Thursday 12th July 2006 provided the biggest turnout of the year for the MidAirCrisis and the new Newcastle Mountain Bike Club. That was because all the regulars were out, a FULL committee, together with Ian  who is obviously classed as a regular now but can't make every ride, and new cyclist person Keith, out for his first taste of midweek madness after finding us on the Internet.

Keith is another Forest Hall based rider, like Ian and a couple more enquirers we've had recently. And I bet you can't guess what make of bike he rides, can you? What, Specialised? Surely not, not another one? Yep, another one. And he loves it like we love ours, putting it almost before everything else in his life!

Terry was supposed to meet Derek and John at Hillheads around 7.15. At 7.15 he and Jason were still watching Andy assemble his Scott outside Gollum's cave, so that made us a bit late. Before getting to Derek and John, Terry was also supposed to meet Keith and Ian on the Great Lime Road. We were late for that first!

Jason had parked his van outside Golly's and we'd finally gone to rendezvous point one, where Keith and Ian were waiting patiently in the evening sunshine. After the introductions, Ian led off to the Waggonway up to Killingworth Village, closely followed by Keith with Andy just behind. Jason and Terry were at the back yapping and the latter decided to ring Derek to tell him to hold at Killingworth a while longer, but when he answered he was already at Gollum's with John! "Just come down the Great Lime Road, we'll meet you here" said Terry. Seconds after Gollum had put his phone away, and just as we saw the other three head off up the Waggonway, Jason asked "Did I shut the van door?". "Dunno" replied the Gollum, who then had the brilliant idea of ringing Derek again to ask him to check. "Hi Derek, can you check Jason's van door on your way past?" "No, too late" came the reply, but he sprinted back a few hundred metres and reported that yes, the door was wide open!!! As we couldn't catch Ian and Keith, now well up the Waggonway, Jason rode straight back to his van to lock up, while Terry joined Andy to catch Ian and Keith. That, however, proved impossible as Ian was in full-on Yellow Jersey Mode, with smoke pouring off his tyres as he vanished over the horizon.

Derek, John and Jason finally appeared out of the fields at Holystone Farm to join Andy, Keith and Terry, but it was quite a while before Ian realised he was on his own and returned, puzzled by the absence of riders behind him. Should try riding at less than forty mph then! From here we became a full group of seven and Gollum directed Derek to ride our Seaside Sortie instead of heading out west, as it might be drier than the last five Thursday rides over Ponteland way. We motored down to the eastern edge of Backworth, onto the road through the village but diving off onto bridleways over to Holywell Dene still led by Derek. For some reason, everything seemed to be moving at nine tenths today, rather than the usual three, and we all just got caught up in it. Until Ian and Andy came unstuck and got lost off the back, with Ian reporting he'd been over the handlebars somewhere! Below Ian (hiding), John, Derek, Keith, Jason and Andy.

We settled down a bit after that, but not much, enjoying the squirrelly path through the Dene, up the  horrible steep steps with tons of mud weighing the bikes down. We took to the road into Holywell Village, dipping back into the end of the Dene under the bridge. From here we did our familiar burn through Johnny's Jaunt, but this time he was stuck mid-pack and couldn't bomb away at the front. Derek did it for him on his singlespeed! We stayed behind Derek all the way to Hartley, emerging at St Mary's Lighthouse and stopping on the island for a short break. Little Gollum needed that after an unexpectedly manic pedalling fest. Here's a widescreen shot of the approach:-

After putting the world right we were off again on the skinny coastal path, Derek and Gollum vying for the front until we all hit the Promenade into Whitley Bay. Below - the Sordid Six:-

That's when the scenery began to affect the ride, this hidden dog in particular attracting a lot of attention from the under-50s in the squad.

On reaching Spanish City we crossed the Links and rode through the houses to Monkseaton Drive and rejoined the bridleway up to Holywell again. Reaching the edge of the Dene where the silly dirt jumpers have their playground, Derek plunged straight over the side followed by the rest a bit more gingerly. We then retraced our steps along the riverbank to the bridge at Holywell where we met up with another bunch of 5 or 6 out for a ride and we rode with them as far as Backworth. That's where John and Derek left the party to turn north to Cramlington, and Andy, Ian, Jason, Keith and Terry continued on the Waggonways down to Silverlink, cutting through to the A19 and Gollum's patch. Tonight it was Ian's turn to get an extra bit to ride home with Keith, who seemed to enjoy his first outing and stayed up the front end throughout.

Here the  boys are moving too fast for a decent photo Andy's bike at Gollum's

The various bike PCs indicated around 36.5 kilometres, or about 23 miles in 2hrs 11mins, max 24.5 mph, average 10.3mph. Surely something wrong there! Another very enjoyable trek and this time proper biking weather to go with it, at last.

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