The Ridgeway

Saturday 19th August saw bright skies and lots of smiles for the 2nd Evans Trail Ride in the latest series run by www.trailbreak.co.uk. This time the ride was in Oxfordshire based up and around the Ridgeway near Wantage and the pretty village of Letcombe Regis.

Despite being bang in the middle of school holiday season the ride was well attended, with a bunch of women too, ranging from regulars to Evan’s Trail Ride newbies. All in the search of some new trails and fun people to ride with.

Most people turn up with a friend or group of mates and choose to ride together but at each of the Evans Cycles Trail Rides this season SheCycles.com will be providing a free women’s ride option. So if you’d prefer to ride with other women or want to come alone, you’re very welcome to join us at future events. We plan on riding the Standard length route but are open to suggestions if required.

The Wantage route was stunning thanks to the sunny weather allowing us unprecendented views across to the Vale of the White Horse and Lambourn Downs. The ancient Ridgeway was the backbone of the Standard and Long routes with steep climbs and descents interspersing the high ridge. Along the way we met some skittish looking race horses alongside the gallops, saw ancient remains of forts and even dropped down through some chocolate box villages. The undulating Ridgeway looks reasonably flat according to the countours on the map given out by the nice TrailBreak team, but after a couple of hours in those ruts we can assure it is not, coupled with the regular drops off the Ridgeway and steep climbs back up the hills the course was sufficiently testing to warrant a long stop at the Drinks Station.

At this point two of our riders chose to do the longer route so we left Jenny and Jane to the remainder of their 33 mile epic and we headed home for a welcome pasty and piece of cake! The routes are well signed and thoughtfully planned to allow riders to shorten or lengthen their ride at certain points, it’s easy to set off doing the standard or short route and then if you’re feeling good add on an extra loop as per the signs. You visit checkpoints along the way and get to punch your ride card to proove which route you rode and officially register your time once you get back to base. It’s not a race, but it’s a good way of testing yourself against the clock if you wish!

Dates and locations of the rides for the rest of the year include:

• 30th September Queen Elizabeth Country Park (South Downs)
• 14th October Gatwick (Evans Cycles HQ)
• 4th November Bramley (North Downs)
• 25th November Shackleford (North Downs)

SheCycles.com will be each event so come and join us for a ride or just stop by for a coffee or to say Hello! The women’s ride will leave at each 9.45 each event and we’ll meet by the start line – look out for the SheCycles banner!

Getting ready to go!

The Ridgeway overlooking beautiful Didcot!!

A casual start line