March 1st *** ride from Princes Risborough.
Posted on Monday 2 March 2009 by Bob Davis
This was to be a Charlie Keep ride, but our Secretary heroically stepped up to the breach (or whatever the cycling equivalent is) to lead instead when Charlie couldn’t. He was to be partnered by Ken Peters, who cycled out to Princes Risborough with Angela Dale (although Angela didn’t make it there by the time the main body left). So Rob Saunders, Bob Davis, Linus, John Snuggs, Roger Cline, Nick and Rory set off from Marylebone and waited at Princes Risborough until Ken arrived, with him agreeing to take the quicker route to Benson with Angela while we took the longer one. John Snuggs lasted about 3km before he decided that he was still too ill for a ride and went back to the station.
So we did about 40km on flat roads to Benson – mainly single carriageway with not too much traffic but a bit of a nuisance, with about 10km only of nice lanes. Lunch at Benson in a nice riverside cafe/restaurant, and then the prospect of 27km back on the B road. I wasn’t keen, although Nick pointed out that you can often get overtaken more easily on a B road than a country lane. A good point, but I tend to prefer the scenic lanes, so I split form the rest and went via Christmas Common to High Wycombe while the others got to Princes Risborough in time for arrival back at Marylebone around 15.00. This return journey was the best part of the day – quiet lanes, nice views and not too hard a climb to get up to Christmas Common, and I was back at Marylebone not long after 16.00.