2010 - brrrr...
NO OFFICIAL RIDE THEREFORE:
Quick mention for our MidWest heroes -
Jeff says: Cheers Chris for a quality ride today. I was absolutly shattered by the time I got home.
Chopwell was great, we did some of the usual trails around the top and centre sections of the wood and some more hidden stuff I haven't done before. Uphills were challenging but the less steep were ridable and the rest a push up. Some quality sideways drifting and comedy crashes.
Hopefully see the rest of you on Thursday.
And Chris D's verdict: Yup, comedy crashes at speed were the order of the day...
So Jeff and Chris added to the ride list anyway - ELEVEN OF US!!! and...
Unbelievable!
First day ride of 2010 is an unofficial do, the weather suggesting it would be unfair and unkind to kick off the year with a full outing when many members would be physically unable to attend. So why the surprise? Because this ad-hoc affair produced one of the the biggest Sunday turnouts since last summer!
Eight of the Brethren and one Lady risked their teeth and limbs on the watery snow and ice today. Joining Isobel at the Cave around 11:00 am were Ian A, Jon, Ian M (the original!), Steven G, Arthur, Stewart, Terry K and last but not least Terry H. Great to see him out again although he still hasn't got to the bottom of his mystery ailment yet.
Not what you'd call ideal conditions underwheel so we stuck with the Gollum's suggestion to keep it local and short. We set off out the back of the Cave into the ASDA trails with Terry H picking the squiggley route through until we reached (struggled to!) the Waggonway when Speedy Ian A took over to head us uphill through the next copse. Great laugh trying to stay upright when the bike just wanted to lie down.
Next stop the top of the Hill where the place was overrun by sledgers. We regrouped there for the second time before deciding which of the tasty drops to take. The Speedian was first away and as usual entertained the following mob with a demonstration of how to stay upright whilst letting the bike think it was the boss. The result was that his Stumpy decided it wanted to steer to the right all the way down, but he fought it well and bounced off Terry K to get back on course, both of them being at the mercy of their bikes at the time!
Jon burst through to take the lead with the others being a bit careful, and Terry K took over for the steeper drop to the little bridge, scene of many a demise in perfect conditions! Somehow we all made it down and out to the road without a fall, and we set off north back up towards Holystone again.
That's when we stumbled upon Ian B and his significant other, sensibly out walking that giant Newfoundland puppy of theirs instead of biking. Perfect opportunity for Ian to extract some liquid seeing us all slithering around. Golly led again looking for hidden delights as we took the scenic route through the Rising Sun Country Park but both Terrys quickly agreed the snow was just too deep, so we stayed with the still tricky path. That took us back out of the trees and onto the Hadrian Park bridleway before turning east on heavy snow as we headed for Silverlink.
Isobel took advantage on this stretch by trying out Steven's Lapierre, and she declared it much more comfortable than her Kona hardtail, although these conditions were anything but ideal for conclusions to be reached as she searches for her ideal new bike.
At the end of this track we ran into another pair of doggie walkers, this time Gollum's youngest and her pal, small world (although we hadn't yet been more than half a mile from the Cave - a.t.c.f!).
More very hard snow ploughing followed up past Swallow Pond and after the strength-sapping field crossing into Battle Hill, Golly headed for the road (yep, GOLLY on a ROAD, WILLINGLY) and it made reaching the new Cop Shop a much easier job. We crossed onto the Waggonway again and stopped on firm ground under the A19 for a much needed refreshment break, but didn't hang around after Terry H correctly described it as a wind tunnel!
We continued and popped out behind the Odeon where we took a short diversion off-route to show Terry where the local jump spot was located, and spent the next 15 or 20 minutes fooling around on its little slopes. Jon was the only one I saw attempting one of the jumps but I'm not sure if six inches of snow provided the ideal take-off ramp!
Next stop the steps down to the Waggonway, which most of us just about got away with, before heading north up to the road at Cobalt. That's where Terry H and Ian M turned right for home, the remainder following Terry K up the road (again!) past Proctor & Gamble and onto the trail behind West Allotment and back to the Cave for about 12:45 and just under ten miles on Stevie's bike PC.
Well done Jon and Stewart, still singlespeeding it under quite adverse conditions. (but WHY?).
I suppose we've started now, so see you all on Thursday night!