Given the weather immediately before the start time, initially I wasn't thrilled to find three other, somewhat more keen, Corallians waiting at the statue. However, the rain stopped at 10am on the dot and it wasn't long before waterproofs were being removed. After a playful duel with the DHL van that lasted from Wantage to Lambourn (multiple overtakes between delivery drops) we got over to the ever popular Bloomfields Cafe in Shrivenham in the dry. Louis, fresh from a hippy forest retreat, was very Zen about lingering over our coffee and cake, although not quite Zen enough to avoid pronouncing the coffee itself to be a bit "meh".

Back on the road, the rain came down proper and we got very wet as we surfed along in front of a decent tail wind. Nobody fancied sitting in wet tights and rain filled boots so no pub today.

As ever - once you get out there doing it, it wasn't so bad after all.