99

The mileage numbers haven't been looking too clever over the last couple of weeks. For one reason and another, I've dipped from being comfortably ahead of schedule for the year to being just on plan.

The weather forecast said it would be quite warm today, but I decided that for the sake of the numbers it was time for a decent stretch.

So off I went to Oxford, covering quite a lot of new ground (for me) via Henley and Watlington. The first part is a fairly hilly route up into Oxfordshire, but it looks as though there's quite a lot of potential around there in future for interesting loops around Christmas Common, or Wallingford. From Watlington to Oxford is flatter, but less interesting.

After a quick cycle round Oxford city centre I headed south along Sustrans route 5, and caught the train home from Didcot.

As forecast the weather was warm. As always Oxford was busy. As normal for a summer Sunday there were quite a few walkers and cyclists out and about. As usual it was fun to explore new routes. And I got home as tired as I would expect after 50 miles or so.

But there was one big surprise. I bought myself a 99 in Abingdon, and it only cost £1. I'm sure that the last time I had a 99 it cost about £2. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with the one I had today. It was a perfectly normal size (and very welcome on a hot ride). How do they do it? And why, if they can price at that kind of level, don't they go one step further and charge 99p?