At last some decent late spring weather. A bit chilly to start with but we had fine warm weather for the majority of this ride.

Lumpy adequately describes this route but the views and chocolate box villages make up for it. There are too many highlights to list but Epwell, Edgehill, Burton Dassett and Warmington are a few.

A bit of a niggly headwind back from the excellent lunchstop at the Herb Centre but John had left the Iron (Maiden) on so was keen on a prompt finish!!

We had a record turnout for this Audax UK event: 95 registrations; 16 non-starters, making 79 riders on the day; all but five finished the ride safely. Riders from far and wide gathered in Uffington and Corallian marketing material was distributed to all interested parties!

The weather was kind to us again: only the last four riders home were caught in the afternoon rain. There were no serious incidents on the road, although Adrian assisted one rider who came a cropper on Spring Hill and John rescued a damsel in distress whose freewheel had jammed while he was driving back from taking photographs of the ride.

Over £470 will be donated to our recognized charities – Flexicare and Thames Valley Air Ambulance – from the surplus money made.

Next year’s even will be on Sunday May 13th. Mark you diaries! And let’s have more Corallian jerseys on display next year.

Many thanks to the excellent team of helpers at HQ and the Marlborough control, including Corallian members Des Higgs, John Talbot and Chis Walters.

An exceptionally pleasant evening was in store for the riders with fantastic weather and great route planned ahead. A big welcome to Mike Fitton on his first Corallian ride.

The excellent weather helped the ride along and it was great to see so many other like-minded people on their bikes riding solo or in various groups. The ladies Time Trialing group was particularly noticeable with orders being shouted up and down their chain gang as we rode through Charney.

The light wind pushed us up my least favorite road in the Vale from Charney to Gainfield making it just as enjoyable as riding down it the other direction. The ride continued through the Thames Valley and Vale without any incidents and it was a very enjoyable ride.

We also had a guest tonight, young Matthew Talbot.