A cold, breezy but bright day greeted the 25 or so riders at the Market Square who gathered to ride around the wilds of Bedfordshire. Twelve of us plumped for the medium 45 mile route.

Heading west out of town along the first part of Bushmead Road, we took a left that initially took us south, then west towards Wilden and the bottom of Sunderland hill crossing the Kimbolton Road.

From there, the roads took us through the rolling countryside towards Milton Ernest where we crossed the A6. Prior to that at Thurleigh we stopped briefly and made the sensible decision to split into faster and slower groups as some of our merry band were starting to feel the pace a little. Over the A6 we headed south through Pavenham before turning north towards Harrold and Odell, not before noticing group 1 coming past us the other way. The author notes the usual navigational standards are being met there!

As we were passing though Harrold country park, imagine our surprise when we saw the slower group that we had previously split from popping into the cafe for a coffee! Whether they had passed us without us knowing or navigational cunning we know not, however coffee on a sunny day by a lake can only be a good thing. We pressed on with the wind on our backs towards Sharnbrook where a couple of instances of bad driving caused consternation in the group, however no one was hurt and we all live to ride another day. Back over the A6, up towards Riseley and familiar roads through Keysoe and Little Staughton found some of us taking part in the usual Bushmead sprint where Steve, Steve & Steve took the medal positions. A good ride on a lovely day ended up with coffee outside Nero's on the square, not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning.

Tony.