There were 12 of us on this tour. Alistair was still unable to cycle so could not join us cycling despite having done all the planning and route research. So it was Brian, David and Sue, Graham, Keith, Len and Lin, Mark, Mick, Peter, Rod and Sue P who set out for the Cotswolds summer tour.

Although all the other trips for this year have been cancelled due to the Covid pandemic, the Devon C2C trip went ahead. Some of the original group opted to give the trip a miss, reducing the participants to SueP, Lin, SueC, Carol, Mick, David, Peter, Rod, Graham, Brian and Ray. I was not fit enough to do the full ride so provided luggage transfer and backup. Three of us chose to travel down to Barnstaple on Sunday 16th August with Peter taking the train whilst Mick and I drove down. On the Monday, David, Rod and the ladies travelled down to Barnstaple by car, then David and Rod continued to Plymouth to leave the cars there. Graham drove direct to Plymouth whilst Brian and Ray drove to Exeter, all then taking the train to Barnstaple.

 As the time drew closer to the start of the trip, the weather forecasts became more threatening, but although given the option to call it off, everybody was still keen to go.
 
On Monday 23rd September, David, SueP, SueC, Mick, Carol, Len, Lin and me checked into the Premier Inn in Canterbury and we met up later for sightseeing during the afternoon. It had been dry earlier when David and his group took a boat trip on the river but it started to rain a bit, not heavy, after we met up later at the Patisserie Valerie for coffee and cake before heading back to the hotel.

The Lon Cambria is a cycle route starting in Shrewsbury and crossing the Cambrian Mountains to Aberystwyth on the Welsh coast designated as National Cycle Network Route 81.  Those taking part on the trip were to be Mick, Mark, Peter, Rod, Richard and Alistair with Laurie and Chris, who now live near Shrewsbury, joining us for parts of the ride. Richard's wife Sylvia was driving along the route, providing luggage transfer and emergency backup.

In the week before the trip, the weather forecast for the Mosel valley was rain all day every day, but as it got closer the forecasts generally improved. We were all going by car to Trier and mostly taking our bikes with us. Carol did not fancy the long road trip and flew Heathrow to Luxembourg with a taxi transfer to Trier instead. When we woke up early on the Wednesday, the persistent rain of the last few days had stopped.  The bikes were loaded and we were on the road nice and early.

On Thursday we took advantage of the warm weather and drove to Warminster in four cars - Len, Lin, Rod, Peter, David, SueC, Sue P, Mick, Brian and me. The route started from Smallbrook park and followed NCN24 as it climbed out of the town and through the woods beside Longleat CentrParcs to the road into the Longleat Safari Park. The climb was rewarded by a fast downhill on the road to Longleat House before the long climb out again, now on the NCN25. The route leads past the front of the NT Stourhead House and Gardens where we stopped for an early lunch.

On Wednesday afternoon David, SueC, SueP, Carol, Rod, Mark, Ray, Brian, Mick and I set of in three cars for Portsmouth and boarded the overnight ferry to St Malo. Once settled in our cabins we met up in the cafe to eat and celebrate Mark's birthday with a few glasses of wine and birthday cake. Next morning after breakfast on board we disembarked and drove to Evran where the bikes that were carried inside were re-assembled.

There were seven of us, the Magnificent Seven, riding the Way of the Roses – David, Carol, Brian, SueP , Mick and me. Mick’s wife Sarah had kindly agreed to accompany us on the trip by car and making it easier by carrying our luggage each day. On Monday 3rd September, whilst seven of us drove to Lancaster, Peter went up by train and met the rest of us at the Premier Inn there. There was limited bike storage in the hotel so most took their bikes to their rooms. After a late lunch at the hotel we took the bus into the centre of Lancaster for some sightseeing.

After all the planning, the time for our tour from Innsbruck to Verona following the Via Claudia Augusta arrived. I was in the advance guard going a day earlier than the main party,  getting up at stupid o'clock to load my bike on the car to drive to Gatwick for a 6:20 flight to Munich on 19th June. I had prepped the bike the day before, so it did not take long to bag the bike up at the airport, check in and take the bike to the oversize conveyor. Once that was done I had time for breakfast before going to the gate.

The forecast for the day of the ride gradually got better as the time approached to cold with early rain. However David, Sue, Brian, Jonathan, Laurie, Ray, Mick and I met up at the Red Funnel ferry terminal at about 9:00 am and it was not raining but overcast. We bought our tickets, Seniors at £11 day return, and then found out the next ferry was at 10:30 and not 10:00 as expected - the winter timetable was in operation with one every 90 minutes rather than 60 minutes as for the summer, so we had plenty time to get a coffee before boarding at about 10:00.