Christmas Lunch The Spring 2008

The Fantastic Four

Starey Winter MTB rides 2008

Ghent November 2008

Autumn colours of the New Forest

Cheddar Challenge 2008. Domestic bliss as Rob and Jim chop the veg while Caroline and Emma relax.

Excellent ride. Did first hour with big hitters until we got stuck behind a herd of cows. Jim fastest 3.32; Rob 3.39; Caroline 3.50; Emma 4 hours. Not as fast as last year. Excuses to follow when we have worked them out. xxx

Mizen to Malin Head the Irish End to End 2008

In mid-June Barry Gregory with Mick and Gavin Ayliffe rode the Irish End to End, south to north, about 500 miles in 8 days. As you can see from the photos the weather was generally chilly and damp but the journey was trouble free until with 10 miles to go Gavin shed a spoke and so buckled his back wheel that it would not turn. Luck of the Irish? A farmer replaced the spoke and trued the wheel for him so he could complete the ride.

Barry Gregory's 70th Birthday

Barry Gregory celebrated his 70th birthday with a tea party at Brooklands. It was a smashing afternoon with a mixture of family, work colleaugues and bike riders all wishing him well. The museum was open for us to visit too. Denbo's Mum featured alongside Barbara Cartland and two Clarencourt lads of yester year, Gordon Robins and Alec Watkins got a mention in the results of a race held there in 1935!

Bastille Day Ride 2008

We had a good turnout for the Bastille Day ride that fell on a Monday this year. Our usual pub was shut but at short notice we were made welcome for lunch at the Hollist Inn at Lodsworth. After a late start from Ellens Green we followed the usual back lanes route to the top of the South Downs for coffee at the top of Bury Hill. Then it was on, up and down, around Goodwood race course to West Dean and over onto the South Harting road. We seem to have lost our ability to make up lost time over the years and so we chose the easy route through Midhurst to Lodsworth which turned out to be no shorter (although much easier.) Fortunately the confusion over which pub we were stopping at did not prevent Chris Law, Jim Harwood and Robin Potter from joining up with us there. Suitably sustained we returned to Ellens Green through Gospel Green, Shillinglee and Dunsfold. The weather had been superb for cycling, the countryside as beautiful as ever and a good fete day was enjoyed by all. We'd ridden 77 miles at a speed best not remembered. Grateful thanks to the Blessed Caroline Harrison who in the evening invited us to her place for food and drinks, where we were joined by other celebrants unable to join the ride.

St Ybard 2008 Saturday

What a smashing final day for this year’s trip. Late on a fine morning Norman and Mick took a short potter through the up and down lanes of the 10 miles to Pompadour via St Martin-Sepert and St Pardoux-Corbier taking photos along the way.

They arrived at 1230 for a fine salad lunch accompanied by a pichet of chilled Rose wine. As they were enjoying their coffee, Trevor, Martin and Paul arrived from Lubersac and Segur-le-Chateau, one of the prettiest villages in the Haute Vienne. They had been delayed by a Trevor puncture and the difficulties of trying to replace the 700 c inner tube with a much-patched one from a mountain bike - one of Trevor’s specials and in the true tradition of Mick O’Brien. Before the All Stars had finished their lunch the two Old Contemptibles departed for the flatter route home along D70 and D155. They were caught and passed near Le Grand Brugeron but all five arrived home about 3.20 just as the heavens opened and today’s stage of the Tour de France came on the tele. Perfect timing, perfect timing. Housekeeper Denbo was beating the carpets on the line in traditional Old Mother Reilly fashion and bemoaning a housewife’s lot and got the sympathy he so richly deserved. The lads in the tour were also experiencing heavy rains around Toulouse but that didn’t stop our new hero, Mark Cavendish, from producing the goods with another fine stage win. Like you, we all shared in the glory. Only we had the last pints of Paul’s St Ybard 2008 brew with which to celebrate. Now we’re doing little packing and clearing up bits before we walk down to the Hotel St Roche in the village for an end of term dinner tonight. We’ll dink a toast to your health. The plan is to leave early (Denbo’s car) and later (Trev’s lot) tomorrow morning for the long drive home and to arrive about midnight your time. This doesn’t give much time before we meet at Ellens Green at 8.30 Monday morning for the Bastille Day Ride. On verra – we shall see!

2hrs 28mins, 32.5 miles, 13.1mph, 1536 cals, 65rpm, 133bpm. Remember to let Caroline know 07956 453054 if you are calling at her place on Monday night to remember 1789 and to take a glass for the Republic.

Vive la France, Vive la Republique, Vive Le Clarencourt!
Are you the falconer ?

St Ybard 2008 Friday

During the night we had a heavy thunderstorm with lightning, crashing and banging, the electricity tripped, hailstones bombarding the roof and windows; you couldn’t even hear Denbo snoring. Today has been overcast and we decided not to drive a long way to watch the tour. We have spent the day on domestic duties, reading, snoozing and idly chatting. The bikes stayed in the barn. Absolutely lovely and my legs don’t hurt at all.

Martin and Trevor have worked hard to complete installation of the new outside door to the bathroom, which should have earned them a mega-housepoints bonus. Trevor is just filling the voids around the new door frame with an expanding mousse – I believe the 500mls can expand to completely fill the whole bathroom so we may never see him again. Norman, Den, Martin and Paul visited Super-U on a shopping expedition this afternoon and went up to The Bowler for a beer. In their absence Trevor had a tidy up and found some rotten apples and mouldy mushrooms. Paul and Denbo are currently bickering over cooking them in a 16 egg omelette for supper I think. Oh Dear, it’s all go isn’t it?

St Ybrd 2008 Thursday

We hope you enjoyed Cav’s win yesterday. I didn’t get an Equipe today to see how it was received but the commentator on France 2, speaking just after the finish yesterday, managed to give Mr Bean and the Isle of Man TT a mention but I didn’t pick up anything about Her Gracious Majesty.

Today was supposed to be a rest day, with a short ride this morning and a snooze by the lake this afternoon. Some hopes! We’ve been coming here for 6 years and each year we’ve noted, on a turning not far from here, a small signpost depicting a black silhouette of a bird flying across a setting sun between two hillsides. “Probably a bird sanctuary or Bird of Prey Centre,” we’d decided. We’ve seen many birds of prey this week so what better way to fill a rest day morning than a bike ride to the falconry? Into the narrow lane we turned and after a further kilometre left again into an even narrower one. Finally it petered out into a track and there was a sign inviting us to garage our car in the car park and proceed to reception if we pleased. The car park had quite a few cars in it, many old bangers and we weaved our way through them to regain the track where we turned right again. On the corner there was a strange chap picking away at his Blackberry in Christina fashion, dressed in only a towel and that slung across his shoulders. Unperturbed we gave him a polite “Bon Jour!” and descended steeply into a water mill complex where were sat five people having their coffee round an outdoor table – all stark bollock naked.
“Hello,” said their leader over his shoulder, in a distinctly Flemish accent, “what do you want here?”

At moments like these one prays for an appropriate repost but all that came out was, “We want to see the birds of prey, are you the falconer?” I ask you. “Are you the falconer?” Is that what you usually ask a naked man you meet by accident in the open air? “Falconer? Falconer? No, I am not the falconer. This is a naturist centre. Did you not see the notice?” “Well, yes,” I pleaded, “But nature to you means taking your clothes off; to us it means falcons diving out of the sky onto bunny rabbits.” We left in a hurry and laughed all the way back to the main road.
Next stop was the bottom of the Vizere Gorge below Estivaux, a place we have visited many times before. It was still impressive but at the top we had a brief shower and Mick decided to miss out on La Roche and to meet his companions further round the loop at Sadroc – without a map.

This is where things started to fall apart. Mick found Sadroc eventually but never arrived at the cafe. Using his sense of direction he headed north on D920. Eventually the three musketeers arrived at the Sadroc café and phoned Mick to gloat that they were in the café and he had the hunger knock 5 miles north. At about 3 o’clock Mick staggered into a roadside bar and restaurant and asked in his best French for something to eat. “English?” the charming damsel replied in a Liverpool accent, “ham sandwich and a beer do you?” Thus he sat under a sunshade outside, ate, drank, slept and recovered while he waited for the others to come along to meet him. The Liverpool lass, Sian, with her husband Brian had been at the Hotel Bariolet on D920 just north of Perpezac le Noir for 18 months making a go of the business. Pizzas too!
We said we’d give them a plug so if you ever want a stop off motorway A20 between Junction 45 and 46 for a meal or overnight rooms then give Hotel Bariolet a call:- Hotel du Bariolet, Le Bariolet, 19410 Perpezac le Noir, 00 44 555 73 74 09 sianconnell@gmail.com

It was now well late and Denbo and Norman had got fed up waiting for us at the lake and returned home. We got there at 4.30 in time to see the finish of the tour on the TV in the café before limping tiredly home. After supper Trevor and Martin fitted the new door to the bathroom. We’re not sure if we will drive 100 miles tomorrow to see the tour stage finish at Aurillac or go for a ride. Not another rest day!

4hrs 1 min, 47 miles, 11.6 mph, 2452 calories, cad 61, av bpm 139, climbing 3,136 metres.

St Ybard 2008 Wednesday

Lizards everywhere today, it was their sort of day, hot, sunny and dry, hooray, very good for riding a bike too. Everyone was up and jumping into their kit at sparrow fart, tyres pumped up, charts consulted and we were off shortly after 10. Norman decided to have a solo ride west to Pompadour, a round trip of about 40kms, which must make this his highest weekly mileage for a year. Mick O’Brien sent him a congratulatory text message. Denbo busied himself around the estate all day doing good works, delivering barrels of rotten apples to the peasants, that sort of thing. Trevor, Paul, Martin and Mick set off north and after the first long steady climb out of the village towards junction 44 on the motorway they enjoyed the good surface and modest gradients of the old main road, now virtually free of traffic. At Masseret we detoured up into the village to show Martin the tower and the hotel where Mick is always saying he is going to take Sheila but never has. Then it was onto the D20, another beautifully surfaced main road without traffic, to Meilhards to the café-restaurant we found the other day for coffee and Diablo de Menthe. The owner recognized us, the family think they’ve recruited some more regulars. There are two perfectly good yellow road routes from here to Treignac but that was much too simple for Tracker Trev. Before we knew it we were off the beaten track again, up hill and down dale, through no-mans-land until we finally emerged north-east of Treignac. We descended to the big roundabout then did a few kilometres on the D940 to the Lac des Barriousses for an excellent lakeside snack lunch. Mick had had enough by then and since he had a feeling that the tour stage finish at Chateauroux might be young Mark Cavendish’s best chance of a stage win this year he took the main road back to Le Lonzac then crossed to Eyburie and down past the prison to Uzerche – the road he had raced along with Terry Pearce in the Tour of Correze 46 years ago! Sad bugger. Still it was all for a good cause. He was installed in front of the TV in The Bowler Hat bar with a beer in his hand with just 40kms to go to the stage finish. What a thrilling finale it was and the old chap had the feeling that he was influential in Cav’s fine win. Well done my old son!

After that exhausting afternoon Mick limped back up the hill home to arrive only a few minutes before the return of the All Stars who went straight for the water spring (see pic). The house was silent, Norman and Denbo were resting their eyelids for a few minutes – but not for much longer! The big hitters had headed north from the lunchtime lake into territory previously un-pedalled by the Clarencourt. As later described, this involved two climbs like White Downs only unsurfaced which led up to Lestards and finally up to the day’s target of Suc-au-Mey at 908 metres. Then it was back home via Chamboulive and Espartignac at a hell of a lick with several stops for Trevor to check their whereabouts. Now they are Barbying the duck for supper before the evening's Tour programme starts on the TV. They haven’t been told the stage result yet. Don’t miss it lads. There will be a few glasses quaffed tonight eh?

5hrs 27 mins, 65.9 miles, 12mph av, 3630 calories, 130 bpm av, cad 61, 5,200 metres climbed.