Saturday saw the twelve of us assembling at Stoke Canon to find Colin putting the finishing touches to a repair of Jean’s freewheel. Little did Colin know it at the time, but those black hands were to be overworked before the tour was over.

Our route took us up the Burn valley through lanes to Wellington, which on the face of it is straightforward. However fate endowed us with punctures running into double figures together with minor mechanical hiccups. Our main enemy was small, exceedingly sharp white flints, used by Devon and Somerset in their road repair programmes. Five of us punctured in one lane alone, after which Veronica threatened to carry her bike to the next junction. Frank – ever the opportunist – deflated outside a pub .. where else?

The delays and bad weather meant we could no longer afford the time to ride over the Quanocks as planned, so we skirted around them, via Taunton and Bridgewater.

The combination of wet roads, flints and Elan trims and tyres proved, for Philip, a perfect combination for attracting trouble. At one stage he had the support team of Liz, Veronica, Colin and myself mending punctures with incredible regularity. We sent Michael, Carl and Antony on ahead to get supper at Holford hostel. They arrived at 6.45 but it was 8pm when the rest of us rolled in, Phil having suffered an amazing seven punctures in all. We were exceedingly grateful for a most understanding warden as most of were an hour late for supper.

Our puncture total for the day came in at 11, with Carl's broken gear cable adding to the day's problems.

(Robert Ellis, with additional contributions from Michael Jones)

After the rain we had experienced on Saturday, the blue skies of Sunday were really appreciated. Leaving Holford at 9.30 we visited the delightful village of East Quantoxhead, where the ducks on the pond made for a tranquil scene. In Watchet we were graced with the nostalgic view of a steam engine on the railway line.

After coffee in Watchett we continued on around Blue Anchor Bay. The light was superb on Dunster Castle and that traditional Royalist stronghold somehow looked more impressive than usual (perhaps because I usually pass it at several times the speed, on four wheels).

Lunch was taken on high ground (North Hill) looking back over Minehead and Dunster, with Frank managing somehow to be centre of attention for the youngsters. We then proceeded towards Selworthy with a dramatic descent through the woods to that picturesque National Trust village. Colin found a couple of “white roads” for us to enjoy and we all admired the ford at Allerford. Of course two lads (Antony and Carl) had to have a go at cycling through it – wet feet never did a fit person any harm!

Afternoon tea was taken at the nearby establishment and a reflection of the times reared its ugly head when, on requesting a refill of the pot, a lecture was delivered by the proprietor on the cost analysis of a pot of tea versus the traditional cream tea, and how we were really not lining his pockets sufficiently with the former. Frankly I think he was cultivating an ulcer as a sideline, but we did get the refill.

Time was creeping on and we still had some hill climbing to do before supper at Exford so we set off again with Phil now joining Carl, Michael and Antony at the front of the group. We might have had some time to spare had John not decided that Cloutsham Ford should be negotiated – or in this case, attacked – at speed, resulting in him locating the missing setts in the river bed and being rewarded with a buckled wheel. Colin and Don put their skills to the test while the rest of us hastened on to a none-too-pleased warden.

Total incidents today came in at 5 punctures, a broken mudguard and Michael's broken toeclip.

(Robert Ellis, with additional contributions by Michael Jones)

Monday again saw blue skies. After leaving the hostel at 9.30 we made our way over Winsford Hill to Dulverton for coffee and eclairs and then pressed on to a field near Nomansland for lunch. The farmer was nearby so we had a chat with him before settling down to enjoy the sun.

During the afternoon we rode on through places with fascinating names like Woolfardisworthy to Crediton. From here we began to split up as the group came to a spot convenient for us to slip off through the lanes and home. We were the last of the Exeter contingent to leave, and as we did so I collected the twentieth puncture of the weekend! The final puncture count for this final day of the tour came to 5.

The Torbay group headed back through the Teign Valley, getting home for around 7.30pm, and by all accounts they had really enjoyed what for many of them had been their first ever cycle tour.

We certainly have something to remember the tour by and we are obviously not anxious to repeat the experience. However, if this seems something of a disaster, from it can be gleaned an insight into the true spirit of club cycling – that at no time was anyone without help, either in the form of sheer hard work (particularly on Colin’s part), advice, and from Liz and Veronica, the tender touch of patches being applied with, what seemed at the time, the regularity of postage stamps on envelopes at Christmas!

(Robert Ellis, with additional contributions by Michael Jones)