Like this time last year, the ride was timed to take place during the middle Sunday of The Championships at the AELTC (aka Wimbledon). Last year the ride took longer than expected and didn't finish until nearly 7pm. The aim this time was to shorten the distance, avoid the busy roads, and get back by 6pm.

A good turnout saw Alan Potter and his son Robin, along with Bernie Green, John MacMillan, Cliff Jones, Phil Hallewell, and Geoff Clegg. John Owen was leading the ride. Chris Kinsey had hoped to be there but he found the offer of a free holiday in Cornwall too good an opportunity to miss and he couldn't make it.

We left Uxbridge on a warm pleasant July morning and the first stop was the vegetarian cafe 'Tide Tables' in Richmond. We all seemed satisfied how quick the staff served the long queue of cyclists and tourists, and most people enjoyed the quality as well so the Tide Tables was a successful stop. We had reached there via Osterley Park and Syon Park, and after a twenty minute stop it was off along the Thames, past Ham House and through Richmond Park.

As you would expect, there were references to The Wombles as we crossed Wimbledon Common and this meant we were soon going past all the purple tennis signs and logos of Wimbledon and then a quick lap around the club grounds (and the big houses and expensive cars). The route around the grounds had been changed to make it shorter and this meant two steep hills instead of the advertised one. Bernie and Cliff disappeared for a few minutes when they weren't sure which way we'd gone as the hump at the top of the hill had hidden us.

Fortunately after the two hills it was then only ten minutes until the lunch break at The Watchman in New Malden. Being a Wetherspoons pub this meant seating wasn't going to be a problem - unlike the bike locking where we all ended up moving our bikes after not finding any outside tables available. The lunch didn't cost much more than the tea stop in the usual almost-fast-food Wetherspoons way and we left there at 3pm (about 45 minutes earlier than a year earlier).

Instead of going through Hampton Court Park we followed the Thames path towards the palace and needed to slow down amongst loads of people coming out from the flower show. Riding through Bushy Park, close to the exit we did finally see some deer and Phil took the opportunity for a picture of himself amongst them (see attached pictures).

The tea stop was discussed when we reached Moniz in Cranford and the agreement was to stop there and not go another four or five miles for a beer at Stockley Park. A few people did have a beer at Moniz as a compromise. As it turned out the stop in Cranford meant the three main parts of the ride were well spaced out, all being very close to 25km.

Soon after leaving Moniz Cafe, John M, Phil, Bernie, and Geoff, went off in a direct route to Uxbridge on the Dawley Road in order to get home quicker. As the remaining four of us went through Stockley Park, Alan's offer to buy drinks in Wetherspoons was politely rejected, and onward across the fields we went. Making it back to Uxbridge at 6:13pm, we only narrowly missed the 6pm target