I wouldn't worry Al, don't think there'll be many out tomorrow with the severe weather warning. so does anyone want to meet at the blue bridge for a bit of MTB fun?

Ten wise and fully sane individuals assembled at the Legion at 10.00 am this morning: Carol, John, John, Jon, Tim, Tony, Derek, Greg, Elliott and Peter.
We decided on an 'easy' ride out to the MIlls. The ride out, in spite of being bitterly cold and raining was wind assisted and so indeed was pretty easy. Greg and Elliott peeled off just after the forest to look for some huge hills to climb and the rest of us stayed together pretty well all the way to the cafe. Tim wound things up a bit on the run in to the cafe, Carol's elastic snapped which upset her so much that she attacked Tim when we got to the Mills....

The Mills was strangely quiet, it was like some people knew what we didn't...

After the obligatory beans and a spare we set off into the teeth of what seemed to have become a howling wet gale.

Just as we got to the River Derek turned off, no doubt to put in an extra 500k before tea. The rest of us turned on to the path by the Dee into freezing rain and the mother of all winds. We splintered at this point, with a small group of us doing bit and bit off the front, pulled along by strongman Tim.

We re-grouped in Chester, a sad, freezing, miserable and weirdly contented group. Coming out of Chester it was suggested that as it was such a lovely day and we all wanted to get home to work on our tans in the garden, we'd not go down the Crocky Trail way but go home straight down the A56. A minute after this Pete punctured and with freezing fingers he removed the offending article and with Captain Scott resolve changed the tube. After 5 minutes furious pumping it was decided that the replacement tube was faulty and so more frozen fingered fumbling ensued and a replacement replacement installed.

Again we set off but due to poor communication on my part 4 went left off the A56 towards Mickle Trafford while Carol, Jon and I carried along the road eventually turning left towards the forest. The limpest of limp sprints was won by me at Hatchmere and we crept along back to Hartford where we went our separate ways. I eventually got home, numb in all places that could be described as extremity and with 71 miles on the clock. For the record the temperature didn't go above 4 degrees C all day. Can't wait till next time.

Great Blog John, glad i stayed in doors on the turbo 🙂

Oh my word how did you manage to get that picture of Tim and I ? And for all of you who read this I was assisting Tim with some stretches haha 😉
As for the do it yourself facial scrub I have some lovely glowing pink cheeks now!!!!
I had a great time today in spite of the weather and can't wait for the next time 😀

Great blog John 😀

Great photos John. Also, thanks again for the replacement replacement tube! I need to carry better spares!

Pete