January Jaunts begin
We have managed to fit three easy rides into January so far.
New Year’s Day saw 14 of us riding out to Lymm services. We split into two groups, with John taking the larger and slightly faster group, whilst I pottered along with Kirsten, Rachel, Gawsworth John and Jim. The rain held off, and we even had some sunshine at the cafe. There was a choice of Costa, Greggs and M&S, so we did not have to wait long to be fed. The route back took us along some strangely quiet main roads, and then past Dunham Park where we found all of the traffic! We may have to rethink that part of the route for next year. Some of the group managed to fit in a second cafe stop at Caffe Nero in Alderley, before heading home.
The first Thursday of January saw 5 of us out for a pop up ride to Plumley garden centre. Sue and Jim both found that they had flat front tyres due to thorns before they set off. Sue ended up doing a bike swap, and Jim got his fixed in time. Our route out took us across the fields to Mobberley and past the Plough and Flail, at which point one of Sue’s mudguard stays snapped. Phil and Jim did some problem solving, but eventually went with the ‘remove it’ option. We hid it under a hedge, to pick up on the way back. The rest of the ride went smoothly, the cafe was welcoming and it was warm enough to sit outside. Phil and Sue tried the good value ‘savoury cream tea’, made up of a cheese scone, cream cheese and chutney, plus a hot drink (they recommend it).
We collected the errant mudguard on the way back, and Jim demonstrated how to carry it using his backpack. Sue had ridden over from Macclesfield, so it had an overnight stay at my house, then a ride with the daily Jackson car commute to Macclesfield, from where Sue picked it up, in return for some of her delicious home made cakes.
Today’s ride saw 14 of us out again. John led a larger group whilst I led Sue, Gawsworth John and Jim. We very quickly caught John’s group who had stopped to fix Mark’s puncture just down the road. We acquired Simon Ga as a 5th rider and carried on, as it was chilly and starting to rain. I made an executive decision and reversed the planned route, so that we did a shorter leg via Whipping Stocks to Treetops cafe. The cafe was busy, mainly with other cyclists including Janus RC, but there was a spare table, the log burner was on, and we soon got our orders placed.
John’s group then appeared, the puncture had been fixed quickly, with some unexpected support from a local cyclist walking his dog who came back with a track pump from his home around the corner, and even provided a swiss army knife to get the thorn out. John had also made the same decision as I regarding the shorter leg. The heavy rain arrived, as per forecast, so we took our time over lunch. Paul R arrived during the heavy rain, dripping wet, but had time to eat and chat. We all set off again when the rain had stopped and the sun came out.
We all headed towards Boothbed Lane, 6 of the group riding direct back to Macclesfield took the short route down the main road, whilst the rest of us took a more round about route past Grasslands. The sun stayed out for our ride through Goostrey, Marthall and Great Warford.
Next Sunday’s easy ride will start at Broken Cross. There might be a pop-up ride on Thursday, depending upon weather, this will be added to the calendar by Wednesday morning if it is happening.
Katherine
Some chilly sunshine at Lymm on New Year’s Day
Over the footbridge near Dunham
Mudguard problem solving on the Thursday pop-up
Jim demonstrating the usefulness of a backpack!
Heading back from Treetops in the sunshine after the rain