14th October 2014 Sandford Soaking 23

Good to get back in the saddle after a few days, pity the weather wasn't kinder. Out with the Old Gits CC today and despite steady rain, 9 turned up this morning. Debated whether or not to shorten the circuit but the concensus was to start with the usual route, if the weather deteriorated or the roads were flooded we would amend accordingly.

Tea Stop

Following the usual route, we did deviate slightly to miss out the Strawberry Line, a disused railway line.  After a couple of days of fairly persistent rain, the mud and wet leaves would make riding quite challenging especially those with limited  gearing and clothing.  Typically, it stopped as we arrived and started to rain again as soon as we left. As usual, the cake and tea (cherry cake today) was excellent and most of us took the advantage of the wood burner roaring away to try and dry out some of the clothing. Not entirely successful but at least they were warm and wet when we put them on again.                                                            

Finished the ride in the rain, glad to get back home really after 23 miles in the rain.