13/6 HSLCC Fri Night Ride - Keeping The Flame Alive

With heavy showers making Bewl water too dangerous, myself and Peter Baker decided that tonight would be a good time to do our bit and ride the Friday night ride. I had already had a message that this would be one of the rare occasions when neither Dan S nor nathan could make it, but perhaps Simon would be there?

Dan And Pete Ready To Do Their Bit For The Fri Ride!

There was no sign of Simon but Dan H was there (only his third time ever) , Dan had responded to 'the call to arms' to support the Friday night ride so it was fortuitous that myself and Peter had switched from Bewl to the road.

Battery hill was still a bit wet from all the showers but was perfectly safe in the bright sunshine. Passing through the harbour we received some dirty looks from a middle aged couple walking their dog, clearly they didn't like sharing the path with cyclists.

Suddenly there was a flapping sound from my bike swiftly followed by the expected rapid deflation of my rear tyre. We all assumed that one of the bits of  mussel shell on the path was responsible but it didn't take long to identify a sharp slither of glass as being the culprit.

By the time we were moving again the dog walkers were in front of us. this time as we went past them they started giving us an undeserved ear bashing even though we were barely moving at jogging pace. Some people are so unreasonable!

The Three Amigos!

Dan lead the way up the Broadoak drag and kindly kept holding back for me to hang on, but this is one hill that I prefer to ride at my own pace. Once dan realised this, he and Pete were set free and soon rode out of sight.

Much to my amazement, yet again like an apparition that appears out of the mist, there was Steve D, waiting for us at the junction out on his lovely RT 58. Steve had already ridden earlier during the day but had come out to lend support to the Friday night ride (nice one). By coincidence a rider unknown to us (but known to nick)  named Chris , happened to be at the road junction and rode with us for a while. I gave him our club card so hopefully he will contact us and could become another Friday regular?

Pete took a short cut home leaving just myself and dan to climb Stonestile.

Dan enjoyed the friday night ride and said it was only the darkness in the winter that puts him off . He will however try to come out once a fortnight during the summer.Hopefully a few
 other club members will also put in an occasional summer appearance to keep this great ride alive!