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Feet on scalesUpdated: Join us on the inaugural road.cc turkey sweater!
Face it: you're going to overindulge. Stuff yourself with turkey and Quality Street and port and cheesecake. What better way to assuage your guilt than by joining us on the first annual road.cc turkey sweater on 29 December? You can burn off some of that winter excess. And then immediately put it all back on, since we'll be ending at a pub and getting the cakes in. And the beers. Here's how it'll pan out.
Group 1: 40 miles via Castle Combe
There's going to be a fairly leisurely 40-miler that'll loop out towards Bristol and loop up over the M4 and back before pointing south. The proposed route is available on bikeroutetoaster.com - there's a couple of decent climbs but some nice long flat bits too. We'll aim for an average of about 14mph, if anyone wants to go a bit faster and extend the loop then we can sort a route for that too. Just don't ask us to keep up 
Meet: 11am at Avon Valley Cyclery, directly behind Bath Spa railway station
Distance: 40 miles
Route: quiet(ish) A/B roads and lanes, 2000ft climbing
Group 2: 10 miles via the pub
If you don't fancy a biggish ride after all the excesses of Christmas then you can just meet a bit later and bimble along the pan-flat towpath. This route is unsurfaced and will probably be wet, not ideal for your Sunday best bike but fine for a tourer/hybrid/mtb/etc. The ride will likely involve a quick stop at the Cross Guns on the way, hopefully they'll have the mulled wine on the go.
Meet: 12.30pm at Avon Valley Cyclery, directly behind Bath Spa railway station
Distance: 10 miles
Route: towpath, no climbing
Late lunch at the Lock Inn, Bradford-on-Avon
Both groups are going to converge on the Lock Inn in Bradford-on-Avon at about 2–2.30pm where we can eat, drink and be merry until people have to go home, or they kick us out at 6pm. There'll be a drink and a slice of cake on us...
If you want to rock up at the Lock Inn and leave your bike in the shed then that's fine too. We'll be happy to see you whatever.
Getting back to Bath
There's trains from Bradford-on-Avon back to Bath or it's just under 10 miles on the bike. You'll need lights!
What if it's raining/snowing/there's a hurricane/or some other climactic emergency?
We won't be cancelling just because it's cold or there's a bit of drizzle. But if we think it's going to be dangerous to do a long ride we'll make a decision on the day. Which will probably involve cutting to the chase and going straight to the pub. Fingers crossed, eh? For good weather obviously.
Join us!
There's an event on our Facebook page if you do Facebook, or you can comment here to say you'd like to come - when we know approximately how many heads we'll have we'll choose some suitable start and finish venues y'all know where we're meeting and stuff.
Hope to see you on the 29th!
Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.
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32 comments
agreed! Thanks to all, was a cold and wet but fun day out. Nice to put faces to names at last. Looking forward to a warmer version. Also, thanks for the hot chocolates at the Lock Inn.
i wouldn't even have been up for leaving the building at that point, let alone smiling
it should be noted by all that the above photo was *after* the addition of a number of galaxy-sized all-day breakfasts, and that we wouldn't have looked nearly as cheerful if it had been taken an hour or so earlier....
here are the intrepid riders... i spent half of the ride whirling my arms like windmills to get some blood in my hands and the other half wincing with frostbitey pain when that worked
turkey.jpg
okay this year's Sweater may have taken the definition of the word 'fun' to a place usually reserved for S&M enthusiasts.
On the other hand you were there at the birth of a legend helped create it in fact + I don't know about you, but when I got home it certainly gave me a new appreciation of the benefits of central heating, and being dry.
you said it was going to be fun......
Luckily I could only find one overshoe this morning so nixed the 40 miler. Dave 'enjoyed' it though.
On the other hand It's not often that a six mile pootle to the pub along the canal takes on the proportions of an epic… I even cleaned my bike when I got home a very rare even indeed.
I took the short hilly route back, the canal was a nightmare almost as much water on the towpath as in the Kennet and Avon. Quite a test for TR's commuting trousers. Must say they dried remarkably quickly in the pub, even if the mud didn't.
Top marks to those that did the 40 miler, it may not have been very far, but today I think it counted as proper hardcore. The pub was good too - although I spent most of the time warming up.
The Easter Egg Sweater sounds like it might be a goer, I mean, how bad can the weather be at Easter?
Ummm:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1582564/Easter-bank-holiday-snow-...
Might try to make it down from Oxford if there is one at Easter, though B)
having spent all morning getting wet at work i decided not to belt down to Bradford upon Avon..hope someone enjoyed my bit of cake (hate to see it going to waste).
anyhow maybe next time.. 'Easter Egg Sweater' maybe?
Weather update: It's wet and windy around Bath this morning, no snow though, forecast is for more of the same throughout the day. Anyone doing the 40 miler can look forward to a nice cooling 16mph easterly. So wrap up warm.
hmm, metcheck isn't that confident
eek! heavy snow?
Will be there for sure. Put my name down for the castle combe route.
looks good. can always stop for a little fortifier in Ford too
I will be rooting for you all... all the way from Amsterdam.
Looks like I've got Swine Flu! Bloody marvellous, this weekend has been a write-off as far as the bike is concerned, and not sure how much longer it's likely to go on.
I had my usual Christmas day ride over the Bwlch and Rhigos planned, so hoping I'll be fit for that, and of course this ride too.
I'll let you know closer to the day if I'm liable to make it...
I will be riding over from Brizzle for the start so if anyone fancies meeting up for that section to wherever the 'group' ride starts from then do let me know.
They showed up then? nice. i'll break the nukeproofs out and we can have a blind-off
Hah! My Boost function is pre-loaded with epic win!
Oh yeah, start, route and distance? Baggy and I are not racing snakes, so if the average speed is over 14ish someone will have to save us a cake.
Lights? Hmmmm, I may have just the thing.
Baggy and I just have to drag our flabby butts up north.
you can always come over for the bit where we eat cake and drink booze...
i was just thinking that, any chance of a vague route as and when and i can try and meet up...
ta.
some of us will be at work that morning i'm afraid...
(maybe i''ll catch a cold or something that morning, too sick for work but a bit of fresh air would do me wonders.
)
defo fancy that.
You have to start an hour behind everyone else
Will be nice to get out on the bike, I have missed it.
Cool, that may work out for me. I have a physio appointment at 09:00, so could make down your way in time.
11ish? that gives us a few hours of light before we repair to the pub for mulled wine and shortbread...
Any idea on a start time?
Will be there...hope it is dry. Have a good christmas everyone.
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