. Plan to cycle tomorrow.

Breeda and l did the ride this morning. Very pleasant but busy leaving Reading on B481. Gravel Hill is a great way to avoid riding through the worst parts of Caversham and potentially part of a new route to Henley.

Derek

Bluebell walk

Steve

Like Andrew and Tom I came across the road closure at Cross Lanes, but snuck past without any problem. Gravel Hill no longer lives up to the first part of its name, with a nice smooth tarmac surface. The hill was just as bad as ever though.

Just after Ipsden church I heard what sounded like a small bang, followed by quiet tinkling. When I investigated by getting off and spinning the wheels, I found one of the rear spokes had broken – drive side, of course. No problem riding home the rest of the way once I’d removed the tinkly bit, then it was Tuesday afternoon’s job to fit a spare. Thanks Chris for the spare.

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