Starting out from Buckingham at 7:15 prompt with Paul W, it was a chilly start to the day with mist hanging in the air requiring use of lamps and every bit of clothing I had with me. We met up with Martin at Tingewick and rode out to the meeting point at Mixbury, where we met Stephen and were soon joined by Paul T, Andrew and Simon. We waited a couple of mins and set off bang on time at 8am - I was very impressed with everyone dragging themselves out of bed on a Saturday morning and getting to the start in good time - it was too cold to wait around.

We had a pleasant ride out to Helmdon where we picked up Owen at his house and Glyn riding through the village. We then headed off towards Chacome looking out for Roger along the way. A mile outside of Chacome my rear derailleur cable snapped which was pretty inconvenient. We screwed in the stop on the rear mech and I rode in the 13 sprocket which was more comfortable than the 11, but was still quite hard work on the climbs unless I kept some speed up, which wasn't the intention of the ride and did stretch the peloton on some of the climbs. Regrouping at the top of each slope we changed plan slightly and headed in to Banbury to get a new cable.

The detour was semi succesful as we were able to hold my mech in a more sensible gear, but the lever mechanism appeared to be broken so I made do with one gear at the back and used the front changer for the hills. This seemed to amuse the group on the climbs, always good to kick a man when he is down, but all in the best of fun! We also managed to grab a cuppa at the pasty cafe before heading out to pick up the original route at Broughton. With a few more slopes to negotiate on the way to Charlbury the "mountain goats" were having to wait longer on the tops for the "downhill specialists".

We got to the lunch stop in good time and were nearly there before they started serving. The sandwiches were served with chips and hit the spot nicely, washed down with a few cups of tea. We set off after 45 mins or so and were riding in glorious sunshine. The autumn leaves were showing gold in the sun and all was well with the world. Glyn had to be back early and Owen was not on top form, so the two of them split and headed for home.

The remainder enjoyed a great ride across to Waterperry with a couple more slopes to be tackled. I noticed the level of chatting reducing behind and the odd grown when the road ahead seemed to climb a little. Sure sign folk were ready for another cuppa which we all enjoyed, along with the excellent selection of cakes.

As everyone seemed pretty chipper at this point I decided to stick to the plan and take in Brill on the way home. Some of the hard cases put the hammer down at the bottom and were gone. I stuck with the peloton riding up with Simon who didn't seem to be enjoying that part of the challenge, but he had done 80 miles on a mountain bike by that stage and was actually climbing really well. Down and back up on to the Muswell hill ridge before a hairy descent made more interesting by a stationary Range Rover just round the blind bend. I was going for a speed record at the time and then went for a braking record!

The ride from there on was run at a steady pace to get everyone back in good shape. We held our discipline until Paul T showed his front wheel on the Mixbury Straight. With only a tiny gear, I went for a long one and span along at over 130 rpm with smoke coming from my undercarriage, expecting the boys to come creaming by in 53 x 11, but they let me have take the points getting to the junction with the A421 first - eat your heart out Cavendish!

With a team photo by the Mixbury junction we split to find our way home and a well earned recovery beer.

Thanks to everyone who joined the ride. It was great to see how well you are riding with 100 miles being well within everyones capability on the day. People may have felt tired, but I didn't see any real suffering, a great effort by everyone. Paul W and I ended up with 107 miles including the ride to the start and back and I think those starting in Brackley clocked at least 103, so job done. Geoff.End of season 100 mile ride