All roads lead to Overton - 40 days to go

If in 1805, Admiral Lord Nelson had used a Garmin cycle computer to guide him to Portsmouth for the start of his last, fateful voyage on board HMS Victory; I think there is little doubt we’d all be speaking French today.


We attempted to kill two birds with one stone on this weekend’s training ride. Firstly we thought we’d go down to Portsmouth to see what the ride to the ferry might be like and secondly we though we’d try some gentle satellite navigation by allowing Jeremy’s Garmin cycle computer to lead the way.

A route from Streatley to Portsmouth of 63 miles was duly loaded into the device. After 75 miles and with only the slightest hint of schadenfreude on Graham’s part, we were still exploring previously uncharted areas of Hampshire countryside. Try as we might to persuade the little gadget to take us to Portsmouth, it seemed fascinated by a place called Overton and attempted to take us back there on three of four separate occasions.

The Garmin is supposed to give a little ‘ping’ to tell you that your turning’s coming up only in our case, we got a little ‘ping’ to tell us we’d just missed it. We discovered that only by travelling at less than 10 mph would it ‘Ping’ in time to be vaguely useful - which conveniently enough, provides this week’s excuse for a our continually decreasing average speed on these rides; a sedentary 15.8 mph for this outing. With Jeremy mumbling something about incompatible file formats, it was with considerable relief that Chris and I once again placed our trust in Graham’s homing pigeon instincts, which have served us so well over the past few years.

After cycling 88 miles we eventually got to Portsmouth for an extremely civilised lunch of pie and mash in a pub by the Historic Dockyard. For the return journey we followed the country lanes that the Garmin should have lead us down on the way. A lovely ride on a beautiful April afternoon through Hambledon, Corhampton, Farringdon, Basingstoke, Aldermarston and home. 151 miles and back by six in time to go out for a Chinese with Manda and the kids.

Mid week training continued apace with Chris getting a couple of 25 mile rides and some running in, Graham trying an 80 mile commute to work for the first time this year and Jeremy and I following our usual regime which included another trip to Reading Velodrome on Tuesday evening.

The route to Venice is more or less settled now with the only remaining question being whether we attempt the famous Stelvio pass on day 6. There are now two schools of thought; Chris and I who being in our forties, believe that you’re only young once and that climbing over a 9,000 foot pass after having peddled nearly 900 miles is an eminently sensible idea, Graham and Jeremy on the other hand think we should go with a perfectly acceptable alternative which is 30 miles shorter and involves about 3000 feet less climbing. Whilst I’m not entirely clear about the reasons for their reluctance, I’m convinced that Jeremy’s concern relates to a fear of finding himself heading back to Overton should he be forced to rely on his ##~&*!@!! Garmin. At this stage, I think we’ll plan both a Stelvio and non-Stelvio route and see how the mood takes us when we get there.

This week will see us booking hotels and sorting out racks, bags and carriers for the bikes. Keep you posted!