Re: Sunday Ride 24 April 2011

[ValleyMan]

To borrow a footballing analogy, today was a ride of 4 halves.

First half.

Mark and Andrew met up as some ridiculous hour and had done 30 miles by the time we met up at Bloomfield at 9.00. Mark took his leave at this point leaving Andrew, Graham, Kim and I to tackle the Tour of Pembrokeshire.

Second half.

However, in the best traditions of Sunday Rides, the planned route was dropped and we decided to sort of make it up as we went along with the general aim of heading to Freshwater West. Graham, the human metronome, set the early pace to Carew where we were accosted by a fellow cyclist from the London Dynamos thinking we were there for the Time Trial. This was definitely not on the agenda for the day so we headed off up onto the Ridgeway via Milton.

Graham at this point decided to head east and then there were three. (poor reference to that appalling 1970’s ‘supergroup’, Gensis, I was into Pink Floyd…). We headed into Pembroke and then climbed up through Monkton and Hundleton to the Angle Road. Andrew helpfully advised us not to stop in Monkton as he said it was ‘a bit rough’. Having safely ‘made it’ to the Angle Road it was hammer down to Freshwater West.

Just as we were about to turn down towards the beach, we spied the Aces in a Layby a few yards up the road. It would have been rude to ignore them and secured an invite to Angle for a cup of tea. Andrew had to be back at a reasonable time and decided to pass on the opportunity, so in the best traditions of Club Solidarity Kim and I let Andrew cycle home all by himself and buggered off with the Aces.

Third half.

Nice gentle roll down to Angle Bay for coffee at the cafe, or not! It would appear that the cafe has been condemned and so was closed. A few photo’s later we ‘rolled’ back up the hill towards Freshwater West where we encountered a couple of loose bullocks in the road. Mike thought it would be good idea if we tried to help the situation by herding the bullocks using the bikes (proving that the Aces really are a bunch of Cowboys), however he was on his own. The plan was to go for a cup of tea in Bosherston.

Swinging down to Freshwater West we came across the Welsh National Surfing Championships. Wall to wall camper vans and neoprene. Grown men prancing about in tight-fitting sports clothing, whatever next.

On the road to Castlemartin we were treated to contrasting views of the 1980’s music scene. Shaun was waxing lyrical about the 8 times he as seen AC/DC (and was sporting an AC/DC cycling jersey) whereas Carlton serenaded us with ‘There is a light that never goes out’ by the Smiths (.. if a 10 ton truck were to kill the two of us..).

Next stop Bosherston for tea. Much micky taking all round whilst basking in the mid-day sun. Some classic one-liners, but you had to be there.

No surprises with Freshwater East, steep and long and hot!

Fourth half.

Kim and I peeled off at Lamphey and headed for home via Milton and Reynalton. We got back at about 2.30 having covered about 64 miles. The 4 weetabix certainly did their job today.

It was a stunning ride in glorious weather. Sorry Andrew and thanks Aces!

Preseli Angel next week (but only the first loop I think!)