600k Ben Allen's Summer Outing

Location: Bushley, Tewkesbury, UK

The weather couldn't have turned out better! Not only was it nice and sunny most of the time for the audax, back home it was quite chilly and overcast!

Friday: the ride down

I had intended to catch the train down to Peterborough and ride the 100 miles to Tewkesbury, but a strike plus an easterly wind meant that I was obliged to ride the whole way - around 300km. All went well, except for something undetectable in the front tyre that kept causing very slow punctures. A tyre change at LeisureLakes Bikes in Daventry fixed that!

Saturday: early start

Organiser Mark Rigby set us off from a Tewkesbury car park at 5am, the start of a brisk but pleasant day's riding. We were aiming for Wigmore, over 400km away, where airbeds awaited us for the night, so had to keep the pace steady on the numerous lumps and bumps. I was riding most of the day in a small group (Jed from Oswestry, Tom from Bristol and David from Milton Keynes). Jed, Tom and I arrived together at Wigmore, and Tom rode on into the night in search of his own bed - the back of his car at Hay-on-Wye, another 40km away!

Sunday: just a short one!

Jed and I set off a bit before 6am, wearing everything we had as it was 5 degrees C and misty. After a couple of hours Jed eased off so I continued on solo, and by then the sun had broken through - and it ended up being a mild, sunny day with a rising southerly breeze. The wind was particularly nice after crossing the Severn Bridge and heading north for the final leg up to Tewkesbury.

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