7/6 Terrific Tubby Turnout

Paul definitely needs this training

last week we welcomed Paul Baxter back to the 'Tubby Tuesday Training' ride on a nice warm evening. Like the rest of us, Paul really enjoyed the new route.

This week we had a great turnout of 11 riders. For the first time this year , all the original 'Tubbies' , myself Gareth, Keri and Paul C were back riding together. It was also great to see JV  who is still battling with his winter wrist injury.

Keri is absolutely flying at the moment. He had been out earlier during the week and done some hard riding including multiple ascents of Stonestile lane . Once safely at the bottom of Battery Hill, he put in a terrific sprint and shot past everybody .Unfortunately  'The Prince Of Darkness' (Steve D) got a puncture at a round the same time, so the energetic Keri had to be called back.

The weather was not as great as last week, there were rumbles of thunder and before we reached Float lane, it started raining gently. Fortunately by the time we completed the lane, the rain had stopped. Hopefully it would now stay dry, otherwise we would have to give Pottery lane a miss.

We had a great mix of riders this week. 

At broad Oak we bade farewell to JV who decided it would be better for his wrist to stick to the main road . The rest of us headed off down Pottery lane, I was leading and made sure to keep the pace right down on the damp road. Having completed the descent we swept around a bend only to be confronted by a large tractor moving slowly along the lane. With warning shouts we had to break quickly and squeeze in through the left. We all made it safely and waved thanks to the driver who had stopped to let us through.  With the tractor moving again myself and Gareth were worried about Keri Paul C and Mick who were some way behind us. We waited while the others went off ahead. After a few minutes there was still no sign of them. Then we heard a muffled thump  somewhere in the distance. In a state of paranoia we imagined the awful sight of rider and tractor colliding. At this point Gareth dug out his mobile phone to phone Keri. Much to our relief Keri and Mick then appeared. they hadn't even noticed the tractor but had been delayed by Paul C having a slow puncture which forced him to take the more direct route home.

We now had the enjoyable climb between Sedlecombe and Westfield. There was some friendly competition  between us all ,which enabled Mick, Steve D, Gareth and Malc to all achieve PBs on the climb.

Having used up so much energy there were no PBs to be had on the Stonestile lane climb. It proved one ascent of Stonestile too many for keri who now paid the price of his earlier efforts and had to dismount with a bad stitch . Myself , keri and Malc decamped to the pub for a couple of beers. On the way home Keri was treated to the sight of a man hanging on his exes car by the windscreen wipes
 shouting out " please forgive me" (oh dear!)

Steve C