Tell us about your weekend ride

Veteran Cycle Club Century Ride
24th May 2023.

(note: I have included Mr. Thurmer’s name because he did so much work to make this event happen, and because many of you will know him through ‘Hard to Find’ bike spares. The others I have named only as bikes, which I hope is in line with the forum practice of not using real names.)

This was a brilliantly organised event, entirely the work of Francis Thurmer – more on this below.

I wasn’t at all sure I could still cope with 100 miles in a day and I started with serious concerns about how and where I would be that evening. This had started as an invitation, became a daydream and progressed to being a project with work going into preparatory mileage and bike improvements.

Arriving slightly late at the Benson start, I told Francis not to delay and that I would meet him at Wantage (elevenses). This proved to be the right decision since the main group were already a little behind a tight schedule when we did meet; this ‘tightness’ related to our desire to finish before dark, well my desire – I think Francis was rather looking forward to lighting up.

Leaving Wantage we had a group of six: Francis (pre-war H.G. Shillingford), a Jack Taylor, (‘60s) a Saracen, a Dawes and a Pinarello (these three all ‘8os tourers) and myself with my ‘40s Sunbeam bitsa. We made steady progress in a north westerly direction, mostly into the wind, to reach our lunch stop at Fairford without drama.

We were back on the road by 3.15, which was only slightly behind schedule, going north towards the Windrush valley. Now we were getting into Cotswold country and there were a couple of stiff climbs which saw me (57” bottom gear) and a couple of others walking. We ‘crossed’ the main A 40 by an underpass on a quiet lane, which Francis claimed was the main design point of that part of the route. Whether this was strictly true or not, we now had Sherbourne in front of us, with several miles of the beautiful Windrush valley. This proved to be an almost perfect cycle-touring road with enough gradients to add interest to views of the river running, at times, close to us; this was enhanced by the sight and smell of the cow parsley and may blossom at the height of their season.

Progress was steady rather than fast with one member beginning to have a (mild) bad patch before we reached Burford (made famous by Charlie Pope’s cycling diaries) and from there it was an easy run to our ‘tea’ stop at Witney. The Pinarello left us at this point to go straight home to Oxford, but since he had ridden out from home in the morning, his day’s mileage must have been similar to ours.

Time was now running short – we had thirty miles left to cover and, at the very most, three hours before complete darkness. I did not mention this at the time, but I was seriously considering abandoning the group and making a dash for it down the main road. However, looking at the map, I could see that Francis’ route was fairly direct, and I thought that if we were caught in the dark there would be some safety in numbers, so I stuck with our dear leader.

As it turned out Francis’ route was excellent, using a lot of good cycle paths which were often the bypassed former main roads, but although there was no ‘defaillance’ or big hills, the speed was tantalisingly slow as the light began to fail. We had a final stop at a shop in ‘Kingston Bagpipes’ to stock up on food, then through Abingdon and on to the final stretch, leaving the A415 for a couple of beautifully quiet miles through the now by passed town of Dorchester and onto the last three miles of A423 to Benson. This, for me, was really unpleasant: I never liked riding in the dark, even when young, and now with vision challenged both by age and by ultra bright modern headlights, it was scary.

But we made it – I was back at my car by about 9.50.

It’s worth remembering that this was a V-CC ride (even though it didn’t really feel like one) and that we completed just over a hundred miles with no mechanical problems except for a couple of easily remedied chain deraillings; the youngest rider was over sixty, so we can claim a high degree of reliability among the ancients.

Probably as a result of the modest pace and plenty of stops, no one suffered badly. I was certainly glad to finish, but I would still have felt perky enough to have contested a sprint finish for the Benson sign!

The two photos: My Sunbeam in 100 mile trim, and Francis on his HGS