Easy Ride to Astbury

We had a challenging easy ride today for 18 of us, with two groups and two routes.

Martin and I led a slightly slower group on a slightly flatter route, whilst John J led the faster group on a very similar route but with a Mow Cop bonus segment before the cafe. We formed into the two groups at Siddington, with the faster group of 12 riders setting off first. They punctured about 20 minutes down the road, so we waved and shouted encouragement as we rode past. They returned the compliment some time later as we tackled a thorn related puncture in the slower group. That was a good team effort with Gawsworth John doing most of the work, supported by Gwen's tweezers and Martin's dexterity for thorn removal, plus Martin on the bike pump. The rest of the flatter route had some challenging undulations and we were more than ready for lunch by the time we arrived at the cafe. The timing was brilliant, we had ordered our food and sat down by the time that the Mow Cop group arrived. That had been a new experience for some of them.

Our ride back was a little damp but much shorter than the ride out, and the slow group was back at Siddington just after 2pm, with an average speed of 11.9mph, ahead of the faster group who we had left in the cafe. Today's players were Jen, Alison G, Gawsworth John, Gwen, Richard, Kev, Griff, Adele, Mark H, both Simons, Vinnie, Jim, Philip and Mark H.

Katherine

Team effort on the puncture

Refuelling after riding up Mow Cop