Three riders gathered for this club run - Robert, Craig (both on summer road bikes) and John (on a particularly fine gravel/road bike). We started from the village square in Aspley Guise just after 9am on what turned out to be quite a cold and crisp morning. We were blessed with light winds and sunny skies, so conditions just got better and better through the ride.

We headed out via Astwood and Olney (see the GPS route map), and as far as Salcey Forest everything had gone swimmingly well. Though there was a mid-life-crisis guy in a swanky Porsche who didn't seem to think his proper place was behind three cyclists at some roadwork traffic control in Olney. Unfortunately, just after we passed through the forest and just at Hartwell, Craig suffered a puncture. This was pretty quickly sorted as Craig was well-equipped for such eventualities...except as we all did, he just had a mini-pump to get his tyre inflated. Once that was done, we set off again, passing through Hartwell and on up the road to Roade. Well, Robert did. Craig's replacement tube failed just as we exited Hartwell. Robert recognised the error of his ways and backtracked to offer assistence in the form of one of his spare tubes.

After this second disruption, it didn't take long for us to reach the cafe at Roade, where John decided he needed to head home without stopping (domestic commitments, maybe?). Craig and Robert stopped and had coffes and cake (Craig) and egg and bacon sandwich (Robert - who reckons these are the best egg and bacon sandwiches) before setting off on the return leg. Some of the roads after Ashton really resemble dirt tracks at times, but from Hanslope onwards things were pretty straightforward, in fact Craig was going great guns on the run up to Newport Pagnell with Robert hanging on!

A good day out, and hopefully an indication of more to come. 

The GPS route and the same via Komoot.