Christmas Eve ride

Great to see everyone this morning.....Elise, Claire, Mercy, Sandra, Nikki, Angela, Steph, Tizzie and welcome back Leyla!

We all decorated our bikes in a Christmas theme, Tizzie brought along her wonderful singing teddy.....

A new type of water bottle.....

The Jingle Belles......

With much enthusiasm from Tizzie, it didn't take her long to repair her flat tyre....

Steph's bike with pretty christmas tree on the handle bars....

From here we made our way to our cafe in Bosham where the tide was starting to come in....



A swan having one of our mince pies

On leaving Bosham we were all admiring this lovely apricot coloured cat sitting watching the world go by.......unfortunately Lelya turned around to look at the cat and.....

oops, over she goes......!!

She was fine. We then made our way towards Chidham for a glass of mulled wine and a mince pie at The Old House at Home pub - a place we'll have to visit again on another ride as we see they do cream teas!

Not much cycling today, but it was fun. We all cycled back to the start and said our goodbyes and Happy Christmases. Good to see everyone today.

Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to all Belles!!

Saturday, December 17 - Maratona ride

We met at 9am this morning, another cold yet sunny winter morning. Welcome new Belle - Alison, Elise, Mercy and Steph were also out.

We cycled up New Barn Lane towards the East Dean crossroads, turning right here when it suddenly started to sleet, which was not expected. Just further along this road approximately 6 deer shot across our path, looked like youngsters, rushing over into the woods. We carried on along towards Benges crossroads but unfortunately, Alison had a puncture on her back wheel. Within seconds Alison had the wheel off and busily found the culprit - which looked like a thorn - new tip for everyone....she always carries within her puncture kit a pair of tweezers which were perfect for pulling out the thorn.

We changed from cycling to Petworth, over to Midhurst and back via Cocking due to the wet and cold weather, instead we cycled our 'Heyshott route'. Good testing ride this and we all made it and were even encouraged on the Cocking hill by a 6 year old who was helping his dad clear part of side track on the hill.

Down into Cocking we then made for West Dean cafe, the weather had improved by this time and it was now dry and sunny again.

After mince pies, cake, tea and coffees we decided to go back home via the Centurion Way rather than up Charlton hill this week. We said goodbye to Steph and Alison at the Lavant point as they were going on towards Chichester. Mercy, Elise and myself carried on via Lavant and cut through Goodwood and back to the hotel.

Mileage - 32 miles - hilly and testing.
Speed - I gather Alison hit 34 mph going down Duncton hill!!

Good to see everyone today.