Thursday 25th May and it was good to get a threesome back together for another midweek exercise session. Jason again rode to Terry's at Holystone from his place in Howdon, then the bikes were thrown onto Gollum's car and carted up to Cramlington where John joined in.

Jay had opted for his Coiler Dee Lux over the Scott MC50 this time - must be giving it a rest before it gets a good flogging in the Trans Wales seven day thingy in the summer (summer?). So we left Johns riding south over familiar ground in search of off-road stuff to keep the Coiler satisfied. In fact, we managed to stay on loose surfaces for the first hour or more through Seghill and on to Holywell Dene, even finding places to lift the wheels off the deck.

Early on we came across the weirdest piece of artwork you could imagine as we searched out new bridleways over the fields through Hartley West Farm  behind Seaton Delaval Hall.

It was like something out of Doctor Who (but better constructed from thick stainless steel) and luckily Jay had his camera so I'll show you it here as soon as I get the shot. The most amazing thing about it is that the daft lads haven't manage to break it or knock it over!

On second thoughts, forget the good Doctor, it's more like Darth Vader's Sunday suit.

We rode on, over what just may have been Footpath but looked like a horse trail until we hit the top of Seghill. We took a slightly different route along the south side of the Dene this time, directed by Jason, and continued turning west and emerging in the valley just inland of St Mary's Lighthouse, where we had a confrontation with a couple of cows who just barred our path and stood staring us out as we approached.

That was scary and I thought about turning and testing my now forgotten cycle speedway acceleration ability in the opposite direction. Just as I hesitated, and was being mocked by the two behind me, Jason took it upon himself to be Brave, and rode straight at the central monster shouting obscenities. I did see his fingers covering the brakes, however. That didn't look like it was going to work at first, the thing just took 3 or 4 very slow steps backwards, still staring us out. I was just waiting for it to start stomping with one foot and I would have become the fastest Gollum in Middle Earth, or top, or bottom. It must have decided that Jay was just too nasty to challenge and burst into a gallop off the side of the trail. It looked like it was going to become a speed skater down the bank side but somehow managed to stay on it's feet. It was followed by two calves, leaping well off the ground like Bambis and hurtling into the trees behind it. Glad to get past that lot.

This brought us to a very steep set of wooden-edged steps which only Jason had the nerve to attempt, but then only from half way down. He just got away with it but the Coiler was trying hard to sling him off. The Elders walked it. We followed the trail through to Seaton Sluice and crossed the coast road onto the Sustrans cycleway, riding three abreast to it's end at the southern tip of Blyth. From there we turned west up the tarmac cycle path past South Beach and South Newsham. It was starting to get dark now, around 9.30pm, so we didn't look for any more off-road excursions but headed straight up the A1061 to Shankhouse then used the cycle paths through Cramlington centre back to Johns. We covered 15.5 miles in a couple of hours and it felt great, is that because I've had a Sunday off the bikes?

 Keep watching and if you fancy a ride out with us, drop us a line here: bailout@midaircrisis.org.uk