Ride to Woburn loop via Wavendon

Another instalment of my First Sunday of The Month rides took us the reverse of the February ride around parts of the Greensand ridge through Aspley Guise, Woburn and the Brickhills.

I was awoken by rain battering the bedroom window at 08.00 this morning and did wonder if anyone would turn up today. By the time I'd had breakfast and a coffee it had cleared up and was looking to be a nice day (for Dec' anyway).
Arriving at the bandstand I found another rider there already and within 10 minutes there was 8 of us. A good turnout for a December ride. Last years ride had only me and another rider turn up and IIRC it was -3c and the roads were very icy.
The ride took us through Fenny Stratford and down Simpson road to the canal bridge, the red light caused us to stop but one rider decided to ride "Illegally" on the footpath with a call of "you'll never learn" or some such thing.
We crossed the bridge and turned right as he headed into the distance, he'll never learn :-)

Stopping the riders at the top of the path I went and found him by Caldecotte lake and brought him back on route. After going back to get the others we were on our way again along the redways towards Wavendon.
The ride starts to get hilly after Salford as it goes up past the church in Aspley Guise and the rolling roads to Woburn.
We stopped at the top of most hills for the riders to catch their breath before going again.
Doing the route clockwise is slightly harder as it takes time to get to the top and most of the ride seems to be climbing.
After stopping someone going off route down a big hill (wouldn't want to see him climbing back up again) we found ourselves at the pub in Great Brickhill. The 2 pints were most welcome and so was the roaring fire inside.

It was then on with the jacket as being mostly downhill from then on I knew it would be cold.
As we got back to the Bandstand the group was down 4. The others having taken shorter routes home as we came to the end of the ride.
The gps showed almost exactly 20 miles and 1hr40 moving time, we were out for just over 3hrs.
Another good ride in good company and one new rider who I hope will come along again.
See you all on next years rides.