With five of us out we couldn’t do a car-assisted ride, so Michael selected Ashprington as destination which he expected to be around 20 miles in all – he didn’t want to go too far since Ryan had missed the last two harder rides.

We set off at a fast pace along Colston Road and along the cycle path to Totnes, so fast in fact that Michael could see us reaching Ashprington and getting home again by 2.30! As usual everyone had brought too much clothing, so Michael’s pannier got filled to capacity.

Unfortunately the good pace didn’t last. At Totnes weir we had a short chocolate break and then when we were about to leave Callum discovered that he had a puncture. What Michael didn’t realise at the time was that Callum had ridden around on it while it was flat, just to make sure! Michael had to fix the tube as nobody had a spare for the small Trek bike, and while he was doing that Zac rang to see if he could arrange to join the ride late. It would apparently depend on what his Mum said when she returned from Totnes. Meanwhile Callum did his usual trick of checking the tyre for thorns and not finding the small thorn that was there. Even when that had been removed however the tyres was still deflating slowly, but Michael decided to pump it for now and move forward with the ride.

As usual nobody had brought much lunch, and several had not brought any money, so we called in to Morrisons to get some sandwiches and then pressed on to the Ashprington path, stopping on the bench with the great view over the river Dart at around 1pm. Zac rang just before we stopped to say he wouldn’t be coming because his Mum wouldn’t bring him in, but as Michael pointed out he could have cycled to Totnes and got there by 12.35!

We had a very pleasant lunchtime amongst the buttercups in the sunshine, although Hallam didn’t much like the chicken pasta he had bought. Michael then fixed the second hole in Callum’s tube (the one caused by him riding around earlier) and we eventually left at around 1.35. As usual we enjoyed the downhill part of the track but not so much the uphill bit. Hallam rode it all however.

Next stop was Ashprington Play Park, where the big swing was generally considered to be pretty good. The downhill to Bow Bridge was great fun, but then, stupidly, three people attempted to ride the ford despite Michael’s warnings. Hallam tried first, stopping halfway across and getting both feet soaked. Callum went second and made it across, but went so fast he splashed his feet to be nearly as wet as Hallam’s. Finally Ash tried: he nearly made it to the far side but put his right foot down in the water, then when trying unsuccessfully to start again put his left foot down! It all made for great entertainment.

We took the flat road to Harbertonford and stopped at the shop for ice creams and drinks by the river – very relaxing. We had done 16 miles by now with 8 to go (although Michael told everyone 4, based on his original estimate of 20 miles for the ride), and by the time Callum had filled his water bottle when everyone else was ready to go it was 2.38 before we finally got away. Michael was still estimating a 3.30 return time, but with actually 8 miles to go that was always going to be tricky.

Things went fairly well through Sandwell and everyone enjoyed the main road section and the descent to Tigley, but now it was 3.15 and some parents needed phone calls to delay them arriving at the Buckfastleigh collection point. To make matters worse Ryan was now feeling really tired, so it was 4.11 when we eventually made it over Rattery hill to Buckfastleigh. It had been a good ride though, and everyone did really well.