The Century Ride 6th August 2011

Saturday, 06 August 2011 00:00 | Written by Mick Holliday

Four club members met at the clubrooms at 8am.All were looking forward to a full days cycling in the Cotswold Hills. Craig Hamilton, Chris Brown and Luke Thomas were joining me today. The weather forecast was promising with sunshine and a chance of a few light showers. Luckily, it wasn’t going to get too hot and humid, as that’s the last thing you want for a long ride like this. Just before setting off Dave Gill turned up having left home rather early from Stafford. He was going on the faster paced ride a little later. After a brief hello we headed off down the Abthorpe road and the now usual route to Helmdon, Sulgrave, Farthinghoe, Souldern heading for North Aston and the Tews. From here we kept high on the ridge road that crosses the Banbury to Chipping Norton Road and then dropped into valley of the River Swere. The climb out took us up to Great Rollright and Wyatts Farm for our first refreshment stop and to say hello to the elephants. Distance covered 38 miles and all looking forward to the next 62.

The next 30 miles or so to Shipston on Stour and our second refreshment stop was typical Cotswold scenery- lots of uphill bits, lots of downhill bits and beautiful countryside. Past the Rollright Stones and through Adlestrop to Broadwell and the mile long climb up to Stow on the Wold. As we began to toil up the hill we noticed a sign on the left that had ‘Col de Broadwell‘ written on it and a little later another that said ‘This is going to hurt‘. These looked like the work of sportive organisers. The hill had us spread out over several minutes by the top, where we were greeted by yet another sign that said ‘Well Done’. These signs are for the benefit of participants in the Bike Blenheim Palace sportive that is to be held on 21^st August. Stow on the Wold was far too busy for comfort so we dropped down to the Swells and headed north to Sezincote, Batsford, Paxford and Ebrington. Here we began the climb up to Warwickshire’s highest point at Ilmington Hill. We had a stop here to admire the views across the Vale of Evesham to the Malverns. We then had the very fast two miles of downhill into Ilmington to enjoy. By Shipston our mileage was 68 with no one showing any signs of tiredness.

To get up and over the Edge Hill scarp slope I chose the OS arrowed Tysoe Hill in preference to the A road Sun Rising Hill or the boring Edge Hill itself. Guess what? As we turned right in Upper Tysoe there was another sign. This one said ‘Col de Tysoe’ and was immediately followed by the obvious one that said ‘This is going to hurt’. What we didn’t expect was the one just short of the top. It said ‘Told you so’!

They were right. I have checked the route and these signs were nothing to do with the previously mentioned sportive. The last twenty miles or so took us through Warmington, Mollington, Cropredy, Thorpe Mandeville and the usual lanes home. The total distance covered was 102 miles.

Many thanks to Craig, Chris and Luke for a very enjoyable day out. I know a few club members couldn’t make the ride due to holidays etc. so I intend taking another one in 3 or 4 weeks time. Please ring me and let me know your preferred dates. We could even make it a Sunday if there’s enough interest.

Mick Holliday

Comments

#1 teamcrane 2011-08-09 19:40

Thanks Mick, Great route and a very enjoyable and companionable day out. That includes the huff and puff up the "Col De Tysoe". Count me in for the next one please.
Craig.

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