Day Three - Thank goodness a bit flatter.

Day Three - Weston to Stourport on Severn - 99 miles +3089 ft / -2931 ft.  The following link will give you the gist of the route but is a off course in a few bits:
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/4657156

Today started with another pre 07:00 alarm (6:36 to be precise as I like to wake up at a palindromic time) then meeting the guys for breakfast in the Beefeater attached to the hotel, sadly they could not rustle up the steak, ribs and horn of plenty dinner of yesterday evening, but did supply a massive fry up.  A note on dinner last night to thank Uncle Peter for treating Clare and I, much appreciated.

Breakfast out of the way we saddled up and set course towards Bristol, scene of the only real climbing action today.  The two rider groups seemed to have different GPS data so one group ended up going over the Clifton suspension bridge and another going under it then up a chuffing steep hill, that would be my group then.

We benefited from a nice view of the bridge, the others the view from the bridge.   The advantage of our route seemed to be it was shorter as we found ourselves ahead of the pro-peloton for a while!

From Bristol we headed North towards Gloucester, stopping for coffee at the White Horse pub, they provided a lesson in why chain pubs are not as good as independents.  It was 11:30 so they could only offer breakfast food, not lunch until 15 minutes later.  A real computer says no moment, luckily we were in fine spirits so it did not become a falling down moment. 

Like the top athletes we are we chose an alternative lunch spot a few hours up the road, mainly as their colour scheme matches our kit so well.  It felt very strange having lunch at about lunch time, not something we had managed so far this trip.

The riding today was mostly easy going albeit on some roads that were rather busier than I would have liked.  There were even a few chances to get the bike out of the granny ring and up to some higher speeds.  Cyclists can skip this next bit, otherwise read on.  Most road bikes have two front chainrings which dictate how hard it is to pedal and therefore how fast you can go, the smaller of these two is the easiest to pedal, in fact so easy your granny could do it, hence the name.)

Later on there was a moment of panic as we rounded a corner and seemed to end up where we started on Tuesday.

After we stopped to ask directions it turned out there is more than one donkey called Martin (my favourite and only French proverb) and we were in fact in a different Cambridge.  This was a relief.

Today is the first day where we have been further North than the real Cambridge.

The rest of the day's ride was fairly uneventful right up to the last section before the hotel which gave the day a 'summit finish' most unwelcome.  What was welcome was the hotel having a pool and more importantly a hot tub, we are now nicely wrinkled for tomorrows bike action.

Without having seen the menu or being in the bar we have concluded tonight's food offerings will be overpriced and below average so we are going further afield to a local pub for a meal.  I have to remember this is not a normal Friday so will have to cut down on the beer intake a bit.

Tomorrow is the longest day of the trip at 118 miles so an early night tonight.

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