This is and probably always will be my favourite ride of the week. There is nothing new about the route but it's a great route so hey if it's not broken don't fix it! Andy (mention 1) took the fast group and I led the traditional ride or banter bunch. We may not have had the blistering pace of the Boardman brigade but for a group with a newbie in it I think we did exceptionally well. Without the puncture (not me for a change,) we'd have been back at the shop way before 11. My tailgunner was Stuart so big thanks to him for helping with today's ride. The rest of the group rode sensibly with good communication and in good spirits. You can't ask for more. Apart from the puncture the only other issue we had was a Mr Tumble moment. One of those can't get out of the pedals in time calamities we've all had at some point. Luckily the rider in question landed almost gracefully on the grass verge and no harm was done!
Great colour
My pre-ride breakfast this morning was the above concoction. That's a beetroot, banana and apple smoothie, it's whizzed up with whole milk and was as the evidence below shows, delicious. Now many of you may have heard of the cramp preventing qualities of beetroot so I thought I'd give this a go. I had my usual post ride cramp on the sofa about half an hour ago so I guess it doesn't work. Perhaps I should try it on a day where I haven't had half a dozen pints of homebrew the night before!
Yum!
Back to the ride and as I said we had a puncture and sensibly the group decided to find some safe space in Lamport to wait for the unlucky rider.
Clive taking a break - that's blackcurrant not smoothie in the other bottle
Excellent Velominati rule adherence: Rule 80: Always be casually deliberate
The beautiful Northamptonshire landscape
Back at the shop it was time for tea, cake and banter. Mrs Lindsley, the queen of cakes, made beetroot cake which, I think is one of her best and is at least the equal of her Guinness cake. I grated three of four beetroots kindly donated from an allotment for this cake. You can all guess where the other one went! There was another cake too from http://cortado22.co.uk/, the cafe over the road. That was nice too but it goes without saying that Lee's was the best. There was also a new tea pot which had the added advantage of not spilling everywhere. The only dribble now is from Rich who seems to have the image of Wellies burned onto his brain.
The cake
Shiny new non dribbly tea pot
The final word this week goes to the Brownlee brothers on their efforts in the individual and team triathlon's. Gold and Silver on Thursday and then Gold in the team event today. That's immense. Then check out the bikes they are riding. Yep, those are Boardman's as sold at C&D Cycles and as ridden by shop manager and club founder Andy. Great to hear that so many others have made that investment. You might not need a great bike to be a great rider but if you can afford one I really can't see why you wouldn't. I'm even more reassured by the advice given by Andy and Chris on these dream machines and here's why: my cousin went to buy one last week and was advised not to at this stage. Yes that's right the shop turned down money and sold him a cheaper bike. You really know you can trust a place that does something like that.
Brilliant pair...those Brownlee's are quite good too
That's my last Saturday club ride before we go to Australia. I'm sorry if I've gone on a bit about that. However it's the trip of a lifetime (although I doubt it's a one off,) and I'm really excited about it. I'd also recommend people watch John Bishop's programme on cycling in Oz. I can't believe I'm going to be there this time next week!
Happy Pedaling
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