A mild day but the strong wind made it feel cold whenever the sun disappeared. The wind was largely behind us (apart from the very exposed few hundred metres leading up to the Childrey Cross-roads) until Coleshill, where a rather quiet Blake's Cafe provided the coffee and cakes. On the longer return leg the wind was more in evidence either as a cross-wing or headwind - 16 mph was forecast but it seemed a good bit stronger. One slight hiccup on Northmead Lane, when Phil caught his tyre on an undercut road edge, resulted in an unscheduled dismount but both bike and rider seemed unscathed.

There was good disciplined group riding throughout, important given the wind - thank you all!

A grey start for a flat Vale ride.
We only encountered one deep puddle (twice) near Denchworth but it didn’t wet our feet or submerge our bottom brackets.
A couple of running groups meant we had a longer than usual queue at the bakehouse but a table came free upstairs so we lingered as we relished our snacks and admired the busy bakery in action.
Very enjoyable!

68k, 1 hill, 1 coffee, 1 cinnamon bun!!

6 of us gathered for a pretty chilly start in the market place, heading out on well trodden routes to Longworth, round the back of Standlake then on to Clanfield via Yelford, Bampton and Black Bourton.

The cafe was rammed but we managed to get the last table and many of us enjoyed the last cinnamon bun of 2025.

The sun was out as we left and summited the only hill of the day up Thrupp Turn and it ended up being relatively warm as we headed home to Wantage.

A nice pleasant flat ride in the dry and not nearly as chilly as expected.

This was a pop up ride, only posted on the preceding afternoon.
I thought it would be a solo ride but happy that Nick popped up.
Very flat route. Slightly warmer and less windy than recent conditions.
Proof was rammed, as usual, but efficient - we did not have to queue for long and had a seat overlooking the busy bakery in action.
Wind assisted return - arriving back in Wantage at 12:01.
Will go again - might take a backpack for some take home breads.

Good conditions for the Winter solstice - mild, dry but very grey! A couple of familiar faces back after a while swelled the group to six. A very pleasant, sociable ride with a coffee stop at "Weigh it Up" at Highworth, new venue in place of the T Linnett cafe - nice cafe, quiet this morning, with good coffee with some tasty, though diminutive, cakes.

Wantage to Eynsham...very wet, chilly and grim!
Lyall's coffee shop...lovely and warm, nice coffee and cake. Didn't stay long enough to dry out the gloves unfortunately!
Eynsham to Wantage...not quite so wet, multiple puncture repairs and still pretty grim!
Feel better for getting out...a little!!

It was easy northwards to Charney but we then turned into the fierce southwesterly all the way to the Baking Bee at Ashbury where the staff were struggling with a new point of sale system.
The cross tail wind on the springline road required our full concentration. Fortunately, West Dragon Hill was sheltered and we enjoyed mince pies, mulled wine and renewed acquaintances with local cyclists in the White Horse car park.
We crested the hill in the wind and returned to Wantage where a number of us enjoyed a meal at Alfie’s.