The morning after; The Three Starred Waterside Inn offer to fill up our water bottles .... Now that could have been a cafe stop story to dine out on for years!

When a seductive French accent outside Alain Roux’s Three Michelin Starred Waterside Inn Restaurant enquires if you would like to top up your water bottles, it’s really annoying that they are already topped up and you can’t accept an invitation from one of Britain’s top restaurants to pop inside. As cafe stop stories go, we could have ‘dined out’ on that one for years.

We would make the point that whilst a group of sweaty puddle splattered cyclists isn’t exactly what the restaurant’s clientelle would expect to see inside, we really applaud the Waterside Inn staff at offering to be helpful without judgement … well done the Waterside Inn in Bray…. if a fourth Michelin Star was available you’d deserve it!

Although it has become a bit of a tradition for West London Cycling to slightly deviate off the route and take a picture by the wonderful Waterside Inn, it seems that Leon Evans overlooked this protocol on this occasion. Leon was late in rendevousing with the ride at the srtart and was riding solo trying to catch the others up. Of course, he (unwittingly) caught up at Bray, or would have done had he done the unofficial route deviation to the Waterside Inn. Yes, you’ve guessed it, whilst the others were posing for photos outside the prestigious restaurant, Leon effectively overtook everyone and, still thinking he was playing ‘catch-up’, reached the Rusty Bike finish ahead of both groups on the road. He found himself with a table for one at the cafe wondering where everyone else was!

Naturally, the ensuing banter once the other two groups arrived made for grreat entertainment!

But what a contrast from the pouring rain of the inaugoral Rustynax Reliabilty Ride the day before! We enjoyed wonderful sunshine on what was effectively a recovery ride outing. Chapeau to everyone who did both rides …. you help make this a wonderful community in our view!