Date: Tuesday 29th September
Riders: Keith, Paul, Colin, Paddy, Stephen, Al, Julian, Sam.
Distance: 18 miles
Weather: Night ride, mild, clear with a half moon.
Time: Departed 19:40 arrived HQ 22:15
Ride, Walk, Ride, Off, Walk, Ride, Off, Puncture,
Ride, Walk, Mr Tumble Off, Ride, Beer, Beer, Beer!!!
Martyn had proposed a great looking route, but was absent due
to illness so Flipper sent us to Cann Wood via an interesting
route! The Routemeister headed out at a cracking pace, (due
partly I feel to being a little miffed that someone had the
temerity to propose a route without consulting His Greatness
first)!! Anyhow, East of the A386 to the Diner, down through
Woolwell where a nice
Policeman
stopped
to let
us all
ride
by! Then
into the woods where the fun began! A challenging single track,
then left or down? Flipper said left and soon regretted it!
I helped to pull him and his bike out of the brambles! If he'd
been on his own he may still be there now! So down a very testing
descent to bring us out under one of the viaducts.
The next stretch was as much walk as ride but we eventually
got to Plym Bridge. Up onto the old railway to the kissing
gates where we met an occasional rider of ours Chris with his
fellow 'City' riders. So all up hill now to the old tramway
but Al fell onto the barbed wire to Christen his new GOWCC
jersey
and Stephen suffered a puncture. After an amazing amount of
pumping we set off to Lee Moor. Up the B'tard push hill to
the road
then
decision
to take the road back to HQ as the clock was ticking fast!
Unusually Julian was traveling slower than expected on his
impressive new full suspension bike and after the turn off
to Yelverton
I had a coming together of wheels with Paddy due to Julian's
lack of speed! I repeat, a coming together of wheels, I did
not go up his arse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I then performed
a classic controlled Mr Tumble off onto the soft verge and
after my third revolution I felt even Ronaldo couldn't have
done any better! The roadies pleading for us all to get road
bikes may cease now that they've seen how two Mountain Bike
riders perform in a peloton!!
I trailed at the end of the group back to HQ having lost all
of my momentum and energy and I also felt a reminder from my
hip that I should never have been going that fast in the first
place!
Some took the longer route to HQ via the 'Earthquake' so I
wasn't
last
to
the bar!
At
this
point
we could have renamed ourselves the GOWDC (Gentlemen of
Willowby Drinking Club), for a considerable amount of beer
was drunk in a relatively short period of time!!
Plans were discussed for our Christmas dinner even though our
107 account had accumulated only a pitiful amount of money!
As Al had twice as much on his personal account all on is own,
he was very quickly voted in as Social Chairman and considered
by
all the most spendthrift Yorkshireman in Devon, possibly England!!!
An entertaining evening's ride of many events and when you're
out in a group of eight, you miss as much as you see. This
report could have been considerably longer, I'm sure.
Reporter: Keith
