C&M Easter Tour 2026 - Pete's Saturday ride

This year there were two organised rides on offer each day.  Pete B led a ride in the general north-west direction: details were scant but he promised that his ride would be completely flat, although the route seemed to show quite a few hills.

Outside the New Inn

After a group photo outside the hotel we set off towards the Windrush valley which houses several beautiful villages including Windrush itself.   We stopped for coffee at the village shop at Sherborne, sitting outside in the sunshine.   Pete advised us that lunch was "flexible" and so we should buy provisions to take with us.   

Elevenses at Sherborne

Duly refreshed, we continued on our way.  Pete decided to short-cut a planned detour to Bourton-on-the-Water because it would have been very busy.  Later on we saw what he meant.   Instead we found some different hills, quite a few in fact, winding our way through open countryside, blossom filled hedges and a few sheep here & there.  The views were fabulous and every village or even just a house was a picture postcard.

Lunch was taken at a roadside junction in a beautiful valley in the middle of nowhere.   We were quite close to a Roman villa, which we never saw, but we continued to see signs to it for the next five or so miles.   It seemed that all roads led to the Roman villa, except the ones that we were on.

In the afternoon the wind got stronger and became quite strong in places as we approached Withington.  At that point we turned round and headed back home down the Coln valley.   If it sounds like a gentle downhill ride, that's only partly true, but it was very beautiful and peaceful... until...

...Until we arrived at Bibury, which was heaving with tourists  - like us.  Except these ones were clogging up the narrow roads by walking two abreast along the road (dreadful), parking their cars on the verge (awful), and trying to drive through in both directions (disgraceful).  It was not fun to cycle through, and we were pleased to get away up a hill out of town.  After that we had about five miles of flat, straight road leading us directly back to Lechlade.   A lovely day out - thank you to Pete for a memorable and enjoyable ride.