One More Slice

As befitting a ride organised by the Swiss even the sun made a timely appearance for the Guvnors Assembly Swiss Roll.

Unfortunately your humble narrator was not able to join the soiree until the Saturday evening so Mr MGcC has kindly forwarded a missive to Assembly Towers for the days events:

On the Saturday a short ride had been arranged for those members of the Assembly arriving for lunchtime at the Mayflower Public House in Lymington. Whilst some Guvnors were being unloaded from various transport vehicles other members of the Assembly sampled the Mayflowers’ fine Ales and lunch menu, at precisely 2:00pm the metaphoric whistle was blown and the Assembly set off for a short swift ride through the beautiful countryside of the New Forest heading towards Hurst Castle Spit, (and a few pub stops on route).

Once arriving at the spit, our own Wertie Booster and Mr Seb Cope gave the seaside crowds an awesome display of high speed shingle riding, whilst the remaining Assembly debated whether a brief paddle in English Channel was called for…. After basking in beautiful autumn sunshine and passing out most of our Guvnors’ Assembly business cards to interested fellow passing cyclists we decided it was time to head for refreshment back towards Lymington and the Gun public house

After refuelling and refreshing ourselves it was then time to once again raise ourselves and head for our Saturday evening dinner rendezvous with the rest of the arriving Assembly.

Sunday morning we gathered at 10:30 ante meridian promptly at the Mayflower Public House in Lymington a few of us around the front everyone else at the rear, a little bit of back tracking and a few phone calls delivered the missing riders to the rear of the pub by which time everyone had moved to the front.

Today’s ride was lead by Benno, Swiss Bob’s rather inspirational father, short synopsis of the route given we set off towards Bucklers Hard, within a few miles we were in classic New Forest scenery, rolling hills and wonderful Autumn sunshine. The Hard reached, after a few directions from the frightfully helpful man on the car park giving us instructions on how to actually gain ingress without paying any undue fees we had our first tea stop and a slice of home-made cake kindly provided by Mrs Adam.

Usually the words “all too soon” is used at the beginning of a paragraph to lead us onto the next destination but today it is most certainly “eventually” we set off to the beautiful village of Beaulieu for a spot of lunch and to be honest a little more basking in the sun.

The return leg found us in the company of several hundred riders taking part in a Sportive much to their amusement, eventually we turned off and waited for a few of our number at a T-Junction, a few of the Sportive riders started to follow us until we explained we were not the same as every body else. They agreed.

A little trip down to the beach for what has got to be one of the most stunning views possible of the Isle of Wight a few photographs, and then the final push back to the Mayflower and our first alcoholic drinks of the day, this is worth mentioning as I feel, that this proves we are indeed athletes who take our training very seriously indeed. All too soon, riders started making their excuses and setting off for home leaving a handful of us to make the most of what was the end of a perfect Autumnal days riding.

It does at times seem a little trite to pop a list of people at the end of a piece thanking them but heartfelt thanks must given to Swiss Bob and her parents for sorting us all out as well as The Traditional Cycle Shop in Stratford for trusting us with three of their bikes for the weekend.

As ever I am amazed that people travel the length and breadth of the country to take part in our rides, but a nice surprise was Seb Cope appearing from behind a bush on the Saturday and a special mention has got to be given to Mrs TCP and Mrs Fossil for riding the miles with good grace and humour on their first outing with the Guvnors’ Assembly.

Until the Holly Run Ladies and Gentlemen.