Trailing a new format to our club ride, despite the sun shining brightly after Easter, early risers were greeted with frost on cars and the northerly wind was bitingly cold. Despite that, almost all who had signed up arrived at Sainsbury’s at 9am for a choice of the two rides available.
The Training group, was split into two, fast and intermediate. The fast group consisted of the riders, Andrea Woolcott, Darren Gillings, Haythern Rashed, Mike Castelete, Scott Barber and Steve Wong, who set of first, and achieved an average speed of 29 kmph with our intermediary group (Ian Bird, Lucas Adamczyk and Ondrej Humplik) following the same route but at a slightly slower pace, set off in hot pursuit.
A third group, (social) taking it a little more leisurely and a no drop policy, were trying keep together, consisted of Mark Brockway, James Belton, Trevor Hall and myself as a sweeper. There was a cunning plan though with this group… our route was a few kilometres shorter and was planned to get us to the rendez-vous of the Mint & Ginger at Tur Langton at the same time as group 1. In fact, Group 3’s average pace of 24.8 kmph made sure we got to buy our coffee and enormous flapjacks first and welcome in the other riders as they arrived.
From tomorrow, we will be able to sit outside but today, we stayed safe and kept our distance. The size of the flapjacks, the beautiful sunshine and the welcome from the young women serving at the counter were enough to make Steve Wong smile!
Despite the sunshine, it was bitterly cold, having stopped, Andrea needed a warm up hug luckily Darren was available.
Fortunately, the ride took us generally south with a gusting tailwind which made the return journey a bit easier. I nearly ended up with a pheasant on the front of my bike descending the hill into Lubenham but was only brushed by its feathers as I swerved my head away. It really would not have made a good lunch for me as a vegetarian!
Next week looks like the weather will be warmer so the route will take in an outdoor coffee stop and we’ll again we’ll try to make sure both groups arrive at the same time.
Despite the sun shining brightly after Easter, early risers were greeted with frost on cars and the northerly wind was bitingly cold, it was great to see that almost all who had signed up arrived at Sainsbury’s at 9am.