Do you remember ‘Lift of in Pollicott’

Tuesday 18th May

January 17th 2010 – do you remember ‘Lift of in Pollicott’ “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, (T minus 5), four, three, two, one…….Pollicott we have lift off”?

Well, in ten days time it is lift off, The Belles begin the 65 mile ride along The Ridgeway from Wiltshire to home. It really is that close so another mid-week training session was on the cards – time to squeeze in as much as we can.

Sian had a netball commitment down at Ashfold School and left early with Andy, leaving Vicky and me to meet up with them a little later at The Gatehangers pub in Ashendon (more about this later).

Tonights route took us out of Ashendon down the hill towards Brill on what has become known (to us) as The Dorton Loop – maybe one day it will become famous – see Wikipedia ‘Dorton Loop’ – a route of cycling agony and pain initiated by The Pollicott Belles!. Ah! – fame at last.

By recent standards an hour out on the road doesn’t seem like much, but speed is certainly picking up and The Dorton Loop is a decent run (see Wikipedia), so a stop off at The Gatehangers pub was the least we deserved. After such a brisk workout a drink was well deserved and trust Vicky to ‘max out’ at the first opportunity (well, old Morse Miller wasn’t about was she?) and two pints of lager and a bowl of chips later the damage was done.

Enter Sian – “hello hello – what’s going on here then”? Too late, empty glasses and chip bowl already in the dishwasher. “Hi Sian, fancy a diet coke” I said, waving my glass aloft. “Hick – yesh, a diet coke” added Vicky.

It appears our new Landlord at the Gatehangers, Andy (lets call him Andy II to save confusion with Sians Andy), has clearly been following The Belles progress. Deftly avoiding the subjects of lager, chips, and tomato ketchup, he was enthusiastic about our exploits as portrayed on our blog updates. Good going Andy II, and not a word to Morse Miller – we’ll sort a bung out later.

So another training session done, a fun night to the end the day, and now only nine days to go before we hit the road for real.

Alex xx