Four of us who were seeking a longer ride, but could not afford the time to do the long ride with lunch stop, set off in the dry for Deddington, but with the sky threatening rain. It didn't take long to come, just as we'd passed through Wood Burcote the heavens opened briefly, but thankfully things dried up a bit by the time we reached Silverstone, and wandered our way through Dadford, past Stowe and through the back lanes towards Mixbury. Unfortunately here we had a very heavy downpour and Chris Mason had the added misfortune of his cable to the front mech snapping. Although Chris had clearly been a Scout and was prepared with a spare cable, the thought of having to change it in the pouring ran rather than in the dry at home, led to Chris calling it a day and retracing his tracks back to Towcester.

Ian Ellis, Derek Moyles and myself headed on, and after crossing the A43 near Evenely, we were rewarded with blue skies, which fortunately stayed with us for most of the rest of the ride. We headed on via Charlton and Aynho to Deddington, where we enjoyed toasted teacakes with tea/coffee at Foodies, the cafe in Market Place.

From there it was back via Adderbury, Kings Sutton, Martson St Lawrence, Sulgrave, Moreton Pinkney, Canons Ashby, Adstone and Maidford, with Ian driving the pace to ensure we kept Derek on his return schedule. Unfortunately, with the end in site, the pace told on me and I had to pull up in Ian and Derek's wake, when trying to accelerate again to keep up with Ian, with my right calf in total spasm! Derek headed on as he needed to and Ian kept me company to limp the last couple of miles home, before no doubt catching up with Derek again to pace him onwards for another mile or two.

A total of 57.2 miles at 16.4mph (and good few more for Derek).