After a very chilly start to the morning the Sun popped out which made for a great morning's ride. We started out with 8 Amblers but we lost Shawn Murtogh within the first mile to a serious mechanical, so he limped home to Change bikes and subsequently ride 90kms on his own. The remainder pushed on through Treoes and Llangan, Pentre Meyrick and Llantwit Major and then around the Coast towards Porthcawl. We missed a waiting Roy Richards in Llantwit and he had to chase us down like a dog after a ball, before drawing level at Monknash. We stopped for coffee and cake at the Broomwagon in Porthcawl where we were treated to 'mates rates' by Paul for our generous slices of cake.
After the break we headed home via Kenfig, the A48, Hafodheulog and Tondu, before crossing the common and racing home via Pencoed. I have to apologise to the few who rode the full distance as we covered 56 miles today rather than the 50 I had advertised. Not a problem on a sunny day but probably less amusing when the weather turns I called the distance from memory not from a map or Garmin, so note to self, check! We were passed on route by a panting, eyeball rolling group of Pacers who were mostly too knackered to wave or speak, except for good old Harpo who managed a cheery 'hello chaps' , although he used the Welsh version of that expression as he sped past!!
Out today were:
Shawn (briefly)
Mal (slightly less briefly)
Roy 2 (mostly)
Lee (nearly all the way)
Jonathan Slinks (chewing his handlebars)
Terry (All the way and some)
Mark Rosser (guest appearance)
Mark P (navigating - well sort of)
See you next week for a 53.752314 mile ride with 1243.658 metres of climbing.
