SEVEN DAY CYCLIST
CYCLING, BUT NOT USUALLY RACING

Calbourne is just off the Freshwater road, and boasts a narrow lane, houses to one side, stream to the other, called 'Winkle Lane'. Leaving there, the steep hills behind me and the rolling countryside led me to Freshwater, at the western extremity of The Island, just south of The Needles. I had visited all this some 27 years ago. Now the traffic appeared far kinder to cyclists, but the hills seemed to have steepened! Perhaps the valleys have subsided.

 

Between Freshwater and Yarmouth the cycle route follows a former rail bed. In the Railway Cafe at Freshwater, a poster advertising a week's travel on all the Island tracks showed the price of 8/- (40p)! Unfortunately this did not give the date.

 

My ride to West Cowes was interrupted by a road closure: the PC at the point of closure allowed me through, despite there being an accident ahead, as there was no suitable alternative cycling route: the investigating officer was not best pleased, but allowed me through under escort.

 

With the chain ferry absent on the Medina between West and East Cowes, the only direct connection is the passenger ferry, which takes bikes despite being a fairly small vessel. I folded the Brompton but there were four other bikes on board, so it was a bit of a crush!

 

Having had quite a hard day's riding, next day I simply took a short ride to Ryde, via little lanes. Once there I found an open cafe and then used the coastal route to Seaview, and back again, a very pleasant potter. The tide was out. Did you know that the Solent has a double high tide? These come with the flood and the ebb in the Channel. However, this is of no consequence to the hover ferry from Portsmouth, which merely has a differing length of beach to surmount after flying over the water.

 

The Randonee attracts many riders but, fortunately, has a number of different starting points around the route, helping to spread the crowds somewhat. I started at Wootton, the checkpoint being on our camping field. This was ideal for me, since, instead of waiting to start at 9 am, I was able to obtain my brevet card early, and so was off at 7:45 am! By the time I reached Bembridge, other, faster, riders were catching me up. Further on, beyond Godshill, I came upon an accident scene: approaching downhill to an intersection, a cyclist had ridden into the rear of a car.

 

The wind was strongly out of the east, so from Upper Ventnor, when not down in a deep valley, this aided our westward riding. This was a long stretch between checkpoints, 20 miles to Yarmouth, with one long climb, but not steep as in the eastern side of the island. Groups of 'roadies' kept passing me again and again: they were stopping for stragglers or else for chats, so I gained on them, from time to time.

 

The rain began at 1 pm. Having caped up I then followed the diversion through Newport (the chain ferry not being available, as previously mentioned), passing an elderly rider close to the finish. He turned out to be the oldest Wayfarer Club member at 84, and had started almost an hour before me, doing well to complete the full 66 mile circuit. The Island is not easy cycling terrain with short sharp inclines everywhere.