Ok so my Strava minus my detour from and back to home shows the route we followed on this morning's club ride. However the screen grab below shows the route that Andy Brown created and led superbly on his 1 in 4 turn as the banter bunch leader!
As you can see those routes are a little different...oops! The issue was no one actually led the fast group. We were frankly making it up as we went along. I had the route in my head in terms of villages but didn't know the roads around Cranoe etc. So when I saw a signpost for the next village in my memory I took the turn. The only person who'd uploaded to Garmin said we'd gone wrong but it was a nice road so we just kept going. It'll be fine we thought. Then we got a bit stuck so we ended up going to Great Bowden, which was lovely and back round to Ashley that way. Not the route but still very nice!
Gathering at the shop
The most capable leader in the club
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Cycling and beer are so intertwined we may never understand the full relationship. Beer is a recovery drink, an elixir for post-ride trash talking and a just plain excellent thing to pour down the neck. We train to drink so don’t fool around. Drink quality beer from real breweries. If it is brewed with rice instead of malted barley or requires a lime, you are off the path. Know your bittering units like you know your gear length. Life is short, don’t waste it on piss beer.
Having had a month off the beer for sober October has been really good for me. However I started three days early with the plan to finish on the 28th due to a party I went to last night and to recondition myself to booze I had a few beers on Thursday. So this morning I was feeling a tad delicate and very nearly didn't ride. It was foggy outside but of greater concern was the fogginess in my head. However a good bike ride remains the most effective hangover cure I know and 40+ miles of quality pedaling sorted me right out. As did the splendid company of my favourite lycra loonies. As I type this I'm tucking into a craft ale Tripel of my own creation. It's a 9% beast and will not improve my cycling one bit - it is nice though!
As usual Big Steve disappears into the distance
It's a bikie not a selfie
and there's the other beautiful people
Oh right lets go back the way we came then...
Oh come on Great Bowden is lovely
Fast group at Stoke Albany
Back to the ride; look we had a blast! Yes we went wrong in places but this was a highly enjoyable ride. We will need to think up another name for the groups though because the fast group is not short on banter. I wish I'd taken a picture of the bull in a field near Ashley. He was a magnificent beast, fully equipped so to speak and a source of great excitement. Soon after that we had some riding excitement as mud on the road on Ashley hill led to those of us with too much power having some hairy wheel spins.
All that autumnal action means my choice of steed today was spot on. I really wouldn't want to be out on my Propel in those conditions. Clive is a faithful servant, we've done some special rides together and now as my dedicated winter/commuter bike he still gets the job done. However he was filthy when I got home. Cleaning your bike is a good habit to be in. A quick soapy water wash down, chain degrease, spray and wipe down with GT85 and chain lube takes about ten minutes. That ten minutes is worth every second because as we know a clean bike is a faster bike.
Dirty Clive
Clean Clive
A big shout out need s to go to our great cycling mate Andy Pendred who has had a crash and broken his leg in France. Andy has had a phenomenal year on the bike with D2D our 200 mile club ride actually being just a small part of his adventures as mentioned in this blog quite a few times. Andy has done nearly 6000 miles on his bikes this year and has also taken his career as a signwriter and turned it towards custom stickers for our bikes. If you're not sure what I'm saying, he's an all round good bloke. Here's his Strava profile https://www.strava.com/athletes/2044033 we all wish him a speedy recovery.
Right I've blogged three times this week already, there's nothing more to say other than thanks to my ride companions today, thanks to Andy Brown for creating the route and thanks to Andy Ferguson for creating this great bike club.
Happy Pedaling
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