My Community
General Category => Club Runs => Topic started by: Mark Pope on September 09, 2016, 10:21:48 PM
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The weather looks OK this Sunday, which is great as Tony Mansell has very kindly offered to provide tea and coffee in his back garden. So my proposed route starts in Brackla as usual but finishes in Corntown at Mansell Manor. Tony excepts all major credit cards as well as cash including Sterling and Euros! The route is:
Brackla - Coychurch - Pencoed - the Common - Bryncethin - Brynmenyn - Bettws - Shwt - Maesteg - the Bryn - Cwmafan - Pontrydyfen - Cimla - Briton Ferry - Taibach - Margam - Hafodheulog - Parc Slip - Fountain - Aberkenfig - Bridgend - Ewenny - Corntown.
It's around 53 miles and we should get to Tony's, mechanicals permitting at around 1215pm. The intention this weekend is to ride at a slightly more sedate pace than of late. Will we manage it?? :o See you Sunday.
Mark
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PS! Spot the deliberate spelling mistake in my last post!
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Or was the mistake about riding at a sedate pace? :)
Accepts not excepts
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I will be out but join you at the motorway bridge over the Common
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No good there Tom will have to be by Robert Price in Bryncethin . I may be there but not 100% sure
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Thanks Mal-just re-read the route!! I'll either go to the Triangle or Bryncethin!!Hope to see you out
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Thanks to Mark and everyone else out today for a really enjoyable Amblers ride. It may not have been so 100% enjoyable for everyone else thanks to my one man attempt to bring down the whole group. Very sorry for that I really thought you'd all heard me shout I was stopping! On the other hand we now know what skilled evasion techniques OVW riders have
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An enjoyable if tough and deceptively hilly ride in perfect weather today. We headed out to Pencoed and across the Common to Bryncethin, before climbing up to Bettws and on towards Maesteg to climb over the Bryn to the Afan Valley. We then sampled the cheeky little hills between Pontrydyfen and Cimla before riding hard for home in order to get to Mansell Manor before Harpo's gang to ensure there was some of Tony and Louise's coffee and muffins left. Unfortunately Harpo had sneakily ridden straight to Tony's from Brackla, and after a full Welsh breakfast and a massage , settled down to polish off most of the muffins before we arrived! Luckily Tony and Louise outdid themselves and managed to still feed the famished Amblers. Out today were:
Mal
Tom
Rich
Jonathan
Lee
Craig
Reece
Andy's Dodgy Knees
Mark P
See you next week for another 'gentle' amble around the Vale.
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Thanks mark for organising today's ride, enjoyable day all round. Plenty of flat sections and a few cheeky climbs thrown in for good measure!
Big thanks to Tony for putting on a great spread (what was left after Harpo ;-) and a well needed cup of tea!
:D
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Most enjoyable today.
Many thanks to Tony for coffee and cake. Even managed to organise the weather 😀
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It was our pleasure. Great to see everyone as having withdrawal symptoms from the Sunday rides , :-\
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Great day out on the bike and top marks to Cafe Mansell
Thanks everyone
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I was struggling today but 50 + miles at. 17 mph is not an amble time for a change of name maybe !!
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Send the trouble makers up to the Pacers for Harpo to sort out ;)
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Good idea Jason there are a few amblers who should be in pacers now like Nigel as done
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Thanks Tony! Still full ;D
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I echo Mal's issues about the recent increasing pace of the amblers. Its a little demoralising when you're 'that' slower person struggling to hang on, but when that pace is a 17mph+ hilly amble do you think people need to re assess whether they're in the right group. In all seriousness should the likes of me and Mal be dropping down to the 25ers, or should the people pushing the pace be heading out with the pacers to test themselves?? I don't want to rock the boat, or sound like a cry baby but I really think it's something that needs to be discussed in future weeks to ensure everyone feels welcome, comfortable and most importantly enjoys the ride
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I take your point Nick. The term 'Amblers' is now a misnomer and has been for a long time. The problem is that the core group of Amblers has developed and grown stronger together over the last few years (which is how it should be) and they should now consider moving up to the Pacers. Alternately, we may need to start a fourth group, enabling the stronger, current Amblers ( the Chasers!) To ride separately at the pace we now find ourselves riding at with the Amblers pegging it down a notch or two to ride at our advertised pace of 16mph. We certainly need to have a better bridging group from the 25ers, as it is currently a huge step up to the Amblers.
It's an interesting point and mostly a positive one, that as the Amblers have got stronger and quicker, so have the Pacers, which makes that step up potentially painful too, hence some of the quicker Amblers being loathe to ride with the Pacers. After all not many people enjoy being flogged every week (Harpo excepted)! I think we need to discuss this at the AGM. However, in the meantime I will brief the 'rules' before the next ride but essentially the team has to buy into the Ambler's group ethos and ride accordingly but if there are 10 guys on the road all capable of riding at a higher speed and want to, their competitive dog will kick in. Don't get disheartened though, you're getting stronger and faster but so is everyone else and some of the guys have 10,000 additional miles in their legs (at least!!).
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If the group moves too fast it must wait at junctions so that everybody comes back together and the group can re form. There's nothing worse on a ride than flogging your self off the back, to suddenly not know which way to go.
Just getting in early before I start riding again! ☺
really missing the Sunday rides
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Two points to consider;
- People obviously want to ride with who they want as it's up to them.
- We need to make sure we are not losing potential new members as a result.
This is the ideal time of year to step up when we go into winter mode with the next race months away!