Rather a grey day, but we made the most of it. A big Corallian welcome to new riders Jenny and Terry - you were great company!

The morning was quite a lumpy affair with decent hills at Eastbury, Ramsbury and Aldbourne to play with. No dramas though. Lunch was a brief affair at the Three Trees, who were all set out for full Christmas lunches, so we snacked and cracked on.

After lunch it was a different ride into the Vale, checking out railway bridge benchmarks (!) before the surprisingly tough warm-up climbs at Compton Beauchamp and Kingston Lisle, followed by the stinger of Blowingstone, which I swear gets steeper.

Later on the sun was trying to poke its' head out of the clouds, and nearly succeeded once or twice... a very nice ride out, thank you very much!