Sat 15 March ride - 3 times around the Ivinghoe Beacon loop

The weather forecast was not particularly good for the whole weekend, but clearly Saturday looked the better of the two days. So there was a good turnout at 0810 outside Chef Peking. Tim, Andy M, Mike, Paul and I set out on the route towards Ivinghoe, initially via Flamstead, Potten End Hill and Hemel. The weather turned out just about perfect for March, mild with hardly a breeze. As the morning wore on the sun came out and cheered us further.

As we ascended the hill on Felden Lane, we came across another group (going down) who were looking to join Hemel CC at the station. This meeting never happened and perhaps they mistook us for this group and they chased us down and reached us just before Bovingdon. We then joined forces for the next 20 odd miles. It was good to have some competition, particularly as one of their group (Colin I think) was pretty useful up the climbs (by our standards at least). So we had someone to push us along. This we clearly did as our average pace was up again from the previous week. After the first ascent of Invinghoe Beacon, the newcomers split off and headed home, whilst discussing potentially joining us again.

We then completed three ascents of Ivinghoe. Andy, Tim and I got separated from Paul and Tim on the third ascent and waited for 10 minutes at the pub in Whipsnade, but there was no sign and we pressed on home. We completed the 73 miles in under 4.5 hours (moving time), an average of 16.4 mph. We were pleased as we are clearly making progress, increasing the average speed, whilst also elongating the ride each time.