Delayed by a day due to heavy rain 6 of us turned up for this weeks ride, Myself, Andy P, Graham B, Dave Newman, Nigel Mole & Andy Easton, with a much better day than yesterday we set off towards Wrangaton. The traffic was particularly heavy and with Nigel taking the P*** saying what we doing on the M5, I decide to turn off under the railway arches at Bittaford and take in the steep climb to give them something else to moan about. We carried on skirting South Brent and taking the Avon Dam/Shipley bridge road then onto Bloody Pool Cross, turning left and headed for Buckfastleigh and turning left just before at Coxhill Cross to start the long climb to Cross Furzes before a decent to Combe. Andy E was suffering badly due to his long absence from cycling having to walk up most of the climbs, so gave him another nice chevron climb out of Combe towards Scorriton. I decided to avoid the next big chevron into Holne and took the long easy way round through Michelcombe, where we met a large group of ramblers to say good morning to. It was then on to the nice Community cafe in Holne for our first break. It was nice to see the Pub had reopened again after a long closure, don`t know if that has been taken over by the local community, have to give it a try sometime to find out.
Fully refreshed after Tea,Coffee & cake, we set off again turning right in the village and headed for Ridley Cross, straight on for Shuttaford then another nice chevron for Andy up to Humphrey`s Cross. We turned right here and started the long decent through Hembury Woods passing the hilltop fort of Hembury Castle hidden in the woods. It was then a gentle ride on to Buckfast Abbey cafe and managed to find a table among the lunch time diner`s for our second stop.
After a nice leisurely break and putting the world to right with our reminiscing it was on the road again for the final leg back to Ivybridge, nothing to exciting just the well plodded route back to the station car park. It had been a funny day weather wise, one minute drizzle, then just dull followed by periods of sunshine, still we all enjoyed the ride, well except for Andy E, who thought he was going to die. Only a short ride of 31 miles but plenty of climbing.
Trevor Bradshaw
Fully refreshed after Tea,Coffee & cake, we set off again turning right in the village and headed for Ridley Cross, straight on for Shuttaford then another nice chevron for Andy up to Humphrey`s Cross. We turned right here and started the long decent through Hembury Woods passing the hilltop fort of Hembury Castle hidden in the woods. It was then a gentle ride on to Buckfast Abbey cafe and managed to find a table among the lunch time diner`s for our second stop.
After a nice leisurely break and putting the world to right with our reminiscing it was on the road again for the final leg back to Ivybridge, nothing to exciting just the well plodded route back to the station car park. It had been a funny day weather wise, one minute drizzle, then just dull followed by periods of sunshine, still we all enjoyed the ride, well except for Andy E, who thought he was going to die. Only a short ride of 31 miles but plenty of climbing.
Trevor Bradshaw
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