We welcomed a few more first time riders for this Thursday nighter, leaving the Cave just after 1900. Stu brought his mate Gary, we had Stirling man Derek C taking advantage of a working stay in the North East and joining us for some exercise, and also Steve C and Mark S taking us up to eighteen. Good to have Ainis and Stian back out again. Incidentally, Ainis was telling me he's done 2,000 kilometres (yep, 2-k-k) on the same chain! But he's thinking about replacement now! Of course he isn't applying much pressure with no hands on the bars, I suppose.

Another dazzling display of ride leadership from the Speedian saw us take in every piece of available off-road route possible an a beautifully calm spring night. He started by leading us out behind the Cave through the zig-zags of the Forest of the Rising Sun, then up to the top of The Hill before plunging down again into Kings Estate.

Onto the Battle Hill Waggonway next for the field swoop before crossing under the A1058 and setting up the charge along the western edge of the Dene. Stian and Jeff made sure there was no rest for Ian and Terry up front as the brambles once again wreaked havoc on exposed shins, Stian collecting a nice, bloody hole in his leg as proof. Serves him right for going too fast.

Terry took over for the long gravel descent to the Burn where Arthur came a cropper but quickly recovered his composure. We hit the first chunk of Wallsend Parks and the leader pointed the way uphill to the Civic Hall grounds. While he continued to lead the group up and back down, and then out over King's Road, he missed the fact that half were missing, until Derek informed him that someone had a puncture behind. Returning to the Hall, there was Speedy with his bike upside down and the wheel off - strike one more in favour of tubeless!

The rear group rejoined the others and it was Terry again who led around the top of the Park looking for rough stuff. he found some and dragged the others up into the trees, keeping them circling for five minutes until a truce was called and we headed for the gates. Or in this case, a hole in the fence onto Prince Road. From there we rode through the streets north and over the Coast Road again before heading west for the Powder Monkey, where Terry again managed to find some of that now infamous "impenetrable forest". After sickening everyone again on deep, rough grass and brambles we cleared to the top of the old BMX track and regrouped before dropping onto the old Tram Track across to Little Benton Farm, Coach Lane, Benton, Benton Road and finally Freeman Road at South Gosforth.

Matt, itching to speed up, and Jon shot down into the Dene and the pair attempted to escape from the others as dusk set in and on went the lights. We normally keep left down here on the smooth, wide, fast bridleway but the leading pair had other ideas and hit the raised hump to the right, with most of the more adventurous following. Well worth it in this direction, drops and kicks, fast and tricky. We normally do it coming back and don't experience the greater payoff this way provides.

There were a few lengthy delays getting through the Dene with Stu suffering a couple of falls and stumbles as we made our way along as much dirt as possible to Armstrong Bridge. We regrouped again as the monsters played on the steep drops at the edge of the park before we headed over the bridge into Jesmond. There was a very narrow escape along the top for Jeff as he was dive bombed, literally out of the blue, by Speedy and we all expected a major coming together. Somehow, Jeff just tweaked his left wrist enough to create a gap between his own handlebars and those of the rapidly approaching Speedian.

Ian obviously wanted to be first down the trail and accomplished that easily enough before bringing the troop to a halt on the other side of the bridge for our food break. And while we were there yapping, he did apologise to Jeff for what he'd almost done, although completely innocently! (he just goes too fast, you know).

Lights all blazing from this point on, although one or two could perhaps have been brighter, as per the advice on our home page! Various short offshoots were taken, first by Matt then other maniacs as we followed the course of the Ouse Burn upstream. And again we got somewhat strung out as Terry waited for stragglers at the back. Soon after, Stu had another fall and took it out on the poor bike which made a brilliant but riderless descent down towards the river before being arrested fairly hard by a wooden fence. Another lengthy delay ensued as bits were hunted for in the undergrowth and the main party must have wondered what was going on. Eventually a search party arrived (Matt again) just as the missing pair arrived at Freeman Road.

I think it was 9:25 at this point, so Ian and Terry agreed to do Bluebell Woods and wrap it up. However, that only lasted until we emerged from the trees again after a blast through this brilliant little trail. Emerging at the other side, we had planned to skirt the golf course and cut over through Longbenton estate However, with time in hand and some compensation for a slow last part of the ride required, Terry again headed for the fields behind Gosforth High Street and we rattled through the singletrack before heading around the edge of the field back onto the bridleway to Melton Park. Luckily, the field has now dried out considerably and we found a reasonably firm edge to ride on, unlike our last five or ten visits.

Only one thing left to do now to claim full compensation - do Gosforth Park the way we like it, in the pitch black! So we hit the North Road and were in the park quite quickly. The first hill up from the Hotel was quickly dispatched and after a very short breather while everyone with the required leg power got their breaths back, it was time for the Speedian to do his vanishing trick into the trees.The regulars are all so used to seeing this phenomenon now that they were on the alert for the break being made, and this time Ian enjoyed somewhat closer company as he began another crazy, flat-out dash through the trees. Still had to wait for a few though, and that's when Terry discovered Mark had no front light left at all, so he and Speedy dropped to the rear to accompany him through the remainder of our local jungle.

The Townies departed at the Garden Centre and the rest of us hit the Great Lime Road to home as usual, arriving at the Cave at around 10:20pm. Another pretty good ride with minimal tarmaccing to suffer, and most of the entertainment again provided by the Rising Sun Racer aka Gosy Park Gremlin, Ian A.

 

oh, just got this e-mailed from Stu:

 

As further compensation for tonight, next Thursday's ride is now designated as "Therapeutic Thursday", i.e. Fast!