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Sorry folks, I have lots of pictures from the 3 Amigos latest ride but no time to post it up yet, but I promise it will be done tomorrow.

The Conquering of Satan

With my cricket match having been cancelled and the rain clouds still lingering menacingly over the satanic North Downs, I pedalled off with the objective of reaching Sutton Valence castle which is perched on the hillside overlooking the Weald of Kent.

The castle is only seven miles away but I stretched it out to 20 miles just so I could take in my favourite hill climb. With drizzle in the afternoon air and the clouds darkening I headed straight for the Downs. For the first time, I completed the ascent with out stopping for my usual breather about 300 yards from the top. I wasn't even in my granny gear as I reached the summit. I was not aware of having taken any performance enhancing substances beforehand but whatever I may have had, did the trick. Satan had been conquered and now I just need to keep doing this to prove it wasn't a fluke.

Three miles after having reached the top, I headed back down. Through the villages of Hollingbourne (quite nice) and Harrietsham (a little less nice) and over the A20 (our route to the coast), the M20 (hopefully not our route!) and the channel rail link (our route home). All of these lay within about 100 metres of each other.

At this point there had not been anything worth taking a photo of so I took one of the M20 looking east just for something to post on the blog!

No sooner had I done this then I came across two beautiful oast houses, real symbols of Kent.

A few miles further on I passed this beautiful orchard perched on the hill near Sutton Valence. I assume this is apple blossom but for all I know they could have been spaghetti trees!

All that remins of the medieval castle in Sutton Valence is the ruined keep. Common sense told me that they build castles on the top of hills so why on earth did they build this one half way down the hill? This was a nasty surprise having just freshly conquered the satanic North Downs and riden 20 miles in total. Nonetheless, this was my objective and so I stuck my nose over the brow of the hill (about 400 ft high but steep) and headed down until I bumped into the castle. A quick sip of water and a photograph and I headed back up.

Back up past the aptly named Ridge golf course and East Sutton Park prison (the one that held the murderer Jane Andrews until she absconded late last year) and home via Leeds Castle.

Sutton Valence (the school, not the prison!) was where my dad was schooled and I did wonder whether the he may have frequented any of the pubs in the attractive centre of the village in his time!

The total trip was 27 miles (or 26.99 to be precise) at a shade over 11 mph. I am not going to be in the leading pack but was pleased to maintain this average speed over relatively mountainous (I mean "hilly") ground.

Name that pub, 3 Amigos ride again

This weeks ride by the 3 Amigos was planned by Sally and started at her house.
We headed off towards Lambourn and up an unbelievably steep hill, sorry David I don't know how high or how steep, all I can say is that it was as bad as the worst hill on day 1 of Pedal to Paris. Up to this point in all the training we have done I have only stopped once on a hill and I wasn't going to be defeated by this one. wrong!!! I made it about 1/3rd of the way up before ultra granny gear wasn't good enough, Sally gave up slightly before me and Tim carried on until about 2/3rds of the way up.
Then I thought, damn it I am getting back on, I did this but promptly ended up going back down the hill by mistake making funny noises which had Sally in fits and meant I had to climb some of the hill over again.
We foolishly asked for directions from this Lady in the centre of Lambourne who insisted on walking us through a secret short cut behind St Michael and all Angels Church, along the way she gave Sally her life story and a great big hug and a kiss as we departed.













Behind the church is this chantry chapel. After a little research I have discovered that on March 9th, 1501, King Henry VII granted a licence to John of Estbury to found a perpetual chantry and an almshouse for ten poor men and this is it.



We also passed a Royal British Legion Hall as we went up the hill out of Lambourn, so we thought we should take a photo of that too.









On now through a long valley towards Ashbury, there was a strong wind against us all the way and we were gradually climbing, and I must say as beautiful as it was this was pure agony for about 5 miles, but we had a brief stop to look at Ashdown House seen here in the distance across the field.












Eventually we arrived at this spectacular view, I believe overlooking Shrivenham, you can see some wind turbines in the distance too, I rather like them but some people hate them.
We then took a steep decent to the Rose and Crown Pub in Ashbury High Street, it was Tim's turn to pay so we were on short rations. (Only joking, we like to wind him up)


As we left the pub I commented to Sally that a pint of Cider certainly seems to make the cycling easier, and she said that it was more likely that we were now going down hill.

About another 10 miles through Shrivenham, Longcot, Shellingford and back to Sallys for tea and macaroons, Tim had to miss the tea as his poor dog needed to re-visit the vet after an operation, poor girl.
I must say that 24 hours later I can still feel this one in my legs, it was just short of 30 miles but it feels like more.

Oh yes and we passed a farm with lots of Tee Pee's in a field, I think this was around Shellingford, but can't be positive about that.

Triathlon!

30 lengths in the swimming pool, a run to the car and then 22 miles on the bike (with a spot of work in between) makes me a triathlete doesn't it? OK the car was only 10 yards outside the office front door but I did run it!

Set off at 1800 with a mate of mine, Chris, who is training for the London to Brighton. As we were traversing the Downs along the Pilgrims' Way on a warm and pleasant evening, it was through gritted teeth that we realised we really should really hang a left up the steep lane to the top of the Downs. The easy decision would have been to carry on and give the steep ascent a miss but being the dedicated chaps we are - we went for it.

Next time we do this we have both agreed to take our wallets with us. It was just too painful passing this pub which pulls one of the finest pints of Master Brew without having any money on us. I had to make do with a sip of water out of my Marmite water bottle instead. It really wasn't the same.

We made it back just before sunset but not before we had passed through a bit of woodland with the bluebells out in full splendour. Couldn't resist taking a few photographs.

It was an enjoyable ride, very breezy and quite happy with an average speed of 11 mph which includes the steep climb at the beginning. May try and squeeze in another ride over the Bank Holiday - especially as cricket has now been cancelled.

2 of the 3 Amigos

Today just 2 of the 3 Amigos went for a cycle around the Henley area.
Sally and I met at Lower Assendon and took a steady climb up to Russells Water, where we stumbled across a little house with a beautiful stained glass window of a humming bird, we knocked on the door to ask if we could take a picture, hoping she would invite us in but she didn't so we had to take the picture from outside, I'm not sure it looks so impressive in the photo.




A little way on we stopped at the village pond to take a picture of a herd of male ducks with just two females for company, poor girls were being quite heavily fought over.

We then made our way up to Christmas common where we tried to call in to see Sally's Sister in law but unfortunately she wasn't at home, so we carried on past a very impressive free range egg farm with these lovely moveable hen houses.







Then on towards Turville Valley, down a very steep very long hill, this is quite worrying as we hadn't gone up hill anywhere near as far as we were going down, so that can only mean one thing, we have to go up again before we get home.
Turville valley is where the "Vicar of Dibley" is filmed, so here is a picture of the Vicars House.





We stopped for lunch at the very excellent' Bull and Butcher" also featured sometimes in the programme. As we started to eat our best lunch so far during training, it started to rain, but we were under an umbrella and didn't mind. The rain became much heavier as we left the pub to head back, but it is spring and the ride was beautiful so we didn't mind.



Another climb up to Fawley where we stopped at this lovely church whose name I failed to find out, it was quite interesting though as there were 2 huge Mausoleums in its grounds, I have also failed to get the information about these but perhaps if you have good eyes you can read the plaque on the last photo.













Then back, down hill almost all the way to Lower Assendon, and when we got back we both said we could happily continue for much longer, Im not sure if that's because we dawdled, if we are getting fitter or if the ride was just an easy one, but we enjoyed it and thats the main thing at this stage.

My Mate Marmite

Just a relatively sedate 19 miles today. Did the usual 'orrible climb to the top of The Downs which is OK inasmuch as this pain is over and done with in the first five miles so the rest of the trip is relatively painless.

Took a piccie of My Mate Marmite at the top of The Downs before heading past the pub pictured. This pub always requires an immense amount of will power to pass, especially as it appears within 5 minutes of reaching the top of The Downs. It was worthy of a photo this time given the horses tethered in the horsey style parking bays (sorry - don't know the technical term for this!)

Judging by the objective of the Three Amigos to actually stop at a pub en route, I guess next time I pass the Hook and Hatchet, I should not feel too guilty stopping for a sharpener.

It was then back down The Downs for a ride up passed Leeds Castle once again and a leisurely ride taking in the country air.

With a Bank Holiday approaching, may have to plan a longer ride - and a pub lunch a la Three Amigos!

The 3 Amigos ride again

For Tuesdays ride the 3 Amigos met at Tim Roche's house where we were served a nice cup of coffee once Tim had worked out how to operate the Cafetiere. Tim was team leader today and the plan was for 26 miles around Oxfordshire. To Sally's and my surprise we Cycled past no less than 7 really nice looking pubs without a peep from Tim, we were beginning to think he may be unwell, but he told us that he had a pub in mind for lunch.
Then a very exciting thing happened, we saw the first plane in the skies for almost 6 days.







After stopping to take a picture we continued and I got a bit left behind as we started up what we had been promised was the only hill on the route "Boars Hill" this turned out to be a lie, but it was the steepest climb of the day but fairly short.







At the top of Boars Hill we stopped for a breather and a photo oportunity with Oxford in the distance, before continuing on over some pleasantly undulating countryside.
( I have little idea where we were as this is not my neck of the woods and Sally and Tim were reluctant to write this blog)









We then got a little lost on the way to Abbingdon where Tim had promised us a great pub for lunch, but he had left his route plan at home and we ended up here, I think it was a football pub as sky sports was on two giant screens and they were busy putting up a large St George cross flag and some bunting, however they served an acceptable lunch and a decent pint.












After lunch I had to whimper a bit to get everyone to agree that we also needed a mars bar for extra energy to get home, I was right though as the wind was against us all the way back, and another challenge for Tim when we got there, how to make peppermint tea.
We ended up doing about 28 miles due to the slight unplanned change of route.
Could someone also tell Tim these are saddle covers not hats!!!