Staying for several nights in one place offers the touring cyclist the real benefit of riding without luggage for a day or two.

Unfortunately for James and Simon, they were only able to make three days of the tour, needing to be home by Saturday evening. Which meant that they had to take their kit along for the ride to Ironbridge, while Andy and I did not.

With this in mind I spent some time with the map and noted that the long, savage climb from Tenbury Wells to Clee Hill, 533m, could easily be incorporated into a reasonably direct route.

It also meant that the rest of the ride was spent on the kind of relentlessly undulating terrain favoured by the organisers of the harder British sportives.

Still, that’s touring. We would have offered to share the luggage but, since Simon only had one pannier, that would have left one of us riding light when we both had a 40 mile ride back to Leominster. There was nothing for it but to ease off and enjoy their plight.

At Ironbridge, Andy and I sat down to a substantial lunch while our erstwhile companions set off, still hungry, for Telford.

When we got back after a cold but stunningly beautiful ride down Corvedale, we received a message; Simon and James were so exhausted by a six mile dual carriageway clog into Telford that they decided to  resort to a cab between Cheltenham and Cirencester.