Lawrence woke up with a cold and told us he didn't want to cycle today. There were only four of us booked, conditions were cold and the forecast was for heavy showers all day, so it seemed we had no choice but to travel to the hotel by car this year.

We played some computer games, then set off for the Ilsington Country Hotel at 11.45. When we arrived we spent the first hour enjoying the private indoor pool, jacuzzi, sauna and steam room. This was a lot of fun, although we had to share the pool with a woman who kept insisting that we stay out of "her side" of the pool at all times so she could swim up and down without distraction. It didn’t' seem to matter if we were at opposite ends of the pool, just the thought of us contaminating her lane was too much to bear.

Our meal was delicious as usual. Ash and Lawrence had a pear starter, Callum and Michael had parsnip soup. All except Michael had turkey, and the desserts were definitely interesting. Everyone seemed keen to take part in our forthcoming Easter tour.

We headed home at 3.30, but an accident on the A38 near Ashburton delayed us getting home until 4.20. Despite the bad forecast there wasn't any real rain today until 4pm.

Alistair arrived early to tell Michael that the road was icy this morning. Evidently he forgot this warning as we set off down the road: Callum was coming up the road as we were going down, Michael was looking straight at him trying to work out if it was him, hit an invisible icy patch and promptly hit the road. Alistair found the whole thing very amusing. Ash turned up at 10.30 just in time to miss the action, although he had found some icy patches on his way down in the car that had given him a couple of near misses.

We had planned to ride to Fermoys at Ipplepen today, but in view of the icy conditions we thought a change of route to Dean Hill might be safer. This proved to be ice-free so we rode to South Brent, bought some refreshments from the co-op and then rode along the Avon river from Avonwick. It really was a fabulous morning now.

Ash had his new Specialized road bike today, a much-anticipated Christmas present, so we kept to roads for today's ride. We took the short-cut past Diptford Downs and returned via Rattery and Pennywell by 1.20.