Autumn Gold: NRC Rides with Honesty

Two groups have come together to create something new: our long-established club, with lots of members who enjoy coffee (or tea) and cake while out cycling and the Honesty Group with a large group of coffee lovers who want to cycle more. A perfect example of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts, we thought. And so it turned out on a crisp, bright and somewhat golden autumn morning on Sunday October 18th.

We added to our regular selection of Sunday morning rides, which depart from Newbury Market Place, some special rides centred around the Honesty Cafe in Inkpen, a village between Newbury and Hungerford. We always welcome new riders to 'Come and Try It' on our organised rides and so it was natural to make it easy for Honesty Rides members to join us from a familiar location.

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11 riders met at the Crown and Garter Cafe and were organised into two groups, each with a Ride Leader, as our peloton of fast, non-stop riders from Newbury made an impressive fly past. After some commemorative photos, the Honesty Inkpen crowd set off in on a fabulous  autumn ride through scenic villages of Ham and Shalbourne.

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Glorious golden landscapes proved too tempting to resist for photo shots, as was a visit to the recently refurbished Wilton windmill. A relaxed mood in the peloton added a brief pit-stop at the Bedwyn Baristas, Gt Bedwyn. Refreshed, the group then followed parallel to the canal sometimes in golden tree lined lanes to Hungerford. Crossing the common cautiously to avoid cattle in the road, they then set about the “last” climb and return to Inkpen.

Of the other NRC rides departing from Newbury, one passed the Honesty location in KIngsclere and another stopped for their break in Overton. Looking to the future, we look forward to welcoming more Honesty Rides members to join us for a trial outing on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday mornings and we'll be working with Honesty to plan some more special days like this.