It really does bode well for our club when we can turn out a quarter of our members for an away ride when the weather forecast is poor!

Eleven of us left Hungerford right on the bells of the Town Hall at 9 o'clock. We made good time up the Ax Valley, with a few spots of rain that went away as quickly as they came. Jenny was rather relieved that we skirted Stitchcombe Hill and took the back route into Marlborough. Here we decided to stop and have a coffee to avoid arriving at lunch too early. Lyn took a tumble and I did my best to straighten his front wheel at the Food Gallery - clearly it worked as he managed the rest of the ride!

Coffee inside, we cracked on and enjoyed the plummet down to Alton Barnes, and then weaved our way to Caen Hill where we stopped to view the flight of locks, and also killed ten minutes...

Arriving at the Raven in Poulshot a little early, we were nonetheless ushered in and fed and watered in a very convivial manner, including a history lesson about Devizes Jail from the lovely lady who served our lovely food (a 1937 picture sparked the enquiry, and no, she was neither old enough to remember the picture, nor had a spell at Her Majesty's Pleasure )

After lunch it was a different ride, headwind and some rain. Head down, good disciplined riding, and we covered the ground to Pewsey very nicely. Team decision to push on, so we did that, right to the point where Jordan and Barry both punctured. We split the group - 5 carried on, and 6 repaired rubber. A slight diversion to the original route to save the poor lanes of North Standen, both groups arrived in Hungerford within 10 minutes, despite the faff of changing tubes in the pouring rain.

Very enjoyable ride, despite (or in spite of) the weather - a very supportive group!