Three riders left Newbury at 0950hrs today from ‘The Bacon Arms’ our overnight stop with Dennis our lovely support car driver heading out soon after.
The weather was the best of the three days with broken cloud and more of a blue sky than the previous days, but not as hot with temperatures only around 20/21c due to a gusty NE wind.
Myself, Trevor Hughes and Paul Martin rolled down a busy market day Newbury High street to join the Kennetside and head to the finish in Reading on this the final day’s riding.
Once again along the route the Inland Waterways cottage cafe at Aldermaston was closed, but we did get some entertainment out of watching the local boat builders crane a narrow boat into the water.
The ride was reasonably paced and in no time we were in the outskirts of Reading, also running slightly early for our motor transport pick up at Thames Valley Park.
A lunchtime coffee by the riverside in the Wetherspoons was my answer.
Although there are plenty of coffee shops around the waterside at the Oracle, Reading, they now have adopted a clamp and fine bike riders if we do not use the designated bike racks. The racks are stupidly in most cases out of sight of the cafe’s that one might want to use.
The nice but unsociable security patrol guard pointed out that they do have plenty of security cameras. My reply was ‘This is a two grand MTB and doesn’t get locked up and left out of my sight!’
Dennis was already Thames side when we rolled in and so this year’s Kennet and Avon trip had come to an end.
I like to personally Thank Dennis Peacock for being support driver again, especially as this time around I would not have been able to ride that distance wearing a ruck sack without it causing problems.
Thanks also to Paul and Trevor for Agreeing to ride.
Paul.