The ride was not the usual Sunday Corallin ride, we joined the Abingdon and Vale Triathlon Club for the Simon Chesher memorial ride in aid of the Thames Valley Air Ambulance. The ride started from the Loose Cannon Brewery in Abingdon through the vale and up White Horse hill and back via Dalton Barracks to the airfield to meet some of Simon’s family before heading back to the Brewery for beer and food. Fittingly, Pam won the Queen of Mountain trophy for quickest time the “Dragon Hill Steep bit” segment. Simon was Pam’s triathlon training partner. We were also fortunate in that the expected heavy rain did not come until after 2pm, so everyone stayed dry.

Good ride on a very pleasant autumnal morning. No mechanicals, no punctures and no close passes!

We set off in the sunshine adding riders along the way. As we approached the tail it started to get wet - what did we expect? After all, it’s a shark.
We sat out the passing showers in our coffee stop before completing our Strava Art.

Standing in the rain at 9.55 I was wondering if I could honourably retreat if no-one appeared. Luckily Louis arrived to keep me honest. The first 20 minutes were very wet indeed but the rain gradually eased and the roads were dry by the time we got back to Wantage. Coffee and cinnamon buns were taken at Blakes, as tradition demands. We were both too cold and wet to bother with the pub. A good ride, in retrospect.

Last ride of the summer with a good turn-out of eight - good to see Dave and Andy back. Nice hassle-free ride out to Cogges, which was very quiet, and warm enough to sit outside though darker skies in the distance suggested that rain was on its way. One moderate, but short-lived, shower before Aston led us to don waterproofs for about 5 minutes but the rain quickly evaporated from the road surface and a steady pace was maintained back to Wantage, where three of us enjoyed a drink in the KAH beer garden. Thanks everyone!

After we got over a few of the ridgeway hills we ventured through some great Berkshire lanes with lovely forested areas and the Pang valley. We luckily missed all of the isolated showers and ended up at the Pantry in Yattendon in beautiful sunshine. Sat in the garden in a quintessentially English village setting with unanimously positive feedback on the food and coffee! Heading back home through some more lanes before getting back on more familiar territory over the ridgeway, including an unplanned stop to fix Richard's puncture.

A gentle ride through the vale in perfect cycling conditions.
We rode together, occasionally splitting into two groups to minimise disruption to motorised road users, who were generally considerate.
After a pleasant break at Savages garden centre in Blewbury various riders split off.
The remnants of the peleton made it to Alfie’s to extend the relaxing theme of the day.

As planned, a relaxed clockwise circuit taking in off-road paths where possible. The path from Sutton Courtenay to Didcot power station was a nice surprise for many of us (including me). After a couple of mistakes we arrived at the railway path through to Upton which enjoys such lovely views over towards the Ridgeway. Arriving at peak time at DISH on the Harwell Campus meant that we had a bit of a wait for food but with the sun emerging it was all very pleasant. Two headed off on a different route back from Harwell to avoid the rougher stuff of the NCN and a couple more later on, so four arrived back at the king. Thank you to everyone for such a stress-free, friendly ride.

We met in Lechlade, rode to Cotswold Airport, ate some stuff, then rode back to Lechlade.