The ride started from Itchen Valley Country Park with BrianC, SueC, DavidE, Carol, Brian, Mike, Gary, GrahamB, Greta, Helena, JohnR, JohnH, Clive, Mick, Lin, David and Alistair on an unusually hot sunny morning. The first part of the ride was on shared paths beside the main road to Mansbridge to pick up the NCN23 that runs beside the River Itchen in the scenic Riverside Park in Bitterne.
There were only four of us for the ride along the Purbeck cycleway, an extended version of the one we did early last year that now included a loop from Corfe Castle to Swanage and back. So after an early start, David, Mick, Vanessa and Alistair met up in Wareham at the Community café near the quay before setting off towards Corfe. At the junction of the road and the NCN2 at Stoborough, there was a bike traffic jam with four separate groups of cyclists trying to turn off the main road. The cycle route through Ridge passed through the pretty Dorset heath on the southern edge of Pole Harbour before joining the main road beside the Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum where there was nose to tail traffic queuing all the way to Corfe Castle where we turned off onto Sandy Hill Lane towards Swanage. Fortunately the traffic was sticking to the main road or trying to find somewhere to park to visit Corfe Castle, so the narrow lane was largely traffic free.
This was a longer day ride starting from the West Meon and cycling down to the coast and back with Clive, Carol. David, Keith, Mark, Vanessa, GrahamB, Mick and me. We met up at the MVT car park and immediately headed up the climb to the top of Old Winchester Hill where we took in the extensive views over to the Solent and Isle of Wight – the last time we came this way we were riding into a howling gale so we were concentrating on not being blown over so some missed the views. From the top it was downhill for the next 11 miles to Hoe Gate with the odd climb in between.
On Tuesday 8th May, the ride was a repeat of the Didcot to Basingstoke ride we did in November 2016 - Ride report Mick, Ray, Laurie, SueP, Lin, me and eventually Len met up at Basingstoke station in time to catch the 9:06 to Reading - planned to the second! When we reached Reading, and changed for Didcot four of us had bike spaces booked on a train to Cardiff and three on a train to Cheltenham. However the train to Cardiff was cancelled, so we were advised to all get on the next slow stopping train to Didcot. I decided that the three of us would stick with our original plan to get the Cheltenham fast train that left later but got in earlier in case there was not enough space on the stopper for all the bikes. Well the stopper was empty and we could have had the whole group on the train without a problem whilst our fast train was 15 minutes late.
On Wednesday 2nd May there were ten of us for the day trip to France - Lin, SueP, Carol, Len, David, Mick, Brian, Ray, Mark and me. We drove in three cars to Portsmouth and boarded the 20:30 overnight ferry for St Malo. The loading procedure was a lottery as usual with the rest of us enjoying a glass of wine on board whilst Len's car had not even boarded. The cabins were allocated by car rather than as we had booked and this meant that we ended up with an extra cabin, so Ray and Brian had a cabin each on their own. After a nice meal washed down with a few bottles of wine we headed for our cabins. In the morning we awoke to a lovely sunny day and had breakfast before disembarking. We as disembarked some time apart we made our way separately to Montreuil sur Ille, about an hour's drive away. The early arrivals were able to get another coffee in a bar, or in one instance a quiche at the Patisserie.
David, Mick, Ray, Brian and I enjoyed our day ride in France although the weather gods conspired to make it a bit colder than we hoped. It was bright and sunny for most of the day with a cold northerly breeze. After the overnight ferry crossing it did not take long to reach Evran by car, about 30 miles south of St Malo, on the motorway so we made a start at about 9:30 local time down the V2 cycle route alongside the canal. It had been resurfaced and was in good condition and being a canal the only slight gradients were at the locks or bridges over.
Well we had the best weather we could wish for on the ride from St Malo to Dinan - sunny all day with clear blue skies and not a cloud in sight.
The arrangements did not go to plan as Len had to call off at the last minute to care for Lin after her accident. We were booked on the ferry in Len's car, but borrowed his bike rack and used my wife's car with Mick and my bikes on the back. This meant we left Basingstoke slightly later than planned, but still arrived at Portsmouth nice and early on the Monday evening. Brian, Laurie and Mark traveled in David's car and arrived only a little ahead of us as they caught more traffic.