Description
Today saw the first of (hopefully) many Girl's rideouts and it was a great success. I know I'm not a lady, no honest, and neither is Mike from M9 Performance, but all official attendees had to qualify (Steve slipped in on medical grounds). In all we had 8 riders plus us two so quite a little posse and we set off from the Ace as close to 10am as possible bearing in mind that I'm late for almost everything.
Mike took the lead with me acting as tail-end charlie to make sure that no-one got left behind. The variety of bikes (from 1000RR to 125rr-ish) meant that the pace could be described as 'leisurely' which meant plenty of time for self-admiring in the passing windows. And I know I wasn't the only one girls, I know who you are!
The plan was to head first to Windsor for our first break but I suspect that we got there a little sooner than planned and so had some time to kill before lunch could be served. The girls had planned Windsor as a stop off for lunch and shopping although I'm pleased to report that the biking-bug won and they were a little impatient to be off on the road again. Hoorah!
From there we headed north through Slough and up to the M4 at the Beaconsfield junction where I decided (as I was now leading) that we should head up to Amersham from there. To allow the faster riders to get some air through their vents I waved some of the girls through and they promptly roared off towards Amersham. The rest of us caught up there and then we ambled down the A413 to Denham to then join the M40 back to the Ace.
We returned to the start line at about 4pm and everyone was buzzing from the ride which is just how it should be. Weaver overtook me on the way to Amersham as I was going too slow (that's me told - a 675 taken by a GS500 ye Gods) and so I had that to live down, and Paivi rattled up my inside (oo matron) at Hanger Lane although I suspect that was as much down to a spot of 'late' braking as Moto GP tactics hehe.
I'm pleased (and not a little relieved) that the day went without incident and it does make a pleasant change not to be riding with 'typical blokes' trying to going faster all day. We didn't even have to make any more toilet stops than us guys needed!
So well done to all, sorry to Puppy who should have been doing this instead of me, and I'm looking forward to the next one.
