So out to Houghton on a sunny morning. Out to Kentboro via the byways from Red Rice, At Danbury took the rather overgrown bridle patch at 'The Turret' to Chattis Hill Stables and then down to Broughton. From Broughton onto Houghton and then back to Stockbridge. At Stockbridge joined the Test Way to Chilbolton common and then the slog up the Fullerton Hill and then back via the Clatfords to Home. The Bridle ways are now getting rather choked with lush vegatation, which has sprung forth with the spell of sunny weather and plenty of 'Gardeners rain'.
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The Swindon Castles Bike Ride , in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support is now in it's 21st year, the event starts once again from the Croft Sports Centre in Swindon and takes riders on a leisurely, but sometimes challenging route along some of England's oldest roads with breathtaking views around the Wiltshire countryside.
Ensuring I had all the required kit in the car, I made my way to the Speech House Hotel in the Forest of Dean for the 'The Wild Boar Chase' mountain biking event. There was a choice of 20, 26, 40 and 46 mile routes within the Forest of Dean and Wye valley. I selected the 26 mile route option - aptly named the 'Woody Boar'. This event attracts about 1000 rides to this mass start event, so we arrived and checked in, got our race number which had a bar code on it, which could be used at various check points around the routes to track the riders progress. So as the 10:00 start approached the mass of riders made it to the start point after spending time fetling their steads. The Start point was a gate with a sharp left hand turn, I wondered while we waited if the assembled riders would get through the start with out any mishaps. So exactly at 10:00 we were released like a pack of hounds to the sound of a hunting horn. I have never cycled in the Forest of Dean area before and was very impressed with the selection of the routes which took in Forestry Commission fire roads, rather muddy single track and short sections of road. As with all these mass start events the`riders thin out the further from the start you got, in fact by the time we got to split for the 'Woody Boar' I was cycling mostly alone, which was rather pleasant, there had been a couple of pinch points particularly on a couple of the rather muddy descents, when the number of riders caused some concern and a couple of epic head over the bar moments. Organisation was first rate, with friendly marshals along the route to assist you on your way. The route I took included two feed stations which provided water and bananas to keep the riders fueled. On the riders return to the finish line there was a plentiful selection of homemade cakes as a reward. So the bike setup was fine apart from my selection of front tyre - Vee Rubber Mission was great on the fire roads, but as soon as we got onto the greasy singletrack sections, the bike felt like it would break away quite at any moment. Luckily i'd change the back wheel to a Geax Gato mud tyre on the morning of event so at least i didn't have to worry about the back snapping out. I'd adjusted the Jones bars to a shallower angle and i didn't get any wrist issues which had be plaguing me on the last few rides out. The Jones bars as always got some comments as they are still a niche item. So according to Strava - the Woody Boar was 40.3km with 675m of ascent and I covered the route in 2 hours and 53 minutes. According to the race timings i was 60/269 on the Woody Boar route, as this was a reliability ride and not a race that data is a little moot.
Figure of 8 loop centred on the Fullerton crossroad, so out to Stockbridge via Fullerton and the Test way. Back via the Longstock road and Redrice.
Hampshire is blessed during the spring with Bluebells which spring up in the deciduous woodlands. So this morning was a short and rather windy ride which took in a couple of copses, whose underbrush was carpeted in blue.
Not a long ride out, but enjoyable none the less, out to Kentboro via Anna Valley and Monxton, back along the bridleway which runs between Kentboro and Clatford Oakcutts and on to Dipden Bottom and finally back via the Clatfords.
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January 2023
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