7.30 am see me full of cereal and toast, drinking a free coffee in Long Ashton village hall awaiting the start of Barry's Bristol Ball Buster, a 210 km jaunt around the outskirts of the fair city of Bristol. I completed the inaugural ride last year and really enjoyed it and so I was looking forward to another well organized, friendly ride in lovely countryside and once again, I wasn't disappointed.
8.00 am sharp and Marcus Mumford (resplendent in a stripy blazer) waves us off with a customary "Vegas baby"! We head out of Long Ashton, up through Ashton Court and over the famous suspension bridge towards the wilds of South Gloucestershire via Shirehampton, Henbury and parts of Bristol I never new existed. A relatively gentle 40 km see's us arriving at the first of many highlights, namely the village hall at Hill.
Now, this rather unassuming building may not look like it qualifies for the title of highlight but housed inside is the finest selection of cakes you will ever see.
Once again, the Hill W.I did themselves proud (my photography really doesn't do justice to that raspberry pavlova.
Fully sated and it's of across the bottom of the Cotswolds before they climb up to Wooten under edge, then a nice run down to the second stop at the Lock keeper in Keynsham.
A quick stretch whilst admiring the view (and some rather splendid Titanium bikes courtesy of Quroz Bikes) and it's off up the steady climb towards Queen Charlton and a gently undulating run to the foot of the mendips via Chew Valley lake. A West Harptree, the ride heads upwards with vengeance as it climbs the steepest climb of the ride, a straight up, 10% job to the top of the Mendip hills. From here, it's a lovely, undulating run across the mendips before dropping to Wookey Hole and a flat couple of miles to Glasonbury. Heaphy's cafe serves a well needed bacon sandwich and re-unites me with my brevet card (dropped on top of the mendips whilst struggling to fix a broken Garmin mount*) so once again, a big thank you to the cha who not only saw said card but kindly picked it up and gave it to the control.
4.00 pm sees me leaving Glastonbury and heading across the Somerset levels as a lovely spring evening unfolds. This section of the ride passes fairly quickly and a couple of hours and 40 km or so later, I am in the bar of the Drum and Monkey in Kenn sinking a pint of ice cold Coca-Cola and contemplating the last 20 km back to the final control. A couple of flat kilometers across Kenn moor bring me to the Gordano valley and an undulating run away from the sunset and towards Portbury. From Portbury, it's a 4 km climb up to Failand and a nice decent down Providence lane to the start/finish for the final highlight, free soup, rolls, tea, coffee and a friendly welcome back from Marcus and the rest of the LVIS crew.
So there we have it, another 200k completed and another enjoyable day out. The Las Vegas Institute of Sport may not be your usual cycling club but they sure know how to organize a fun ride, so a big thank you to Marcus and the crew and put my name down for next year.
*Garmin mount broken during a "clipless" moment but easily fixed with a couple of universal fixing brackets (cable ties). Otherwise, Garmin 705 performed flawlessly and navigated me the whole 210 km without incident.
Equipment used:
Thorn Brevet
Giordana arm/leg warmers
Giordana bib shorts
Jollywear vintage SS jersey
Nalini gilett
Altura night vision ergo fit waterproof
Garmin 705
Exulstar stevio 707 shoes
Planet x winter gloves/Altura retro string backed track mitts
Carradice barley
Various mule bars
Boots isotonic/hydration drink mix
A picture of the trusty Thorn Brevet (note the two bottles of what can only be described as industrial waste, why do I bother)
See the route here:
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