Flat Earth Society

 Saturday's cycle group outing was advertised as a meeting of the Flat Earth Society.  

Planned rides are posted on the club's website with a rating A -D (where A is long, fast steep and only for tough people and masochists, B is hilly, 50 or so miles, moderately paced,  C has a few mild slopes, is 35-45 miles and probably won't exceed 15 mph except downhill. D is flat, short, slow - what one of my riding accomplices refers to as a Granny Ride.)

G (ride leader) proclaimed this to be an E rated ride.

Given that G (now in his 80s) was a competitive cyclist in younger years and his normal offerings are B.... 

Havant to Tangmere is indeed fairly flat and level, even if you do it all by the back lanes of East Hampshire and West Sussex, but unbeknownst to me, E seemed to mean this is some kind of pursuit race! G does have a very dry humour (and a strong Yorkshire accent). We all know his rides, even the flat ones,  are faster than the average, and he accepts a lot of ribbing about his enthusiasm for a challenge, but his knowledge of the byways (and cafes) within 100 miles of Emsworth is encyclopedic, and his rides are usually very well supported.

Shock horror then when he missed a turn on the way back and admitted he was lost in a part built new housing estate where only months ago there had been fields and hedgerows.

Then the rain started.

Hey ho...the ride out had been a pleasant spin through mainly rural idyll, berried hedgerows, sweet smell of silage, pink purple knapweed, lacy cream wild carrot flowers, lazy streams curling through water meadows and the 'romance' of country tracks with names like Sheepwash Lane or Fordwater Road.

By contrast, at one stage, as we were bowling along the road parallel to the Lavant Straight at Goodwood motor racing circuit, the sound of racing trials of some kind yeowled past us from the other side of the separating embankment.

Tangmere has been a military air base in times past. Today there is a cafe (of course, cafe being the objective of any ride out), and a museum of military aviation.

The cakes are good.

Photography was limited to the cafe stop so here, by way of a postcard...

Military hardware troubles my mind. I don't associate fighting with peace, but that is a whole other series of musings that I will cogitate on a while before commiting them to print.