I'm grateful to Robin for the photo and post below, and look forward to the next one. Meanwhile, let me tell you about Sunday's ride. In words I can understand. A prosaic* version.
1. Having the style or diction of prose; lacking poetic beauty.
2. Commonplace; unromantic.
Seven blokes on bikes met outside a closed-down joinery shop and rode to the Dales and back.
There, what more could you want?
Keeping with the cultural theme, A Day Out was mentioned and compared with our jaunt. Alan Bennett wasn't there, but we did have the Hartley boys, Richard, Neil, Pete Smith, "the professor" and "the beard". Nigel had a plan that involved a steady potter on some quiet lanes. However, there were other plans which involved pressing on and taking in a few more hills. Despite some grumbling, these others grabbed the lead and we were off over Cringles to Draughton then took the scenic back road from Bolton Abbey to Burnsall. A couple of riders looked wistfully at the Wharfe View cafe but were dragged on through Thorpe over another steep hill to finally reach Cracoe.
While we were in the cafe Paul Gower called in for a cyclist's special - tea, eggs, beans, toast, of course - but he decided against joining the rest of the flock. Not wanting to be late home for lunch we took the direct train to Keighley, lined out behind Robin and Melv as they finally got to stretch their legs. However, reading the post below, it doesn't sound like Robin really had this in mind and would have preferred hammering a few more hills. It worked for me though, and there was even time to do some gardening after.
Its time to think about the Sunday rides in the new year. It works well if we pick a regular time and place (e.g. 09:00 at Denholme, 09:30 at Keighley) and stick to that through January and February, except for the known rides - NW Passage, Reliability ride, etc. Any comments on that idea?
Ian
