En route to our weekend base in Lymington, Heyddie, Jan and The Prez popped into El Caso Quintana in Amersham to meet our training guide Niallo for an afternoon exploration of leafy Buckinghamshire and Herts.
Bidding farewell to MariAnna Vos and aspiring MTB rider Finncenzo Nibali, we enjoyed a 55km ride with 632m of ascent in fine weather, some steep descents to test The Prez’s nerves once again, but a fine warm-up ride expertly led by Niallo. Beautiful villages and some great looking pubs mean that we’ll be riding this way again.
An evening of excessive rehydration followed, accommodated in the circular pods of The Lion of Beaconsfield in Knotty Green, ensuring that the senior GRAC team were in quiet recovery mode as we sped south to Lymington on our second day together. A ‘hair of the dog’ lunch at the Angel and Blue Pig, a short walk followed by a long nap, and then some excellent carbo-loading at Rivaaz ensured that we’d all be needing some fresh air the following day.
So, the main event has arrived. An early ferry to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, readying us for our circumnavigation of the island. A chilly day this, with cross-winds expected for much of the ride, but thankfully no rain forecast despite thunderous cloud building on the mainland. Very busy roads eastbound needed our full attention, as did the various coastal towns on the north coast, and the lack of coastal views on this section was disappointing.
But, as we turned into the wind south from Ryde, we hit the coast and the views improved considerably. A lunch of fresh prawn and crab sandwiches took forever in the ‘Best Dressed Crab’ café in Bembridge (waitress: “we’re not McDonalds”…yeh, thanks for that, but a 40 minute wait for simple sandwiches was somewhat trying). Roads were still busy but lightened as we passed through Shanklin and encountered some decent climbs as we headed west through and beyond Ventnor.
And now the riding really improved. Long stretches of quiet, well-surfaced roads took us swiftly westwards, parallel to a fine clifftop coastal path, and we were able to form a proper peloton with nice views to the sea in brightening weather. A final climb up from Freshwater Bay led us northwards again, and suddenly we were back at the port. 95km in all, ride time 4h 17m, with 1385m of ascent.
Of course, the final evening with the WAGs had to be done properly and a good dinner, disco fizz and some fine wines at the Kings Head Inn nicely concluded the weekend. Thanks to Heyddie and Mrs Merckx for organising, and commiserations to Alberto and Mrs Johntador who had to retire from the weekend proceedings before they really got started.
