6@6.30 Training Ride...Not so Unlucky (with the weather)

I’am not particularly superstitious but thriteen is definitely an awkward number when we have to divide into maximum groups of six.

It’s a lot better than seven though and it was a pleasing  turnout  with new and rider’s returning for more of a good thing.

A group of six headed down Pexhill first; Fozzy, Jill, Alison, Stockport Dave, good to have Mark B with us again for the first time since the start of the pandemic and good to have Pete the founder of this ride’s original incarnation the Cardiac Squadra  making it  for the first time since before we even knew what a pandemic was. The group had a steady ride doing through and off, interrupted by a  search for Marks back light in the hedgerow when it jumped off.  Unfortunately Pete struggled to keep his HR under control so had to sit in quite a bit …..but seemed to go well enough up Pexhill ⚡😲.

The second group was Paul, Simon and returning for a second time after his first last week Chris. By all accounts they had a good one and were collectively the fastest on the night; 1:33 X Goostrey X.👏

Last off should have been a 4-up with your’s truly, very occasionally on this ride Rob M, new to the ride and out for the second week Ben plus new member on his second ride with the club Bartosz. Unfortunately Bartosz had a terminal mechanical before we properly got going so it turned out to be another 3-up. Despite the three of us never having ridden together before we had an excellent 3-up with slick changes every couple of minutes. Working well together meant for a quick ride from Siddington onwards, our moving time (1:32-1:33 ish) was virtually the same as the faster group but due to the unavoidable hold up X Goostrey X was 1:38. Ben was the strongest finisher, first over the line at Broken X👏, followed by Rob 💪, since I was guaranteed a podium place out of our group I didn’t try to hard😎.

The outlook is for the settled weather to continue, lets keep making the best of it, we can cope with thirteen and plus five would be a lot better than minus one.