Well that’s another Five Horses over with. How many of you saw all five horses this time around? I only saw four as I forgot to spot the Devizes one on my way round today. We had some interesting weather with blue skies interspersed with a few roving showers which managed to catch the classic group twice in the morning and the moderns once in the afternoon. Of course there was another nice heavy one which hung about long enough to catch Ghost & I on the way home from the Magpies! ::)
This year for a change I led the modern stuff and Ghost led the oldies, the two groups leaving about 10-15 minutes apart. We talked Reg (Bath Classic) into back marking for the oldies and Snowy for the moderns, many thanks to both for an excellent job. We are not strict who rides with whom; we just remind people that if you ride with the oldies they often don’t have things like indicators, brake lights, or even brakes for that matter while if you ride with the moderns you have to remember that they do have indicators which they can leave on for some miles to confuse other traffic- you don’t usually leave an arm sticking out for long – it gets too tired! ;D
It was an interesting route totalling of approximately 59 miles in the morning and 49 in the afternoon. Starting with a short stretch of dry lanes, followed by a long section of A4 past Cherhill Horse and then onto the A4361. This lulled everyone into a false sense of security before we headed past Hackpen Horse over the hills and plunging down a narrow sunken tree lined lane that was nice & damp, slimy and umm interesting. :o (I nearly lost the front end here on yesterday’s recce) Once through that it was back out into daylight and open countryside and on towards Hungerford.
The moderns paused to regroup as there was a large gap developing then it was onward through Hungerford and off once more over the hills into the countryside beyond, before diving down a few more lanes and over another hill or two to Pewsey. Pewsey horse was behind you as you dropped down the hill by the way.
Lunch in Pewsey, with some staying at the Royal Oak while others foraged in the towns supermarkets. After a sharp rainstorm (you have no idea how many bikers can fit into a smokers shelter) it was back on the road and wending our way towards Durrington, then Larkhill before a little ramble over the plain along the back road from The Bustard to Tilshead. (Incidentally this road was closed yesterday while the red flags were flying!) Back onto the A360 where the moderns found an excellent rainstorm [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif] before turning towards Lavington and another succession of back roads between Chirton and Devizes. I trust everyone saw Alton Barnes white horse although Devizes was hard to spot unless you knew where to look.
Things appear to go a little awry somewhere around here as we stopped & checked on Reg re-securing his back wheel :o and caught up with some classic marshals. We then dove off down another series of lanes to arrive in Devizes, dive cross the A4361 and then another evil slippy little lane through to Rowde, before wending through a final series of twisty lane to pop out of the lane we first entered this morning!
On arriving back at the Magpies we discovered Snowy & I had arrived via different routes through Devizes so we both went back for a quick chase through the last part of the run to see if anyone was wandering aimlessly around the countryside. Fortunately is appeared everyone found their way back ok. [smiley=thumbsup.gif]
I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped today in any way. We had 57 riders out today (60 entries in total) so that means £300 for Dorothy House. :-*
BB
