A lap of the historic road race route around and over Mt. Ventoux (1912 m.), it’s a challenging route of 55 km. As well as a number of hairpin bends and a lot of altitude loss/gain there are a number of truly scary straight runs which end in either a blind curve (or multiple curves) with either hard rock, a sheer drop or just forest to greet you if you get it wrong. Not really time to appreciate the views of all of Provence from the Alps to the Mediterranean. A few opportunities to feel the breeze down the inside of the back of the suit from the intake on the speed bump but generally, sharing the road with so many Lycra fetishists (ie cyclists, and there are thousands of them) makes it difficult to imagine how the route would feel as a bike road race, like the TT. Anyhow, the villages were bustling and atmospheric, especially Bédoin on the south side.

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Stormy weather in June even in Provence. Plenty of green trees and grass on Mont Sainte-Baume, rising above the sub-tropical forest of cork. oak and parasol pine trees near Bras (Var). Great to be back on my own bike but this is a ride I would usually do in winter but even now in June the higher routes are still wet and cloudy.

Nine of us from GBMCC enjoyed a day out at North Weald Airfield in Essex; we started on quad bikes to get the basic actions and reflexes, then moved on to teaching bikes supplied by our fantastic teachers, Stunt Asylum. Some got the front wheel up much more smoothly and for longer than others, but we all did it. Several riders moved up to doing wheelies on their own bikes. Stunt Asylum put on a mind-wrenching show for us at the lunch break...

English sunshine for the GLME 2016 Ascension bike camp. GBMCC were our hosts this year with rides to Stonehenge, Winchester cathedral, the Hardy Monument overlooking Dorset’s Jurassic Coast, the New Forest and many more places of interest. 115 bikers based in two friendly hotels in Salisbury. Many highlights in a packed programme but charity Cream Teas in the garden of the Village Hall in Wimbourne St. Mary gets my vote for the all-time wackiest destination for a bike ride; such was the appreciation of the village-made cakes that our French friends from AMA fitted only eight of them in the nearby red telephone box afterwards! The record appears to still be 14, set in 2003.
And a big Thank You to Jon, Oded and Ernst who took me pillion as the hire GSXR bike didn't make the run due to a breakdown problem.
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