The day was cold with a biting wind from the northeast but luckily the route started out with the climb up Hackpen Hill which soon warmed us up. After that a sheltered run down the Lambourn valley took us to Newbury where we paused at Kiki's cafe and unanimously agreed that nobody fancied a full on fry-up. So we decided to go on to the Control Tower Cafe at Greenham for more genteel refreshments. At this point the sun put in an appearance, which was nice. We crossed Thatcham on a decent traffic avoiding cycle path and, with a bit of effort, climbed back over the downs to Wantage for beers by the fire in the Fred's Head. A much more enjoyable ride that the weather forecast had led us the believe would be the case.