Lovely to see Tom out with us again - welcome back!
The forecast was sketchy, but it stayed dry for the whole ride, and was a delightful evening to be riding. The group stayed tight and sociable, and we quickly got to and up Boars Hill.
The dragon field had an emu and an alpaca in it tonight - a great blend of fauna.
A rare evening where the pub didn't get any custom, despite John trying to persuade everyone...

Well, despite the forecast we managed to avoid any heavy showers. For the first 60km we had the wind behind - John was pleased with the average pace of 25km/hour! Stopped for coffee at the Bamptom Garden centre, refurbishment work has finished, service still a little chaotic. The ride back to Uffington was a little more challenging with a strong head wind. Lovely ride all around.

Five riders, all of us resplendent in club kit, must have made a magnificent sight as we rode out from a market square busy with preparations for the Wantage Carnival. We continued to turn heads among the several charity rides and fun runs we encountered along the way as we rode this pleasant circuit. The only disappointment was a warning of a 45 minute wait for hot food at the cafe causing us to switch tack and order only cakes or sausage rolls. Don't seem to be having much luck with cafes at the moment.

About 1745 the sky started to darken and by 1810 it was raining steadily so it was a bit of a surprise five riders waiting at the market place. Two more were unloading their bikes so eight set off confident in the knowledge that it would quickly blow over. Not that quick as it turned out! I think it had stopped by the time we got to Hanney. From there on the weather improved and we gradually warmed up to reach Kingston Bagpuize. The leader bottled the A420 crossing and instead headed West then South along the "closed" Charney Road which proved to be open to bikes and pleasantly quiet. By this stage we had found a common speed and formed a cohesive peloton until Fawler Hill. The descent from Kingston Lisle was as delightful as ever and we were soon back in Wantage where a few of us put the worlds to right in the KAH.

Good to see Tom back after a long absence. Well done everyone for braving the wet start!

With a good tail wind, a tactical 9.30 departure from Wantage saw us reaching Charlbury just in time for lunch at twelve. The Old Shed was busy but service was fast and the cake portions reassuringly huge Plently of downhill after lunch kept us reasonably fresh for the final push into Wantage with a fresh head wind and a few showers gathering. Thanks to Peter for setting up a great route but who unfortunately couldn't make it on the day.

3 of us put the increasingly turbulent world to rights. And had a beer.

With the weather not quite up to BBQ standards, there was a good turn-out today. Westerly headwinds didn't hamper progress too much, but we did stop to check out the wind chimes at Watchfield early on.

Roads were quiet as we wended our way through the Southern Cotswolds, past the WIldlife Park at Burford (where it rained a little), and down into Bampton for lunch at the Coffee Shop - despite the cafe appearing to be disorganised, the food came out quickly and was delicious. Louis is rather enamored by the chocolate cake...

Lovely tailwinds helped the post-prandial stretch, and then made life somewhat tougher as we got back towards Uffington. Always good to support the shop there with an ice-cream stop to end the ride!

The first part of the ride was a breeze. Literally a following breeze, which was very welcome. Clearly it wouldn't help us for the whole ride...

Paul got a bee in his bonnet at South Moreton, or more accurately a wasp in his helmet, which tried to sting its way out. Anyway, it ended up as Paul 1, Wasp 0 and a few lumps.

After Hagbourne Hill, we had a very nice stop at Chilton Garden centre for coffee and banter. Great selection of cakes, and the consensus was tat the coffee was lovely.

A detour from the A417 at Hendred through Ginge and Ardington and back along the NCN path proved to be much more sociable than the busy A417 - a nice end to the ride.

A pleasant warm evening and a good group saw us make rather speedy progress to Abingdon where as usual it was pretty busy, we weren't held up though and soon made it to the lanes to Bayworth and the one climb of the day on smooth tarmac to Boars Hill.

At the top we took a slight detour to the viewpoint to look down on the Dreaming Spires, sadly not lit up by evening sunshine today.

The lovely descent down Foxcombe Hill was enjoyed by all and we had a social ride on the lanes back to Wantage via Garford, West Hanney and Denchworth. We were treated to a lovely sun dog (parhelion) on the way too

All finished off with a in the KAH

Once again great conditions for a ride, sunny spells and it was soon warm enough to take off the arm warmers and windproofs.

The roads were quiet but the surfaces were well pot-holed in the traditional Oxfordshire fashion. But it was a small price to pay for a beautiful ride through a fine collection of stone-built towns and villages, from lighter grey stone in the South to the yellow ochre stone in the North (Ironstone John?).

We forewent the café stop at Farthinghoe on this occasion and consequently arrived at the National Herb Centre at Warmington at 1130 to discover that breakfast orders finished at 1100 and lunch orders started at 1200 (To note for the future!). However they were happy to rustle up breakfast baps which met our immediate refuelling needs. And it was pleasantly warm outside at the back.

The route after lunch followed the Edgehill escarpment then a ridgeline Southwards offering fine views of North Oxfordshire. The roads then became undulating and the legs started to tire , but the predicted showers didn’t materialise and the sealant in Steve’s tubeless tyre effectively sealed the only puncture of the day. We arrived back at the car park bang on 1430.

There was some discussion over county boundaries. I can now reveal that:
Upper Aynho – Chacombe = Northants
Chacombe – just before Warmington = Oxon
Warmington – Edgehill = Warwicks

Thanks to everyone for a very friendly, sociable ride – easy to lead. Well done Louis for once again ECEing* the route by an additional 76 km (* technical Audax term!).